Among these, the only element identified as both a cause of complexity and a method of dealing with it is managing information. It is the most popular technique for dealing with complexity, both now and in the next two years, in all regions and in all sectors.
The implications of this are profound. This report suggests that companies are struggling to find out what is happening in their own organizations, either through lack of good quality data, inconsistent information, or through problems interpreting what they have.
Improving information management (73%) and reorganizing all or part of your business (59%) the most important future actions.
This idea is supported by the results of another KPMG survey, (A New Role for New Times, KPMG and CFO Research, 2011), which examines the role of the chief financial officer (CFO) and the finance department in a modern international corporation.
The two greatest challenges cited by the CFOs interviewed are the internal complexity of their organizations and difficulties in finding and using an effective IT system that is able to collect, analyze and present the information needed.
Problems with IT systems frequently arise because executives find themselves needing more and better information from systems that were not designed to carry such a burden. This is especially common in organizations that have been through a large M&A program and have to cope with several different legacy systems.
The only long-term answer to this problem is a complete structural review of the system. Short-term fixes can help for a while, and some KPMG teams have been able to reduce 250-page management information packs to 50-60 pages by careful selection and analysis of the information available. But modern organizations need modern information systems. To better obtain the benefits of an accurate and comprehensive view of a company’s performance, there is often little alternative to investing in proper integration of information management systems to create a common, reliable and effective platform.