IAFEI Quarterly - Special Issue

8 Materials contained in this publication may be freely quoted or reprinted, provided credit is given to the source : International Observatory of Management Control - DFCG – Decision Performance Conseil www.conseil-dpc.com The partnering associations: ANDAF (Italy) CFO Club (Slovakia) COGEREF (Tunisia) FEI (USA) FINEX (Philippines) FINEXA (Poland) IAFEI (Global) IHM (Greece) IMA (USA) IMEF (Mexico) OPWZ (Austria) PAFE (Portugal) Russian Club of Financial Directors (Russia) SAIBA (South Africa) And of course the DFCG in France. Summary of the results The International Observatory of Management Control, a partnership between the DFCG and Décision Performance Conseil, publishes the results of its survey for the 7th consecutive year. As every year, professionals from 20 countries and different continents (Europe, America, Asia, Africa) have accepted to answer. All company profiles (in size and revenue) and many business sectors (banking, consumer products, media, transport) are represented. Compared to 2016, we observe a stronger representation of the industry and the construction sectors and of listed and large companies. In line with the previous edition and given its significant importance, the 2017 survey aims at measuring the impact of the digital transformation on the finance and management controlling profession. The observations of the activities of the finance executives and of the management processes are consistent with our previous analyses. People still allocate a (too) large part of their time to rather traditional tasks (such as plan and budget) while developing their role of facilitators, in particular in the context of business reviews. The time spent on reporting is still high, even though it is not considered as the most value adding activity. This year, the simplifica- tion of the budget process becomes an important priority to enable companies to become more flexible and adaptable in a context of economic uncertainty. Even though they are still a source of dissatisfaction, automation, integration and simulation remain the key priorities for the opti- mization of IT tools.