Customer Obsession In Modern Finance

1© 2017 FORRESTER. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED.
v
The Customer-
Obsessed
Finance Leader In
The Age Of Data

The key to competitive survival in the age of the customer is data- and insights-driven customer
obsession. As the strategic stewards of business outcomes, it’s critical for finance leaders to take an
active role in leading their organizations from customer focus to customer obsession.
To explore this topic, Dun & Bradstreet commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate how
enterprises are leveraging data and analytics to drive decisions and strategy in pursuit of customer
obsession and the role finance leaders play in achieving that goal. The study revealed:
› Finance leaders are taking an active role in shaping their organizations’ customer-focused
initiatives, leveraging their data and strategy expertise to cultivate data-driven cultures.
› To succeed, finance leaders need a new data-driven operating model to overcome disparate
data, organizational silos, and inconsistent metric challenges.
› Customer-obsessed leaders ensure that their organizations’ data strategies are aligned across
people, processes, and technology through their mastery of seven key data maturity and
competency factors.
› Leaders are continuously investing in both systems of engagement and insight to gain fast,
actionable insights from their data.
Executive summary

Nearly all organizations are focused on improving customer
experience or addressing rising customer expectations
89%
Prioritizing improving
customer experience this
year or next year
89%
Prioritizing addressing rising
customer expectations
this year or next year
Prioritizing this year Prioritizing next year
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dun & Bradstreet, April 2017
Base: 250 CFOs and EVPs of finance familiar with their organization’s use of data/analytics to inform decisions and strategy

But organizations must go beyond good customer
experience intentions to customer obsession
A customer-obsessed enterprise
relentlessly focuses its strategy, operations,
and budget to enhance its knowledge of
and engagement with customers.

Finance leaders have an important role to play in customer
obsession
As the cash flow, revenue, and profitability stewards,
finance leaders have a substantial stake in customer
obsession. With their data expertise and strategic vision,
they can play a lead role by linking customer strategy to
financial performance.
53%
OF FINANCE LEADERS ARE RESPONSIBLE OR
ACCOUNTABLE FOR CUSTOMER-FOCUSED INITIATIVES

60% 76% 63%
Cash Flow Revenue Profitability
Followers Leaders
90% 86% 84%
Customer-obsessed leaders are
defined as those organizations
that are prioritizing customer-
focused initiatives and that have
realized increases across
customer acquisition, retention,
and satisfaction.
Customer obsession
enables leaders to reap
superior ROI
Base: 250 CFOs and EVPs of finance familiar with their organization’s use of data/analytics to inform
decisions and strategy; 91 customer-obsession leaders and 159 followers
Percent reporting an increase between the most
recent fiscal year and the previous fiscal year:

But data challenges impede customer obsession
“What are the biggest obstacles to leveraging data and
analytics to drive decisions and strategy?”
Base: 250 CFOs and EVPs of finance familiar with their organization’s use of data/analytics to inform decisions and strategy
37% Departmental silos make it difficult to get insight from business
stakeholders
35% Lack of data integration/data is siloed
32% Difficulty aggregating data from different sources
22% Disparate ways of calculating and looking at KPIs across the
organization
+

Role-constrained finance
leaders cannot lead
customer obsession. They
need an operating model
that allows them to capture,
analyze, act, and learn from
customer insights.
The new data-
driven finance
leader operating
model
Executive engagement
Collaborate with executive
peers on customer strategy.
Strategic contribution
Data strategy
Data sourcing
Data capabilities
Update financial analysis to
include insights that drive
customer-obsession results.
Invest in technology that
drives topline customer-
obsession results.
Harvest data from
trusted external sources
to augment fact-based
decisioning.
Prioritize insights that
identify customer strategy
opportunities, threats,
and weaknesses.

70%
85%
xx%
58%
74%
50%
46%
69%
70%
Finance leaders at leading organizations are instrumental
in guiding data-driven initiatives
Changing our management culture
to rely more on data-driven
decisions
“What is — or will be — your involvement with these data-driven initiatives?”
(Percent responsible or accountable)
Engaging external service providers or
strategic business consultants for
data/analytics/insights services
Investing in more business-friendly self-
service visualization and analytics
Base: Variable; CFOs and EVPs of finance familiar with their organization’s use of data/analytics to inform decisions and strategy
Leaders
Followers

Leaders in
customer
obsession
exhibit mastery
across seven
key data
maturity and
competency
factors
Business
alignment
Data
governance
Data
management
leadership
Data management
process
Maturity and competency factors
Data management
technology
Data insight
and delivery
Measurement
and metrics

Leaders invest in data for the right outcomes
25% 21%
79% 55%
18% 17%
86% 65%
IT CAPITAL BUDGET
ALLOCATION
(Mean percentages)
SYSTEMS OF ENGAGEMENT
(SoEs support the acquisition, servicing,
and retention of customers.)
Base: 250 CFOs and EVPs of finance familiar with their organization’s use of data/analytics to inform decisions and strategy;
91 customer-obsession leaders and 159 followers
SYSTEMS OF INSIGHT
(SoIs support the ability to harness and
consistently turn data into insight.)
Leaders
Followers
INCREASE IN
SPENDING
2018 OVER 2017
(Percent reporting an
increase)

Key recommendations
Lean into the customer-obsessed conversation. Finance leaders must interact more
directly and frequently with peers on financial strategies, plans, and results in the context of
customer objectives.
Extend financial insights to include the wider customer experience. Finance leaders
need to not only lead financial impact reports, but also macro insights that support strategic
customer planning.
Invest in data to meet the demands of customer obsession. Finance leaders should
orient investment evaluations toward reducing mounting technical debt from data while
concurrently increasing spend on data systems to enable deeper insight.
Avoid internal bias and customer blind spots. Finance leaders must support and audit
investments needed to acquire and ingest partner, third-party, and public data to remove
bias from internal system data and qualitative experience.
Transform the finance leader dashboard to lead customer obsession. Finance leaders
need to expand financial reporting with economic models and predictive analytics that link
customer strategies with forecasts and that identify opportunities and threats in the market.

Methodology
ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTING
Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their
organizations. Ranging in scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester’s Consulting services connect you
directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more information, visit
forrester.com/consulting.
© 2017, Forrester. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available
resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®, Technographics®, Forrester Wave,
RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective companies. For additional information, go to forrester.com. [1-13SCVZ6]
Project Director:
Heather Vallis, Senior Market Impact
Consultant
Contributing Research:
Forrester’s Enterprise Architecture
research group
In this study, Forrester conducted an online survey of 250 organizations in North America,
Europe, and Asia Pacific to evaluate how enterprises are leveraging data and analytics to
drive decisions and strategy in pursuit of customer obsession and the role finance leaders
play in achieving that goal. Survey participants included CFOs and executive VPs of
finance familiar with their organization’s use of data/analytics to form decisions and
strategy at enterprises with $150 million or more in revenue. Questions provided to the
participants asked about business and data and analytics priorities, strategies, and
practices. Respondents were offered a small incentive as a thank you for time spent on the
survey. The study began in March 2017 and was completed in April 2017.

Customer Obsession In Modern Finance

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