The Group Controller's Guide: Transforming Data Chaos into Strategic Control

At the beginning of 2025, the world seems even more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). Geopolitical tensions remain high, and economic forecasts are under pressure.
Group controllers and CFOs must provide insights to guide their companies through troubled waters. As markets shift, they must support decision-making rapidly. At the same time, regulatory requirements are also becoming increasingly complex.

Group controllers face a perfect storm of challenges. They are impacted by growing talent shortages, which sometimes make it a struggle to keep up with daily operations. At the same time, they must rise to the expectation of delivering strategic business insights. On top of all that, the ever-increasing pressure of regulatory reporting requirements is becoming increasingly demanding and critical. Traditional spreadsheet-based processes are breaking down under these demands, as they are labor intensive, slow decision-making, and introduce errors and risks that large firms cannot afford.
Without a unified and automated financial data management system, group controllers will remain stuck with routine tasks, which will make motivating and retaining talented people more challenging.

In this article, I will discuss how establishing a single source of truth through an integrated data strategy and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) tool can transform data chaos, improve financial control, and pave the way for strategic decision-making.

The Challenge: Data Fragmentation in corporate Financial Management

Most organizations use various systems, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resources (HR), and other operational systems. This leads to data being stored in different areas of the organization, resulting in data silos—separate repositories of information that are challenging to combine and analyze. Some FP&A teams carry out their tasks using offline spreadsheets and databases, which only exacerbates the issue.

While tools like Microsoft Excel are versatile and easy to use because they help organize and manipulate financial data, they have some major flaws when used on a large scale.

• Meaningful Work: Collecting, verifying, and combining data from different sources is a time-consuming and error-prone process
• Outdated Information: Information can quickly become outdated, meaning the organization has no real-time view of its financial performance
• Collaboration: Spreadsheets are complex to edit and share, which leads to problems with version control and prevents people from working together effectively
• No Regulation: Spreadsheets lack the required security and controls to guarantee data accuracy and are susceptible to errors, unauthorized access, and alteration

Many corporations still use Excel as a data collection tool for budgeting and forecasting. This implies replicating many spreadsheets and sending them to business leaders to collect inputs and feedback. This process is slow and messy, leading to confusion and delays in decision-making.

Current financial management practices are too often inefficient and chaotic, making it difficult for organizations to have a clear, accurate, and up-to-date view of their financial performance. This hinders the FP&A team's ability to support the business with strategic insights.

The Solution: An Integrated Data Strategy for Group-wide Controlling

A single source of truth is necessary to gain data control and enhance financial support. This means creating a central database that is the only reference for all the users within the organization.

An integrated data strategy is the collection of data from various systems and placing them in one platform to eliminate data silos and enhance data flow.

This centralized platform should have the capability to:

• Automate Data Collection: Reduce human intervention and possible errors by directly extracting data from the source systems
• Validate and Consolidate Data: Guarantee the accuracy and integrity of the data through the validation and consolidation process
• Analyze Data: Offer features for data analysis, reporting and dashboarding, and modeling relevant to the organization’s needs. Business scenarios differ from financial analysis but must utilize the same source data.
• Ensure Data Integrity: Implement strong security features like audit trails, access controls on users, and data encryption to avoid data leakage, access, and alteration
• Deliver Timely Data: Offer the correct data at the right time to the users with appropriate access and validation

Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) can improve this process by detecting data variances and producing forecasts. This can help organizations shift from reactive to strategic financial management. However, to maximize the benefits of AI, it is paramount that your data strategy is solid and that users can explain the output with confidence.

Integrated EPM Solutions: Top-down Financial Control

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions are an integrated system for financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis, which helps financial teams work in a structured manner and track financial performance. EPM solutions do not require data to be entered in spreadsheets and other systems, saving time and reducing human error.

These solutions include powerful tools such as:

• Real-time Data Integration: Get the latest financial information to help you make quick decisions as the business environment shifts
• Centralized Formulas and KPIs: All calculations are stored in one place and controlled from one source
• Automated Workflows: Apply planning solutions to streamline and automate the approval workflows within your organization.
• Dynamic Dashboards: Design live dashboards that display KPIs and financial metrics that users can easily interact with
• Multi-scenario Analysis: This technique examines complicated situations, makes predictions using modeling, and adjusts forecasts according to changes in assumptions

EPM solutions help financial teams have more control over planning, budgeting, and forecasting. Managers can establish goals, revise budgets, and track results on a granular level to exercise financial control. The robust reporting capabilities of EPM solutions allow for the effective and easy sharing of financial information with other stakeholders.

Real-World Examples and Impact

How do other organizations benefit from integrated data strategies and EPM solutions?

• Mercedez Benz South Africa moved from more than 1,000 Excel spreadsheets to a single platform, Jedox, which reduced errors and ensured high-quality data. This has enabled faster and more effective processes and provided accurate forecasts and real-time reporting
• Henkell Freixenet, a leading global producer of sparkling wine, has reduced its annual work hours by 80% with the help of Jedox, replacing static PDF reports with dynamic dashboards to gain more detailed information
• Messer Medical Home Care enhanced the quality of their monthly reviews with local management using Jedox. They are able to deliver accurate and up-to-date information to all locations and perform automatic group consolidation of financial reports

These examples show the significance of defining a single source of truth for proper financial planning and analysis. By automating these processes, these companies also enhanced the accuracy of their data and the time necessary for data integration and reporting. This has enabled them to make better and faster decisions, contributing to improved enterprise performance.

Gaining top-down control

Moving away from data chaos is not simple, but it is an effort that pays off rapidly with the right data strategy and EPM solution. Creating a single source of truth is an investment that brings many benefits, such as improved productivity, enhanced decision-making, and adaptability in a volatile world. When combining a single source of truth with strong EPM solutions, CFOs and group controllers can gain top-down control over corporate data. This is the path forward to gradually moving from reporting past performance to being strategic partners of the organization.