Former EY auditor turned CEO at Fresh FP&A, Chris Ortega, shares insights on chasing passion projects, leveraging technology in finance, aligning KPIs, the power of curiosity, and using ChatGPT. Topics include building a future-focused finance foundation, emotional dashboards, AI in various fields, and essential tools for finance professionals.

Nicolas Boucher, an FP&A veteran, shares expertise on variances analysis, quick analysis, reporting efficiency, business partnership, and optimizing Excel/PowerPoint. Topics include audits preparation tips, business intelligence benefits, technology misconceptions, and online training insights. Discusses music tools evolution and DJ experiences.

Episode - 008: - Where we learn, how Rob Partridge - Managing Director of Synergi Partner Finance - transformed his business by building a portal. What he'd do differently if he did it again. The limitations he's still seeing with open banking. How he's diversified his business by niching down, his favourite tech, and much much more.   Rob has over 20 years experience in the financial service space and now works with businesses of all shapes and sizes to spread large CAPEX projects into affordable monthly payments.   ​ Contents  ---   [00:00:49] The Background   [00:05:44] Financing a Tech Project   [00:14:24] Digital Transformation with a Portal   [00:23:33] Looking at the end result   [00:27:17] The future is integration and self-service   [00:31:45] Fighting Traditional Infrastructure “We want this now!”   ​[00:36:12] What would you do differently?   [00:38:28] What information is crucial to you as a business leader?   [00:42:12] Differentiation & Niching Down   [00:47:54] What is the one app or gadget you couldn’t live without?   [00:54:12] How to find Rob and how to save some Tax (UK Only) [Cut-off March 23]    Show Notes  ---   How to Find Rob   - Rob on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robpartridge/ - Synergi Finance - https://synergi-finance.co.uk  Tech Mentioned   - Docusign - https://www.docusign.co.uk - Creditsafe - https://www.creditsafe.com - Xero - https://www.xero.com - HubSpot - https://www.hubspot.com - SAP - https://www.sap.com - TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com - Headway - https://app.get-headway.com Other Useful Links   - Open banking - https://www.openbanking.org.uk/what-is-open-banking/ - KYC (Know your Customer) - https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/wealth-management/know-your-client-kyc/ - EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)  - https://www.ibm.com/topics/edi-electronic-data-interchange - Companies House (UK Business Database)  📧: Sign up for The Tech for Finance Newsletter: https://www.techforfinance.com 📺: Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@techforfinance

In this episode, we speak with Howard Tunnicliffe who is Head of Finance for the Subscriptions division of the Economist, as well as being a coach and teacher under his own brand Financesoftskills.com Howard started his career as a finance and audit contractor for Dell, before moving on to become an analyst at Ernst & Young and then a Management Accountant at DTZ, formerly Cushman and Wakefield. More recently, Howard worked as the Finance Business Partner for Starbucks, before moving to the Economist in 2014 where he's been ever since. Howard is now a proud father, lover of good food, and passionate about helping finance professionals improve their soft skills and EQ. In this episode we cover: 00:01:23 - Driving up subscription revenue 20% 00:07:39 - The challenges of building a subscription business 00:12:56 - Recommendations for those starting in the subscriptions space 00:19:59 - Injecting some entertainment into your presentations 00:32:24 - Why you should ditch your productivity apps 00:40:07 - A new approach to prioritisation 00:46:48 - Courses to improve your soft skills 00:51:35 - Why you should have a personal brand And much much more.

Jon Cowley, Founder of Whatifi, discusses how his career in visual effects led to creating an intelligent forecasting tool for financial modeling. Topics include the power of visualization, new budgeting methods, and the future of modeling. The podcast also covers the importance of storytelling, engaging stakeholders, and the evolution of financial modeling into strategic leadership.

Paul Barnhurst, founder of the FP&A Guy, covers the evolution of FP&A, skills needed in finance, tech stack optimization, and using AI for forecasting. They discuss Canva's success and provide contact info for future discussions.

Tom Costa is Partner enablement manager for Sage Intacct and has worked with many big name software vendors, including Microsoft, Infor, SAP and Acumatica. He is an expert in software demonstration and assessment.

In this episode, we chat with Simon Divine, Owner of Hopton Analytics.  Simon is a business intelligence specialist and has years of experience in the technology space, working with ERP applications, such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics and business intelligence applications, such as QlikView and Microsoft Power BI. Simon is currently pioneering the BI as a service concept, which gives businesses powerful insight into their data without the need to hire skilled resource internally.

In this episode, we chat with Christian Frantz Hansen from the Business Partnering Institute, who's customers include PayPal, HSBC and P & G. Christian is the Director of Finance Business Partnering - Learning & Development, and has a background of consulting within the CFO services space, having worked for companies such as EY and the Implement Consulting Group. Christian has over 15,000 followers on Linkedin, and is an expert in finance transformation and business process optimisation.

In this episode, I chat with Daniel Lawrence CEO at Bots for That.  As CEO of Bots For That, Daniel is dedicated to improving how the workplace of the future can use technology to provide the best possible working experience for his clients, their employees, and their shareholders. In this discussion we cover everything from how bots work, to how a beach in Hawaii could be the workplace of the future. See the full show notes at www.adamshilton.com/botsforthat