Workday Global CFO Survey

Finance Digital Transformation is a Key Indicator of Business Agility

More CFOs Will Prioritize Digital Transformation in COVID-19 Recovery; Technical Skills Gap, Resistance to Change Are Barriers

PLEASANTON, Calif., Sept. 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY), a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today released its global Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Indicator Survey, “Finance Digital Transformation,” which reveals a direct link between finance digital transformation and agile business practices, better decision-making, and more efficient reporting, planning, and financial operations—all of which organizations will need to thrive in the new COVID-19 normal.

The research, conducted during the period that COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and many companies were forced to rapidly shift to remote work, reveals that while nearly half of CFOs have not completed any digital transformation initiatives in finance, 34 percent expect to prioritize it in one year—during recovery from COVID-19. The study shows that those who do will reap benefits. The 54 percent of CFOs who have implemented some or many digital transformation initiatives pre-pandemic consistently perform better on agility, enhanced insights, and improved efficacy.

“CFOs were thrust into uncharted territory when the pandemic hit, underscoring the need for them to be able to make data-driven decisions to adjust, plan, and then continuously re-plan as conditions rapidly changed,” says Michael Magaro, senior vice president, business finance and investor relations, Workday. “This survey validates CFOs’ shifting priorities as they look to a combination of new skills and technologies to give them greater visibility and agility. And, while finance has been slower to embrace digital transformation, it's clear the pandemic has become both a catalyst and imperative for change.”

The new CFO indicator report was done in partnership with Longitude Research and includes responses from 225 global CFOs on key challenges and priorities as they manage through the pandemic. Key survey findings show that:

• Digital finance transformation yields greater agility, efficacy, and confidence for CFOs. Digital accelerators, companies that have implemented some digital transformation initiatives in finance, are more agile and proficient at efficient reporting, planning, and financial close than digital novices, companies that have yet to implement digital transformation into the finance function. The accelerators are also more confident in the accuracy of their two-year profit and loss (P&L) forecast (73 percent) vs. digital novices (43 percent).