Goal of finance function is digitisation, says expert

Emphasising on digitisation as the realistic goal for the finance function, Wipro Enterprise and Wipro GE board member Suresh Senapaty on Friday said progressive companies use AI-based predictive models.

Digitisation is now a realistic goal for the finance function because of a range of technological advances, which include widespread availability of business data team's ability to process large sets of data using processes and analytic methods and improvements in connectivity tools and platforms, said Senapaty at the CFO Conference-2019, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Progressive companies use AI-based predictive models for revenue forecasting, which has been working well and has increased the granularity of the revenue prediction, he added.

Batting for the AI analytics and other tech platforms available today, Senapaty said the professionals should give up struggling with the authenticity of data as half of the time of the meetings go in clarifying what the data is all about.

The time wasted in analysing data can be better used with connecting with the customers and their needs by making use of AI technology, he pointed out.

The finance expert said the worry about the Return on Investment (ROI) while investing on digital tools, including AI, was baseless as these tools give more time to the company executives to spend with the customers.

Freeing of your time to spend more time with the consumer is essential because if you don't spend that extra time you are gone. Somebody else has taken over, Senapaty reminded the gathering.