The increased demand for high-level
analytic skills creates important
opportunities for accountants and
finance professionals. Trained to
structure, gather and analyse financial
information, they can apply their core
skills to non-financial and other datasets.
The increase in the value they bring
to organisations could, therefore, be
dramatic. There could, in the next five
to 10 years, be a qualitative change that
sees the finance department develop
from a service function to a businesscritical
service, central to strategic
decision making.
The management of big data for
accountants and finance professionals
means more than ‘game-changing’
opportunities. It means new challenges.
The future is not just about a
‘straight’ transference of skills: it is
about developing new ones. Finance
professionals will need to find ways to
use big data to measure organisational
performance and both organisational
and investment risks. In addition, as
the importance of big data in business
grows, they will need to find ways
to measure its intrinsic value as an
organisational asset.