From Insights to Action: How Self-Service Finance Puts You in Control 

Finance teams today are under increasing pressure to deliver faster insights while managing growing volumes of data. A traditional reliance on centralised reporting teams creates a bottleneck, leading to delays, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities, but giving away the keys to all that company data and the tools to analyse, report and visualise it may sounds like madness. In this blog we cover how it is possible to do and maintain control.  

“Businesses are sitting on a goldmine of data, but without proper accessibility, that gold remains buried. The goal is to democratise data access while maintaining governance and security.” 

Many organisations grapple with the same set of issues: 

• Data silos: Teams store and manage data in isolated systems, making it difficult to access and integrate information.
• Data lockdown: Privacy and governance regulations often lead to data being locked away, which, while necessary for security, can delay access to valuable insights. 
• Unclear data ownership: Without clear ownership, employees are uncertain about who controls data access and how to retrieve it. 
• Lack of trust in data: If data quality is inconsistent or undocumented, users hesitate to rely on it for decision-making. 
• Slow access to insights: When employees must navigate the bureaucracy to access data, business agility suffers. 

Imagine a world where department heads can access the data they need rather than request it from Finance or IT teams. Taking things a step further they may also be able to input data into planning systems, adjusting the budget and spending autonomously.  This is not a futuristic dream; it's happening right now at leading organisations embracing self-service data and finance capabilities. 

Why Self-Service Finance is a Must-Have 

 Traditional tools don’t deliver the required level of traceability required for good data governance. However there are tools that flip the script, giving your team direct access to the data they need, when they need it. 

Consider these questions: 

• Can your data consumers find the information they need quickly and easily? 
• Do your data consumers have the tools and capabilities to create their own reports and visualisations? 
• Are your users able to conduct their own analysis with functionality such as pivoting, slice and dice, and drill downs? 
• Do you feel your users are happy with the quality and reliability of the insights they can access? 
• Do your data tools use augmented intelligence and natural language processing to assist with finding the data you need, and suggest how to present it? 

“If you hesitated on any of these, it might be time to rethink your finance data strategy.” 

Delivering impact, where it matters most 

Having self-service capabilities fundamentally changes how different teams engage with financial data. Here’s how key stakeholders' benefit:

• Department Heads – Gain direct access to real-time budget insights, allowing them to allocate resources more effectively and respond quickly to financial changes. 
• Finance Teams – Reduce time spent on routine reporting and focus on strategic analysis, risk management, and forecasting. 
• Operational Leaders – Model financial scenarios independently, ensuring better alignment between financial decisions and operational needs. 
• Executives & CFOs – Make more informed, data-backed strategic decisions without waiting on finance teams to compile reports. 

By providing teams with immediate access to data via self-service tools such as a data marketplace, you foster a more agile and proactive and data literate organisation. This not only streamlines decision-making but also enhances accountability and efficiency across departments. 

The Shift Away from Excel-Centric Processes 

Its not just data marketplaces that are delivering self-service functionality for finance teams. For years, the teams have relied on complex, fragile Excel models to manage budgets, forecasts, and financial planning. While spreadsheets have their place, they often lead to version control issues, human errors, and data silos. 

Modern connected planning solutions eliminate these risks by providing a single source of truth—ensuring consistency, accuracy, and accessibility for finance teams and department heads alike to access, manipulate and model budgets. When self-service capabilities are implemented effectively, finance professionals can confidently share access with the department heads closer to the numbers to explore data, generate reports, and gain valuable insights without the fear of ‘breaking the model.’ 

Take, for example, a leading university that transformed how its operational teams manage departmental budgets. By putting real-time data in their hands, they removed the bottlenecks of centralised reporting, putting the task of budget allocation decisions directly in the hands of department heads. The result? Faster decision-making, greater accountability, and a more agile organisation. 

The Rise of Low-Code and No-Code Solutions 

The adoption of low-code and no-code technologies is accelerating across industries. According to Gartner, 70% of enterprise applications are expected incorporate these tools this year, enabling business users to interact with data without needing deep technical expertise. This shift is unlocking new efficiencies and empowering finance teams to: 

• Automate routine reporting tasks 

• Build dashboards and visualisations without IT intervention 

• Streamline financial planning and forecasting processes 

“By removing traditional barriers to data access, finance leaders can free up valuable time for strategic decision-making while fostering a more agile and data-driven culture.” 

Cost and Time Savings: Making It an Easy Yes for the Business 

Beyond agility, self-service capabilities deliver measurable cost and time savings. Those that adopt self-service tools will experience: 

• 50% reduction in reporting time—freeing teams to focus on strategic initiatives 

• Lower operational costs—by reducing reliance on IT teams for data queries 

• More accurate forecasting—by enabling real-time scenario modelling 

The Future of Finance: Smarter Data, Stronger Teams 

Having a self-service strategy for budgeting and forecasting is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’— it’s essential for organisations that want to stay ahead of market changes and competitors. By embracing the right tools and fostering data literacy, finance teams can unlock new efficiencies, reduce bottlenecks, and enable faster, more informed decision-making. 

Are you ready to transform the way your finance team operates? Take our survey to assess where you stand and discover how self-service finance an drive agility and innovation in your organisa

About the author

Steve Perry | Principal Consultant - Data Architect 
 
Steve has worked in many large enterprises as an Enterprise Architect, including IBM, Peoplesoft, Oracle, and Workday. Steve has 12 Years of experience in ERP, 10 years in Analytics and now 5 years in Cloud Enterprise Data management, specifically in Data Governance. 25 Years in Presales.