Finance leaders ready to lead digital transformation, says Vyas
As Indian enterprises navigate economic volatility, regulatory complexity, and digital disruption, a new survey reveals that digital transformation, reducing data siloes, improving workflow automation and gaining increased access to real-time data insights are top priorities for CFOs.
The study, ‘The Pulse of Finance: EPM Priorities & Perspectives in India 2025,’ sponsored by the Netherlands’ Wolters Kluwer CCH® Tagetik, offers a comprehensive look at the current EPM landscape, as well as key priorities and persistent challenges faced by finance leaders across the country.
The survey engaged 100 senior finance executives from leading Indian companies across sectors including BFSI, energy, automotive, retail, and technology. The findings underscore that modernizing operations, integrating fragmented systems, and adopting intelligent planning tools are key priorities for finance leaders seeking to drive strategic agility.
Key survey findings include:
• Digital transformation was ranked as the top priority for 74% of responding CFOs, followed by workflow automation (66%) and improving forecasting accuracy (55%).
• Top technology-related challenges faced by finance: Lack of real-time insights (59.3%), siloed data (56.3%) and time-consuming manual processes (48.5%), highlighting the need for integrated, user-friendly platforms.
• Top expectations of modern EPM systems: Enhanced data visibility and analytics (62.3%), improved financial planning and forecasting accuracy (60.5%), and seamless integration with existing systems.
• Top challenge: Survey findings also indicate that a majority of responding CFOs currently lack the technology infrastructure that’s most likely to address their top technology challenges and EPM expectations. Only 20% of responding organizations have fully integrated ERP and EPM systems, and nearly 30% still rely entirely on manual processes.
• Main obstacles to modern EPM platform adoption: Cost (70%) and perceived difficulty integrating with legacy systems (60%).
Nishant Vyas, India General Manager, CCH Tagetik India at Wolters Kluwer, said on 7 Oct, “This survey confirms what we’re seeing on the ground—finance leaders in India are ready to lead digital transformation, but are often held back by legacy systems, fragmented data, and manual processes.
“The CCH® Tagetik Intelligent Platform is purpose-built to address these exact challenges. Our unified platform empowers CFOs with real-time insights, seamless ERP integration, and AI-powered automation—enabling finance to move from reactive reporting to proactive, intelligent planning, forecasting and risk management.”
The survey was conducted by IMA India, a niche economic, business, and market research firm known for informing top management audiences for over two decades. It included responses from 100 Indian-headquartered companies, spanning a range of industries and revenue sizes. Over 60% of respondents represented large enterprises with annual revenues exceeding US$600 million. Participants included CFOs, finance directors, controllers, and FP&A heads, offering a well-rounded view of the EPM landscape in India.
Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in information, software solutions and services for professionals in healthcare; tax and accounting; financial and corporate compliance; legal and regulatory; corporate performance and ESG. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with technology and services.
Wolters Kluwer reported 2024 annual revenues of €5.9 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 21,600 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Fiinews.com
