IMA / NetSuite Research Report Identifies Biggest Challenges Facing Today's Finance Organizations

MONTVALE, N.J., March 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A new research report titled "Rising to the Challenge – Productivity in Accounting and Finance Organizations," was released today by IMA^® (Institute of Management Accountants), the association of accountants and financial professionals in business, and NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials and ERP software suites.

The co-sponsored report offers fresh insights into the greatest challenges faced by today's finance organizations, and includes steps companies are taking to overcome them. A full copy of the 23-page report is available on IMA's website at: http://www.imanet.org/PDFs/Public/Research/Netsuite_Rising_Challenge.pdf.

Spearheaded by Raef Lawson, Ph.D., CMA^®, CPA, IMA vice president of research and professor-in-residence, the research project entailed surveying 1,726 IMA members who represent finance organizations across all different industries. According to the report, key challenges faced by finance organizations include:

• Streamlining processes and improving productivity in order to reduce costs;
• Achieving gains in productivity through business processes improvement efforts;  
• Improving strategic activities such as planning, budgeting, forecasting, cost and profitability analysis, and providing performance scorecards and reporting;  
• Running a global business efficiently, implementing/upgrading information systems, and connecting the finance team with the front office.

The research found that financial organizations most often achieve productivity gains through the use of improved technology and automation. A substantial number of organizations are increasing productivity by integrating the various information systems within an organization. By doing so, organizations also may be able to enhance their responsiveness to customers.

This report represents the work of a research partnership between IMA and NetSuite, the aim of which is to conduct joint research projects and deliver thought leadership through IMA webinars, conferences, and professional publications.

"An important mission of IMA is to deliver solutions-oriented thought leadership that's timely and relevant to the profession as a whole," said Dr. Lawson. "In particular, the need for accounting and finance professionals to evolve into more strategic roles within an organization is a longtime area of study for IMA. The findings of this research report demonstrate our commitment to these endeavors, as they will help our members and the profession at-large both to identify and meet their most pressing challenges."

"We are pleased to co-sponsor this groundbreaking research, the results of which should help finance teams assess their greatest challenges and compare their organizations' performance with those of their peers," said Ron Gill, CMA, CFM, chief financial officer of NetSuite. "As these results indicate, the issues of streamlining processes and improving productivity are critical to an organization's ability to overcome many of these identified obstacles. Accounting organizations should be able to greatly benefit from the insights offered in this report and we are pleased to have assisted IMA in producing it."

About IMA^® (Institute of Management Accountants)

IMA^®, the association of accountants and financial professionals in business, is one of the largest and most respected associations focused exclusively on advancing the management accounting profession. Globally, IMA supports the profession through research, the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) program, continuing education, networking, and advocacy of the highest ethical business practices. IMA has a global network of more than 60,000 members in 120 countries and 200 local chapter communities. IMA provides localized services through its offices in Montvale, N.J., USA; Zurich, Switzerland; Dubai, UAE; and Beijing, China. For more information about IMA, please visit www.imanet.org.

About NetSuite

NetSuite Inc. is the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software suites. In addition to financials/ERP software suites, NetSuite offers a broad suite of applications, including accounting, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Professional Services Automation (PSA), and Ecommerce that enables companies to manage most of their core business operations in its single integrated suite. NetSuite's "real-time dashboard" technology provides an easy-to-use view into up-to-date, role-specific business information. Today, more than 12,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud. Since its inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading provider of enterprise-class cloud ERP suites for divisions of large enterprises and mid-sized organizations seeking to upgrade their antiquated client/server ERP systems. NetSuite excels at streamlining business operations, as demonstrated by a recent Gartner study naming NetSuite as the fastest growing financial management systems vendor in the world. NetSuite has continued its success in delivering the best cloud ERP business suites to businesses around the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while increasing productivity, as the global adoption of the cloud is accelerating.

For more information about NetSuite, please visit www.netsuite.com.

SOURCE IMA