Nearly 3,000 people attended a recent online webinar about the future of analytics, organised by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and SAS, the leader in analytics.
The event, which is still available on demand, was hosted by ACCA’s senior insights manager Clive Webb and John Spooner, Head of Data Science at SAS UK & Ireland. They discussed the issues and challenges that every company faces when using analytics, and what the modern data scientist can do to remain relevant in the evolving landscape.
The webinar was the second in a series with SAS, which explored how analytics applications have progressed from business intelligence tools supporting queries run from core accounting applications with the ability to correlate data, to more sophisticated tools that deliver visual representation of data in real-time.
Lloyd Powell, Head of ACCA Cymru Wales says:
‘ACCA’s report Race for Relevance: Technology opportunities for the finance function shows that analytics is an opportunity for CFOs who need to stay ahead of the game to remain relevant in a fast-moving digital landscape. The profession is facing extraordinary digital changes that are impacting businesses, so we need to share ideas on how we can all harness the explosion in digital capabilities to help drive business success. Our webinar covers all these issues, and more.’
ACCA says that CFOs need to consider the impact on finance of key technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), cloud, analytics, social media, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. To transform the finance function, the CFO must understand emerging technologies, how these relate to the wider use of technology in the organisation and appreciate the opportunities available.
John Spooner from SAS UK & Ireland concludes:
‘This is a must-watch webinar covering the key forces and dynamics shaping analytics in the modern enterprise; how we can get value from it, and the new developments in areas such as Artificial Intelligence that will be critical to engage with the data generation and the consumers of the future.’
