Every day, businesses all over the world generate profound amounts of financial data. As we approach Industry 4.0 where data is coined as the new oil, what companies ultimately do with these huge volumes of data sets them apart from the rest. Having the fundamental financial awareness and proper tools to uncover the right information is paramount for a firm to function and expand.

The Finance department is essential for any business out there. Being financially aware and constantly improving money management strategies are pivotal for an enterprise to prosper. However, keeping track of the revenues and expenditures of every single department of a large firm may come off as a daunting task due to the sheer amount of workload and data that the Finance department may shoulder.

What are some Current Trends of Finance departments and companies?

The role of the Finance team is ever-changing and dynamic. In these times, most companies rely on Financial Data to plan for the future. Coerced by the pressure to constantly evolve, Finance departments and companies have been continually investing in fresh Artificial Intelligence technologies, as well as modern Data and Analytics tools in hopes of saving time and boosting productivity. However, a large majority of these tools and technologies are unable to process and generate larger volumes of data, causing Finance departments to run into a wall in the long run.

So what can we do with all this data? 

With Microsoft PowerBI, we can generate informative reports and interactive dashboards from large amounts of data to provide businesses with an all-in-one, concise overview of their financial status. Data of revenues, budgets, balance by departments, and much more can be presented neatly on these dashboards, and actionable insights can be acquired from them conveniently. By aiding businesses in understanding the top and bottom-line performances, Financial Analytics offers multifarious perspectives into organizational financial statuses and promotes profitability. 

On top of replacing physical labor with automation and improving the overall efficiency of the Financial department, PowerBI possesses the ability to take in and exhibit large amounts of data in the form of interactive dashboards and graphs without overloading the system. Information and actionable insights gained from the dashboards only increase in value over time, and Finance departments need not worry about plotting out graphs repeatedly in the future. 

With a wealth of financial data from the numerous departments throughout the organization, Finance teams are able to leverage the data collected and identify patterns to make relevant business predictions. The application of the freshly extracted knowledge and insights from the data sets can be translated into tangible business value, allowing businesses to make informed decisions regarding their expenditure and investment control. Essentially, Finance Analytics shapes business strategies through reliable, factual insight rather than intuition.

Finance analytical dashboards and charts – How do I go about doing it?

Below is a short video demo on how PowerBI, a growing Microsoft Business intelligence tool, has been used on a sample financial data, giving insights to the firm about their actual budget, expenditures, revenue gained, and much more. The demo walks through numerous reports and drills down to uncover deeper information, showcasing the flexibility and ease of usage of a tool like PowerBI as well.

Enhancing the reports

In our next case study, we will talk about how such reports can be extended to have elements of predictive analytics and machine learning which will further help businesses control costs and maximize revenue. Systems such as recommendation, financial forecasting, and others can enhance the usability and effectiveness of such reports.

What are the pain points faced by HR Professionals?

Even if you love your work as a human resource professional, every job has its “pain points”.

HR deals with many issues like:

• Recruitment and Retention – finding and retaining talent is an ongoing challenge
• Strategic Decisions (Time-Consuming) – work with unhappy employees
• Monitor employee performance – especially critical for large companies with thousands of employees and multiple locations
• Technology adoption – Workers who are used to old ways of doing things may resist change

How can Business Intelligence and Analytics help the HRs?

Business intelligence helps you take your business decisions more effectively with data and analysis. This creates the basis for success. It is an aid in all business areas, from growth to human resources to marketing, and helps transform several key processes.

Human resource departments fulfill several key functions within a company; such as hiring, training, organizing corporate events, and the not-so-pleasant business of firing. The HR manager’s role itself is to handle MANY things and demands unique solutions.

Business intelligence and analytics meet those needs in a variety of ways:

• Business intelligence for…hiring
• Business intelligence for… measuring success/performance
• Business intelligence for… optimizing processes
• Business intelligence for…cultural changes
• Business intelligence for…high turnover rate

The main purpose of Human Resource management is to measure the work achievement of employees, their role in the services or business, and to analyze employee retention and attrition in the company.

All human resource reports and dashboards are persona-based, in the current context it explains why there is an increasing emphasis on finding and attracting the best talent. Information is spread by Powerful Views like Headcount summary, Actives & Separation Summary, Recruitment source, and many others.

Some common reports that HRs like to gain insights from

Headcount summary:

Headcount summary explains the present headcount of employees by location, gender, department, company, total employees by recruitment source.

Actives & Separation Summary:

Actives & Separation summary explains separation by region, active & separation by gender, active & separation by race, separation by performance score.

Recruitment source:

Recruitment source summary explains performance score by recruitment source, active & separation by recruitment source, recruitment source by gender, and so on.

Below is a short demo on how PowerBI, a growing Microsoft Business intelligence tool, has been used on a sample HR data, to give insights to the business about headcount, recruitment source, employee performance, and other metrics and indicators. The demo walks through multiple reports and drills down to give the organization detailed information. It also shows the ease of use of a tool like PowerBI with huge data, both for simple and complex reports.

Conclusion

HR analytics help HR teams set goals, measure success, and optimize processes so the company can focus on employee satisfaction. When used responsibly and effectively, HR analytics provide the insights companies need to tackle difficult challenges like lack of diversity or a high turnover rate.