Fortifying finance: benchmarking for future-proofed functions

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Commercial Feature

The critical role of business benchmarking in navigating uncertainty

Amid economic uncertainty and technological shifts, businesses seek transformation. But gut instinct isn't enough - data-driven strategic benchmarking offers leaders objective insights to future-proof operations, boost efficiency, and drive innovation across finance and beyond.

With businesses facing a more uncertain economic environment and potentially seismic technological shifts threatening traditional business models, the urgency for organisations to transform and future-proof themselves is growing. Businesses need a strategic plan and to do this, leaders may look to internal research or third-party consultants for support. 

Leaders who aren’t using data-driven insights to assess their business objectively, risk making decisions based on over-optimistic assumptions or anecdotal evidence. 

By contrast, using data-driven benchmarking to diagnose the operational health of a company or function can help provide organisations with the evidence to inform strategic thinking and elevate business cases for approval at the executive level.

“Benchmarking gives an evidence-based understanding of the art of the possible, and it often illuminates new areas of opportunity, which your organisation’s executives might have not considered before,” says Aris Kossoras, a financial services partner at KPMG.

Before starting this process, companies should be aware of two distinct types of business benchmarking.

"Operational benchmarking provides volumetrics around a specific business process and compares it to the industry average. This type of benchmarking provides operational targets to achieve, but it is not necessarily transformational," says Kossaras.

On the other hand, strategic functional benchmarking gives companies a top-down view of their operating model health of the organisation and links that to enterprise or functional value outcomes. 

Such benchmarking services typically look at the productivity of the enterprise as a whole of a specific function, like finance, risk, HR, operations or technology or other middle or front office functions—and then measure it relatively to peer groups that align with that particular company’s business model, balance sheet and regional complexity. 

KPMG’s Banking Finance Function Benchmarking (BFFB) platform, which Kossoras leads, uses esoteric data that is not publicly available and looks at overall cost performance, productivity and value distribution, taking into consideration underlying architecture, sourcing and location strategy. 

Using proprietary analytics, BFFB assesses the finance function’s levels of enterprise value creation in the context of its cost. BFFB then helps call out the strategic areas of intervention that would improve the organisation’s overall value index. KPMG’s BFFB then assesses the feasibility of change within short, medium and long-term horizons.

“Most finance functions of banks are very far from ideal value ratios and themes exhibited by leading institutions. Getting to the ideal “end state” achieved by leaders, sounds “sci-fi” to the average executive. They agree with the end state but believe it is more than 10 years away for their organisations and are intimidated by the challenge and often disengage” says Kossoras. 

“It is much better to make that vision an aspiration but set more realistic 2-4 years targets that move your organisation forward towards the aspirational direction, and you will also have the chance to be there when the target is achieved.”

"There are several scenarios where organisations might consider strategic benchmarking. First, if an organisation has, say, a new CFO, the CFO may want to get a holistic and independent outside-in strategic perspective, rather than relying on the anecdotal perspectives of middle management," says Kossoras.

Another reason would be if an organisation is contemplating embarking on a large-scale business transformation and wants to understand what the ‘art of the possible’ is when it comes to benefits around efficiency and effectiveness. 

For instance, if a business transformation is going to cost $100 million, they want to know what the return on that investment will be so they can feed those numbers into their business case. 

They might also use benchmarking to identify any gaps in an existing transformation project and assess whether they are missing out on any opportunities they hadn’t considered before or to help optimise long-untouched processes.

Organisations may turn to the support that benchmarking offers them when implementing a large systems change, for instance moving their accounting system to the cloud. Through benchmarking, businesses can find ways to redesign processes and maximise the value of their system change.

In addition, some companies may simply wish to have internal perspectives probed and challenged with an outside view, either validating assumptions or inspiring fresh thinking.

Strategic benchmarking is not just about cost and productivity, but a consideration about people and how organisations should be positioning their workforce for the future. This means assessing an organisation’s competency mix and having an effective workforce planning strategy to account for changing skill needs.

Most finance functions have historically had a heavier percentage of people with accounting backgrounds, but as the function becomes more data-driven, there will be a growing need for people with greater data, digital and business acumen.

“That’s not going to happen organically. It’s about identifying and changing the strategic mix of the finance function and bringing in the right skill sets,” says Kossoras. “When I ask CFOs in the top global banks what keeps them up at night, they don’t talk about regulation or technology, their biggest challenge is people.”

However, strategic benchmarking should be used with caution. It is not a bottom-up detailed current state assessment, but a top-down view and therefore the data should be looked at from a directional perspective, says Kossoras. In other words, it surfaces areas that might need looking at more closely.

Through the BFFB database that contains data from over 100 banks mapped to a single unified language, Kossoras likens his benchmarking to a doctor diagnosing a patient by looking at their scan. 

“We don’t ask the patient questions before we look at their scan—we have seen so many scans over the last seven years that if the data does not give us a fairly accurate hypothesis of the patient’s condition, then we are not worth our salt as doctors,” he says. 

“I want to have a hard look at your data and tell you what I think is wrong with you and predict your symptoms. And if you disagree, let’s discuss it and you can give me your history and what you believe makes you special. But 99% of the time our assessment does not meet with patient disagreement”.

Benchmarking also promotes continuous learning and growth by encouraging finance leaders to stay current with best practices and monitor how other organisations across the industry are approaching the same operating challenges.

“There is a thirst and hunger for finance professionals that are facing very similar issues to learn from each other; they are very open to discussing their challenges and finding out how their peers are managing those issues,” says Kossoras.

To that end, KPMG’s BFFB hosts periodic roundtables for executives to serve as a platform for collaboration, bringing together a global community of like-minded professionals to discuss their challenges and spur innovation.

“These aren’t problems like “how am I going to solve account reconciliation in my sub-ledger for mortgages”, these are big picture strategic discussions that allow professionals who operate at the executive level to hear from others and think about how they can work together to improve the industry as a whole,” says Kossoras.

It is not just the hard data that can help organisations identify areas to improve, but also the access to a broader network of senior executives and shared war stories that can give organisations the insights to make more informed decisions, underscoring why it is beneficial to engage with a third-party strategic benchmarking specialist. 

“If you’ve only worked in one or two banks, your perspective on what is possible is only limited to your experiences,” says Kossoras. 

“The benefit that we give is that we’re able to look at the market as a whole and give you a much wider perspective on the art of the possible when it comes to transformation and innovation. This is not about benchmarking for the sake of benchmarking, it’s about surfacing the big transformational opportunities.”

Strategic benchmarking should not be viewed as a static exercise, but instead, as a dynamic and transformative process that can help businesses tap into the latest trends and ensure they stay on top of their game and ahead of the curve.

The transformation checklist: what leaders need to know about driving effective change

While business benchmarking spotlights key areas primed for change, savvy leaders must know that successful transformation hinges on clear, resilient strategies. From vision-setting to value realisation, this five-step roadmap outlines how decision-makers can drive meaningful and sustainable change, boost efficiency, and unlock cross-business innovation.

Business benchmarking can help organisations diagnose areas where they need to change, but it’s also vital for effective transformation to build a clear and robust strategy. Here are five key steps CEOs and other senior leaders should consider before putting their transformation programmes into action.

 

 

01 Clear vision for change

The starting point for any transformation process is having a clear vision of what the end goal will look like. Without unambiguous, predefined objectives, change projects can easily veer off course or derail altogether.

A clear vision for change starts with understanding why changes are being made and what the benefits that are ultimately going to come from it look like. However, there can also be resistance to change that is driven by a lack of communication or time spent identifying what the real benefits are. Without appropriate communication with those employees or stakeholders who are going to be impacted, change efforts can be undermined or delayed.

Another challenge is that organisations often announce change in very basic terms, for example telling the workforce they are adopting a new IT system and offering little further detail. 

Instead, businesses must understand how to articulate that change in a way that inspires people and reduces any anxieties they may have about their futures, says Andrew White, director of the Advanced Management and Leadership Programme at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and CEO of Transcend.Space, a leadership coaching company. “This is often what’s missed, so it’s important to give people confidence that they have a place in that vision,” he says.

02 Effective governance and processes

In addition to setting out a clear vision, organisations must put in place adequate governance and risk mitigation measures to ensure the process runs smoothly, for instance by working with third-party experts who have experience of similar business transformations.

“Having third-party objective viewpoints from somebody who’s done it in the past who can come in and look at things does help a lot,” says Tom Carey, president of capital markets, wealth and investment management at Broadridge, a financial technology business.

Appropriate feedback mechanisms are also critical to help keep senior leaders informed once the process is underway.

“You need to put in place a culture of listening to notice when things are not working, and often that’s subtle—it can be what is not being said that is more important,” says White.

Transformation programmes can easily come unstuck if there is not a robust governance framework supporting every stage of the project lifecycle. 

A lack of governance can often cause delays, and scope creep and slow down the realisation of the benefits that companies hope to generate, so it is important to have appropriate measures in place to track progress. This can include undertaking regular risk reviews and making sure roles and responsibilities are well articulated from the outset - it needs to be clear who is ultimately accountable for the programme.

03 Change impact on business and people

Transformation efforts often fail when process changes are made without considering their impact on the people responsible for carrying them out. To succeed, businesses must take a collaborative approach, engaging employees at all levels to ensure alignment and smooth implementation.

Assessing the impact of change on the business and crucially its people is something that can often be overlooked. Businesses need to identify the key areas that are going to be impacted by the change programme and then try to identify any intended or unintended consequences.

Taking an incremental approach to transformation can also help minimise the impact on finance teams and their normal day-to-day activities. Often large-scale change projects are very disruptive, particularly for finance teams and accounting departments, says Mike Whitmire, CEO and co-founder of FloQast, an accounting software provider. 

By adopting a more iterative change programme, businesses can transform in a way that doesn’t add additional workload on top of their day jobs, he says.

Identifying and engaging internal change champions can also ensure buy-in across teams and maintain momentum, particularly for longer transformation projects.

“The more people you have excited about something, the less risk there is associated with somebody leaving the company and the project losing steam,” says Whitmire.

04 The right tech and tools

While digitisation is at the heart of many transformations, using technology to support the change process can give project managers and senior leaders access to data-driven insights and enable them to more easily track KPIs. 

This means organisations should be investing in data analytics software to ensure those responsible for delivering change can make informed and reliable decisions throughout the process. Even today, many large tier-one financial institutions run a lot of changes from individual spreadsheets. By pooling their data together and using tools like Power BI or Tableau to drive reporting, businesses can be more reactive to data in real-time and make it far easier to present, interpret and change dynamically.

Organisations must also ensure they are focused on the right KPIs to deliver transformation projects that are effective and timely.

“One of the biggest challenges is consistently measuring what performance equals,” says Carey. “If you have too much focus on velocity, you get a lot built and delivered, but maybe not of the highest quality. But if you have a quality bias, the ship slows down as well. So, you need a very balanced set of KPIs that you can measure against.”

05 Robust value management

Organisations that embark on change projects need to know if the transformation is delivering value. That value can vary depending on the type of transformation project (it might be saving time, or it might be cutting costs), but organisations must understand what that value looks like before they start.

“The projects where there’s a grand vision, but without a definition of success—they’re the ones that tend to hit the rocks,” says Carey. This means setting measurable and realistic time-bound goals where organisations can easily compare the before and after states.

For example, if a bank wanted to reduce onboarding times for low-risk customers, this is a clear and measurable metric that can be set upfront as part of a transformation vision and then reviewed to identify the impact that has been achieved at the conclusion of the programme.

By taking this approach, finance teams can more accurately demonstrate the return on investment and ensure the transformation programme is viewed as a success.

Future-proofing finance in banks

The transformation of banking finance functions is happening faster now than at any time in the past four decades. While banks are actively adopting tech like cloud, automation, and AI, CFOs must prioritise unlocking positive outcomes to business challenges rather than let technology lead transformations.

Strategies for change: 3 key factors shaping the decisions of tomorrow

In today’s volatile landscape, anticipating change is essential for sustainable growth and value creation. The solution? Leaders who drive transformation by mastering three key factors reshaping business: technology, social responsibilities, and change-ready strategies. This approach future-proofs operations and ensures long-term success.

Organisations embarking on change projects as a result of any strategic benchmarking—whether in the finance function or beyond—will need to consider their transformation plans through the lens of three key trends shaping future business operations: generative AI, ESG and new skill sets.

Generative AI

Generative AI (GenAI) has the potential to be transformative but knowing where to start and how to integrate it into the finance function is a challenge knowing where to start and where to invest to start seeing the most value and return on investment. A smarter approach therefore means focusing on the basics first.

Where GenAI is particularly helpful is with the slightly less complex use cases, such as simply automating very repetitive tasks like data entry, financial forecasting and report generation, which currently require a lot of human intervention and are prone to error. As the technology develops and the capabilities become clearer, finance teams can then start to look at more transformative use cases.

Leveraging GenAI to analyse large data sets to identify patterns and generate insights that will then inform strategic decisions is something that we’ll probably see more and more of over the course of the next couple of years.

Taking a more studied, cautious approach to AI adoption can also help organisations get comfortable with data protection and safety concerns.

"The financial services sector has approached GenAI with appropriate caution. This measured approach stems from the sector's focus on managing risks, addressing ethical concerns and adhering to strict regulatory requirements. As a result, we’ve seen the focus of progress in applying GenAI to enhance productivity within internal operations," says Leanne Allen, partner and UK head of AI at KPMG.

"This deliberate focus ensures that when rolled out, AI solutions are robust, responsible and aligned with the unique demands of the financial services landscape."

As the finance function evolves, it’s essential that leaders harness the power of generative AI to not only drive efficiency but also transform the role of the accountant. 

"Automating repetitive tasks frees up valuable time for accountants to focus on deeper analysis and delivering actionable insights contributing more strategically to business growth and value," she explains.

ESG

The heightened focus on ESG and issues around climate change and sustainability are increasingly impacting corporate strategy and financial decisions across organisations. Whether it is the relocation of supply chains or reducing energy consumption, senior leaders must embed sustainability into transformation projects.

“ESG, like AI, is one of those things that’s probably overestimated in the short term and underestimated in the long term,” says Andrew White, director of the Advanced Management and Leadership Programme at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and CEO of Transcend.Space, a leadership coaching company.

“Sustainability is something that in the past may have been dealt with at the edge of the business, but it can no longer be about initiatives, it has to be at the core of how a company operates.”

Beyond operational pressures, an organisation's ESG approach will be crucial for attracting future talent. 

“Our staff expect us to have a clear mandate in terms of what we’re doing on ESG, particularly the next generation of staff who are joining us,” says Carey.

Skillsets of tomorrow

Given the rapid pace of technological change impacting businesses, the skills finance teams will need in the future are likely to change rapidly too. For the accountancy profession, there will be an increased demand for traditional accounting qualifications combined with digital skills—a cohort that will also be in increasingly short supply.

“If you fast forward 10 years, it’s going to be challenging for people to gather this expertise, because the work that helps you learn so much is what’s going to be automated through AI,” says Whitmire.

“On the positive side, you’re not going to have to do the boring rote work, but conversely the reality is the boring work is how you learn to do a lot of the job.”

This means organisations are going to need a fresh approach to training and development, identifying essential skill sets they will need and having a strategy to access those skills when needed.

You need to ensure you’ve got adaptability and the leadership and training mechanisms to help build out a strong and knowledgeable workforce.

By incorporating these factors into their future strategies, senior leaders can ensure their business transformation programmes are a success and their organisations remain fit for purpose in a world of constant change.

Ben Edwards
Ben Edwards A freelance journalist specialising in finance, business, law and technology with more than a decade of editorial and commercial writing experience.