Whether it’s upgrading aging infrastructure, adapting to changing regulations, or protecting grids against outside threats, utilities have a range of challenges to navigate these days.

In this deep dive, we’ll review the top issues facing the industry, and how capital planners can respond by strategically and responsibly allocating capital to growth, maintenance, and regulatory projects that best meet organizational objectives and provide strong returns on invested capital.

Shift to renewables puts energy security at risk

Utilities find themselves in the difficult position of needing to deliver sufficient power to their clients before renewables have fully matured. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar are more intermittent than coal and natural gas, and to ensure a stable power load, continued investments in energy storage solutions and distribution infrastructure are essential.

According to POWER Magazine, “a few capital-intensive, but critical, projects to help utility companies move forward” include “undergrounding transmission or distribution infrastructure, interconnecting decentralized renewable resources, moving back-office systems to the cloud, and transitioning fleets to electric vehicles.”

While wind and solar are the best-known renewable energy sources, utility leaders should also keep an eye on hydrogen. In June 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) approved $8 billion in funding for regional hydrogen hubs, called “H2Hubs,” that will “create networks of hydrogen producers, consumers, and local connective infrastructure to accelerate the use of hydrogen as a clean energy carrier.” Integrating hydrogen into a renewable energy portfolio can help utilities supplement the energy demand gap, but the infrastructure to do so is largely nonexistent.

Utilities across the country have identified these challenges, and are taking action. For example, American Electric Power, one of the nation’s largest electric companies, plans to invest more than $40 billion in capital on transmission, distribution, and renewable energy projects between 2023 and 2027. And, as a whole, U.S. utilities spent over $150 billion on total Capex in 2022, up 12% year over year.

Protecting grids against cyber and physical threats

Utilities face growing cyber and physical threats to their infrastructure. Software-based supply chain attacks are one of today’s top threats, but they’re notoriously difficult to detect. As Utility Dive points out, “high-profile attacks on substations [in late 2022] in Washington and North Carolina have raised the spotlight on both cybersecurity and physical grid security. Federal regulators may consider new security rules, and there is a growing focus on vulnerabilities in distributed energy resources [DERs] and supply chains.”

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), “Attackers are evolving their practices and capabilities against new technology faster, and malicious actors are positioned well to enter DER energy systems,” and this, among other factors, “is creating market forces for critical infrastructure investments.” One estimate has the total demand for utility cybersecurity software and services reaching $32 billion by 2028.

Market and regulatory pressures point to the need to make critical investments sooner rather than later. A Capex management solution such as Finario makes this much easier with its stack ranking and ROI modeling capabilities.

Climate change and other headwinds will strain grid reliability

For years, many Americans took reliable electricity being instantly delivered to their homes for granted. But recent severe weather events like the Texas Freeze, Hurricane Ida, and Dixie Wildfire highlight how climate change is placing greater pressure on an already-strained U.S grid system.

The need for improvements is vast. According to The Brattle Group, utilities will have to spend around $10 billion per year to replace old transmission infrastructure. The aforementioned American Electric Power company estimates 30% of its 40,000 miles of transmission lines will have to be replaced over the next decade.

And it’s not just the age of the infrastructure that’s an issue—it’s also the location. Currently, the U.S. network of transmission lines is centered around cities where demand is strongest. As the energy transition continues, transmission lines must be relocated closer to wind and solar production, which tend to be far from large population areas.

Navigating the energy transition while ensuring grid reliability will be a difficult balancing act for utilities, but solutions such as precise forecasting powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can aid in their efforts. Spending on AI software in the utilities industry is expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2026, which should facilitate better planning and regional collaboration. NextEra Energy is leading the way through its machine learning (ML) investments to avoid power fluctuations associated with its U.S. wind projects.

Microgrids are growing in popularity

Energy security is a hot topic these days, and many regions are seeing the benefits of microgrids for safeguarding their power supply. These small networks of users rely on a local source of electricity (often wind or solar), and can function independently from the centralized grid, insulating them from broad outages.

As electric vehicles (EVs) grow in popularity, local microgrid projects to support charging stations stand to increase. North Carolina-based Duke Energy recently announced a new EV development center that will “be able to be connected either to the Duke Energy grid, charging from the bulk electric system, or powered by 100% carbon-free resources through [its] microgrid” and is “the first electric fleet depot to offer a microgrid charging option.”

There are drawbacks, though, including interoperability challenges with the centralized grid. As microgrids become more common, there’ll be a need for capital investment in advanced systems that leverage AI and ML to optimize energy usage, predict demand, and manage energy storage.

The global microgrid market reached $30 billion in 2022, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15% through 2029. This level of growth presents a clear need for utilities to make investments to adapt to this emerging trend.

Utilities will rely on AI to manage a dynamic regulatory environment

Company leaders in various industries have had to contend with shifting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) regulations in recent years, and more changes are likely. The SEC has proposed a rule that would require public companies to provide detailed disclosures on “climate-related financial data and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions insights.”

PwC thinks that these proposed rules “could be uniquely challenging for energy and utilities because of the industry’s complexity and massive footprint,” but on the other hand, “solving for these complexities as [they] move toward investor-grade climate and emissions reporting could spark giant leaps forward in [their] cleaner energy transition.”

Utility leaders are making capital investments in AI technology to help them manage these changing regulations. These programs are able to keep track of GHGs across a utility’s portfolio, allowing them to comply with reporting standards and minimize fugitive emissions. One utility was able to realize Capex savings between 40% and 60% by leveraging advanced analytics powered by AI. These savings came about by prioritizing replacement of its riskiest assets and optimizing preventative maintenance.

Intelligent capital planning can help utilities navigate a changing landscape

Utilities face an uphill climb as they navigate a rapidly changing landscape. The energy transition towards renewables is well underway, but the infrastructure required for a wider rollout is sorely lacking. Cyber and physical threats to infrastructure are increasing, and climate change could exacerbate severe weather events going forward.

Addressing these challenges will require significant capital investments in both the digital and physical spheres. Existing infrastructure such as transmission lines need to be repaired and replaced, and software systems need to be upgraded with cutting-edge AI technology to intelligently meet the needs of a more distributed energy network.

With so many projects to manage, ensuring your Capex dollars go to the highest risk-adjusted ROI projects is essential. To see how modern tools like Finario can take your capital planning process to the next level, schedule a demo today.

Strong demand and higher prices made 2022 a good year for the global chemicals industry overall, but results varied widely by region. In the U.S., the sector had “one of its best years in a decade,” while European companies struggled to navigate an energy crisis.

With a recession expected by many in 2023 or early 2024, the near-term future of the industry is uncertain. However, many producers remain committed to bold capital projects that will spur organic growth and make themselves more sustainable.

In this deep dive, we’ll explore the crossroads that the chemicals industry finds itself in, and the key trends capital planners should keep an eye on to maximize their Capex performance throughout the 2020s and beyond.

Commodity inflation has been a boon to U.S. chemical companies

Despite enduring disruptions caused by COVID and supply chain challenges, the U.S. chemicals industry has emerged stronger than ever, buoyed by favorable pricing and strong demand. As Deloitte points out, “The US chemical industry has shown strong financial performance, reaching a level last seen more than two decades ago. This performance is a result of strong commodity markets and robust demand. Except for 2020, these two factors have generally created an environment of favorable pricing, allowing the industry to recover nearly all the gross margin erosion that occurred through 2015.”

This solid performance recently led investment bank Piper Sandler to upgrade several U.S. chemical companies, citing “a number of tailwinds developing that should create substantive benefits for chemical industry margins, primarily for North American production” which include significant pricing power due to lower raw materials costs. A run of highly-profitable years have allowed these companies to build strong balance sheets, putting them in a good position to make impactful capital investments.

Capital planners have taken advantage of this strength by investing in new projects. American chemical producers increased their Capex by 9% in 2022, investing in more plant capacity, infrastructure upgrades, and new sustainability projects. But, after significant outlays in 2022, capital spending growth is “expected to slow to 3.6%” in 2023 as companies gear up for a potential slow down later in the year.

Globally, decarbonization efforts are ramping up

Climate change is an issue that nearly all industries are trying to get their arms around, but it’s a particular focus for the chemicals industry. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), “the chemical sector is the largest industrial energy consumer and the third largest industry subsector in terms of direct CO2 emissions. This is largely because around half of the chemical subsector’s energy input is consumed as feedstock – fuel used as a raw material input rather than as a source of energy.”

A range of stakeholders—including governments, investors, and regulators—are sounding the alarm and demanding big changes. As consultancy Oliver Wyman points out, “failure to meet sustainability targets represents the single greatest long-term risk to [chemical] companies, putting even their license to operate in jeopardy. Companies that fail the sustainability test may find themselves locked out of financing, especially as banks and other institutional investors focus on greening portfolios and making ESG priorities core to investment strategies.”

Industry leaders have recognized the urgent need to decarbonize their operations, and are responding with bold capital investments. Dow Chemical, the biggest producer in the U.S., has a goal of spending around $1 billion per year on decarbonization projects, and is planning on constructing the “world’s first net-zero carbon emissions ethylene and derivatives complex” in Canada in 2023. Despite job cuts to start the year, the company has reaffirmed its expectation that Capex spending will increase by 21% in 2023.

It’s not just American firms that have ambitious capital spending goals. German chemical company BASF will invest over $25 billion through 2025 with the goal of driving organic growth, and has announced plans “to build a new hexamethylene diamine (HMD) plant in France and expand Polyamide 6.6 production at its facility in Freiburg, Germany.” Netherlands-based LyondellBasell spent around $2 billion in Capex in 2022, with a relatively even split between growth and maintenance projects. Going forward, the company expects capital spending to remain at that level for the next several years, and “accelerate its investments in decarbonization in the latter half of the 2020s.”

Powder & Bulk Solids, a magazine focused on the chemical and related industries, summed up the outlook going forward:

“Across the chemical industry, manufacturers are building new facilities to support growth, improving their existing asset bases, and investing in sustainability-related initiatives. As the decade progresses, Powder & Bulk Solids expects to see a greater share of Capex go toward assets that support the circular economy and furthering the decarbonization of chemical operations.”

Betting on a battery-powered future

While decarbonizing their operations will be a significant challenge for chemical companies, it also presents an enticing opportunity as demand for battery materials surges. BASF expects that “its Battery Materials business will become ‘a significant earnings contributor’” to its portfolio, and is planning to invest up to $5 billion in Capex between now and 2030.

A number of Korean companies are also seeing the opportunity in batteries. Lotte Chemical has committed nearly $8 billion to new battery material and hydrogen projects by 2030, and “plans to open American production facilities for battery materials in a few years.” Additionally, LG Chem has set aside $5.2 billion to expand its battery materials unit, and POSCO chemical is building a battery cathode materials plant in Canada through a joint venture with General Motors.

The main driver behind all of this battery demand is electric vehicles (EVs). While just one in seven passenger cars sold globally was an EV in 2022, demand has been growing exponentially, and producers are seeing the writing on the wall.

On top of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provided a number of incentives for both producers and consumers of EVs, the Biden administration recently proposed even more ambitious legislation “designed to ensure two-thirds of new passenger cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold in the United States are all-electric by 2032.” As a result, “battery manufacturing is ramping up across the [U.S.]” and in many regions around the globe.

The chemical industry’s transition towards battery-powered solutions marks a pivotal step in embracing a sustainable, low-carbon future. The scale of this transition is so massive that chemical company leaders ought to think about these Capex projects as their own category.

Leaders need a third bucket—“sustainable Capex”—in addition to growth and maintenance

Most capital planners have, minimally, two broad buckets for Capex projects: growth and maintenance. But with the significant amount of decarbonization-related projects that chemical companies are embarking on, leaders should consider a third category—sustainable Capex.

While investing in projects like battery materials plants presents a sizable growth opportunity, other sustainability-related investments may not achieve the kinds of returns investors hope for. As Deloitte points out, “Any scale capital deployment for sustainability in the near term may be at lower-than-threshold hurdle rates yet may require a larger share of capital deployment.” The good news is that government incentives, such as those included in the IRA, “provide billions of dollars for investments in lower-emissions technologies along with continued tax support for carbon capture,” which will help chemical companies meet ambitious emission-reduction goals.

By viewing sustainable Capex investments outside the lens of growth and maintenance, leaders can build a business case that goes beyond dollars and cents. These projects are fundamental to staying competitive in the long term, and will allow companies to effectively address ESG concerns and regulatory requirements. The industry finds itself in a unique position to use “their strong balance sheets…to lead the coming transformation that will substantially alter chemicals businesses and adjacent businesses in the decade ahead.”

Managing the capital projects necessary to facilitate such a transition requires the help of cutting-edge digital tools to prioritize funding of the highest risk-adjusted ROI projects. Traditional solutions lack the ability to incorporate real-time data, look back at past projects, and forecast accurately. That’s simply unacceptable during such a critical moment for the industry.

To see how state-of-the-art capital planning software can optimize your Capex portfolio for the digital age, schedule a demo of Finario today.

Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) rise to becoming one of California’s most powerful energy providers was a success story for much of the 20th century. Yet in recent years, costly missteps ultimately sparked tragic wildfires and bankruptcy—marking an unfortunate end to its long reign in the Golden State.

So, what are some important takeaways from PG&E’s troubled history? Hindsight is 20/20, but if the company had kept better records throughout its decades of operation, it likely would’ve taken better care of its equipment, and potentially prevented one of the deadliest wildfires in California history.

A short history of PG&E

PG&E was founded in 1905, just two years after the discovery of natural gas in San Francisco. The company rapidly expanded throughout the state, acquiring other utilities on its way to becoming a monopoly by the 1920s. As California’s population expanded, PG&E grew along with it.

The push for smaller government in the ‘80s, and higher-than-average electricity prices in California, led to calls for deregulation of the electricity market in the early ‘90s. The state hoped that fewer regulations would incentivize utilities to compete with each other by investing in better equipment that could deliver power more cheaply and efficiently. The days of utilities as ‘protected monopolies’ were over.

Amid other factors, major swings in oil prices caused PG&E to sustain heavy losses throughout the decade, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 2001. Unfortunately, it was only the beginning of the company’s woes.

Disaster struck in 2018 when the Camp Fire raged across California for more than two weeks. By the time it was finally contained, it had burned more than 240 square miles, killed 85 people, and created more than $16 billion in property damage. The Camp Fire remains the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history to this day.

What went wrong

According to CAL FIRE, the state’s regulatory body for fire protection, a high-voltage transmission line owned by the company fell and caused the spark that ignited the inferno. And it was able to spread for a number of reasons: an unusually dry period, sustained winds, and sheer bad luck.

The cause of the downed wire was clearly due to a lack of capital maintenance. A hook holding the wire hadn’t been replaced in nearly a century, and eventually cracked, leaving the open wire shooting sparks into the flammable shrubbery below.

Moreover, during its decades of frenzied acquisitions, PG&E failed to combine documentation from its subsidiaries into a coherent whole. During the resulting investigation, prosecutors found that the company was missing thousands of essential documents, including ones that would’ve indicated an abundance of necessary repairs and replacements across its portfolio.

Katherine Blunt summarized what went wrong in her bestselling book, California Burning:

“PG&E lacked records on the condition of its power lines and pipelines, making comparisons difficult. In a 2005 presentation to the company, Accenture stated the obvious: PG&E could better target its maintenance spending if it had better data. It suggested that the company invest in gathering it while also cutting costs.”

What today’s utilities can learn from the tragic event

For much of its history, PG&E pursued growth at all costs. Rather than taking time to integrate new service areas into its network, it acquired as many competitors as it could in an effort to increase shareholder value. Eventually, it had acquired more companies than it could keep track of, and very little knowledge about the maintenance requirements across its vast portfolio of transmission lines and other equipment.

This underscores the importance of accurate record keeping. Knowing the amount of capital required to maintain operations over time, and where those investments should be allocated most effectively, is key to keeping customers, regulators, and shareholders happy. Investing in reliable data management systems can help ensure your records are always accurate and up-to-date so you can make informed decisions.

The good news is that capital planning systems have come a long way since PG&E’s rise and fall. Modern Capex solutions use real-time data to help utility leaders make more informed decisions about allocating funds and prioritizing projects. Stack ranking features can identify important maintenance expenses, as well as other opportunities for new growth initiatives based on risk assessment—helping you get the most out of your Capex budget.

What about when those risk adjustments change unexpectedly? Recently, the Inflation Reduction Act expanded incentives for consumers to adopt electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries, forcing utilities to adapt to increased grid demand. Instead of needing to start from square one to account for assumption changes, cutting-edge tools enable real-time adjustments that ensure projects stay on track and within budget.

A brighter future ahead

From the ever-present struggle between maintenance and growth to more pressing matters like climate change, utilities managers face a host of challenges. To stay nimble in an unpredictable landscape, digital transformation is essential—it’s key to insight, agility, and efficiency for the modern organization.

For capital planners, critical decisions can’t be left to a single line item in a budget. Capital project portfolios and individual projects alike need to be evaluated carefully and consistently.

If you want to learn more about challenges and opportunities for capital planning in utilities, sign up for our upcoming webinar.

When it comes to capital budgeting, there’s no shortage of grievances against the process. And rightly so.

A comprehensive capital plan, which takes months to put together, can become obsolete soon after the ink dries. Projects can take forever to make it through complex, manual approval workflows. And making comparisons to a prior year’s plan can be quite challenging.

In order to take your capital budgeting process to the next level, here are 10 best practices to keep in mind.

1. Use a rolling forecast to keep your capital plan agile

Forecasting once per year, or even one per quarter, reduces FP&A’s ability to react and adjust to market changes. By the time August comes around, the forecast that was finalized in January is long obsolete.

As we said in our article on the topic, “Companies that have implemented rolling forecasts report greater agility in responding to exogenous events and assumption changes.”

2. Use consistent and rigorous ROI models to evaluate Capex projects

These days, many CFOs are asking themselves what the right balance is between paying down debt and boosting Capex investments. As interest rates march higher, paying off debt can reduce future interest obligations. On the other hand, investing in Capex drives growth.

Making optimal capital budgeting decisions requires consistent and rigorous ROI models, which legacy systems often lack. Leaders need objective metrics, such as risk-adjusted ROI and hurdle rate, to be able to see which projects are favorable both on their own and compared to others competing for budget.

3. Implement the zero-based budgeting approach for Capex to ensure that every dollar is justified

The “traditional” budgeting process creates competition for an allocated amount based on the prior year’s spending, rather than evaluating each project on its merits. This is an arbitrary and inflexible means of evaluation.

A zero-based budgeting approach can require more legwork than top-down budgeting, but ensures that every expense is justified. Project owners trim the fat from their Capex proposals, as only those with the most merit receive funding. Plus, expense bloat that’s often a feature of top-down budgeting is eliminated.

To hear more on this topic, watch the replay of our webinar Why Start with Capex to Implement Zero-Based Budgeting.

4. Improve data management to unlock meaningful project comparisons

Poor data governance and a lack of project-level detail are some of the top factors hampering corporate capital plans. As Peter Drucker famously said, “you can’t improve what you don’t measure.”

We outlined the reasons why in our article on Opex vs Capex:

“Within most EPMs, Capex is represented as a single line item per business unit or per project that reports what has been budgeted and spent, with little project-level detail. Insights into the rationale or projected financial return on the projects, actual dollars spent at any given point in time, and other key information and metrics are rarely available.”

A purpose-built financial intelligence solution for Capex can significantly improve data quality and availability, which enables objective, data-driven project comparisons during budgeting cycles.

5. Know exactly where every project is in the approval process

Whether your company uses Authorizations for Expenditure (AFE), Requests for Expenditure (RFE), or something else, having approval statuses seamlessly available is a game changer.

Financial reports and project approvals often live in different systems, which requires going back and forth to get a full picture of what has been committed, is in progress, and/or not yet started. Without having this data at your fingertips, you can never be completely sure of how to forecast cash flow.

Which is why having an automated and dynamically updating approval system not only streamlines a cumbersome process, but also provides essential reporting that puts you firmly in control of your entire Capex portfolio status. As we’ve said before, “Capex requests are living, changing and evolving strategic initiatives intended to drive value and competitive advantage. This requires a system that will account for the ever changing elements within specific projects and changes to approval routes and criteria. 

6. Simulate different project scenarios to see how they’ll impact your budget

Let’s say you have a big construction project in the queue. The ROI is attractive, but accounting has concerns about ongoing expenses and cash flow.

When multiple systems are used to manage Capex, these simple questions can be hard to answer. A Capex project proposal may live in a workflow tool, but current project costs live in JD Edwards, and the NPV model is in Excel.

Being able to see how project approvals will impact your budget is something traditional tools lack. A capability such as Finario Converge allows you to see how approving one project or another will affect remaining budget capacity in real time.

7. Leverage automation to reduce employee time spent on non-value added activities

As former ITT CFO Tom Scalera mentioned in his interview with Finario, other departments often wish finance could provide them with more strategic support. Unfortunately, their bandwidth tends to be limited by tedious admin tasks.

Leveraging automation in the capital planning process reduces the likelihood of manual mistakes, and frees up FP&A employees’ time to have a more strategic impact.

An automated Capex workflow establishes a clear audit trail, and eliminates manual workarounds. Automatic, real-time data prevents human error and the need for employees to manually download and analyze reports.

8. Use “on-demand” reporting data to streamline the capital budgeting process

Compiling data during budget season is often a Herculean task—rounding up what was spent during the year, how forecasts performed, and other info can require scouring various systems and spreadsheets.

A comprehensive solution that provides this data on-demand can vastly speed up and simplify this process. That means less time spent wrangling data, and more time available for value-added work.

9. Mandate post-completion reviews for material projects

Budgeting and forecasting shouldn’t be a “spaghetti on the wall” exercise. As projects are being considered for budgeting, approval, and subsequent forecasting, the best way to predict future results – and the merits of a given business case – is to leverage historical data.

Without conducting post-completion reviews, however, this can be difficult. Having the systems to encourage or even mandate compliance for these reviews can be essential in building that historical data set. Were project goals achieved on time and on budget? Were there issues that arose, and if so, how can they be prevented in the future? What were the lessons learned?

Come budgeting time, having insights such as these will go a long way in accelerating decisions, and improving upon them.

10. Create a Capex Project “Sandbox” with Flagging

Some of the best capital project proposals can (and should) come from the “shop floor.” But if there is no mechanism for them to be input into a shared environment and properly “socialized” for their merits, benefits/risks, projected outcomes, etc., they can get lost in the shuffle.

Finario can provide this functionality along with the ability for managers to flag project proposals that they want to keep an eye on come budgeting season – and beyond.

For example, say a manufacturer is debating whether to buy an existing factory or build a new one themselves. Managers and other stakeholders can monitor the new factory project proposal throughout the year, and once budgeting season rolls around, make a more informed decision.

Finario sat down with former ITT Corp CFO Tom Scalera to talk about critical issues facing the CFO, including managing ROIC amid shorter tenures. Watch the full interview here.

Tom Scalera knows a thing or two about capital planning.

As CFO of ITT Corporation for nearly a decade, he oversaw the firm’s vast industrial portfolio, which included automotive, aerospace, and energy businesses.

When he was named finance chief, the company had a market cap just above $1 billion. By the time he left, it had climbed to $8.6 billion.

The key to his success? A laser focus on deploying capital effectively.

The importance of organic growth

When Scalera first became CFO at ITT, many of its businesses were undercapitalized. His first priority was spurring organic growth by making investments that could provide the highest returns on invested capital (ROIC).

As customers saw the renewed commitment ITT was making to its industrial arm, they were willing to sign up for long term partnerships with the company. The board, investors, and other stakeholders saw the strong ROIC performance Scalera had achieved, which earned him more credibility.

He admits that “we had to prove to investors and stakeholders that we knew how to deploy capital. A lot of people didn’t think we’d be able to do it effectively. The way we earned that credibility was through efficient Capex investments and great returns on those investments.”

The clock is ticking

Although Scalera ended up being the finance chief at ITT for nearly a decade, he understands that CFO tenures are often much shorter. According to Korn Ferry, the average tenure for a CFO is just 4.7 years.

“As a CFO, there’s only so much time you’re afforded in that seat. The average life expectancy of a CFO is not getting longer. So, the most important decisions that have to be made are capital allocation.”

The board and other stakeholders recognize that a CFO’s capital decisions will have ramifications long after they’re gone, so seeing strong ROIC performance early in the CFO’s tenure is paramount.

Unfortunately, many finance departments lack sophisticated tools that enable effective capital management. Excel lacks the ability to drill down, look at historical trends, or answer even basic questions about Capex performance.

Scalera highlighted that a tool like Finario enables a CFO to see relevant metrics in real time, allowing them to make better decisions. “A tool like Finario where you’re allocating capital will make CFOs more successful. It will.”

Watch the full interview now.

Enabling FP&A to add more value

Scalera noted that, in many organizations, other departments complain that FP&A spends too much time on non value-add activities.

He said that many CFOs overlook investing in systems that allow them to achieve their number one responsibility—stimulating organic growth.

“Give the team the best tools to do [non value-added work] efficiently, then they can free up time to do other things that can help grow the business strategically.”

Achieving organic growth and strong ROIC performance is priority #1 for CFOs. And to achieve the best results, they need the best systems.

Watch the full interview now.