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ROLE OF FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT
FIN 002A-ACTCY21S2 - Financial Management

Submitted by:
Adliana Colin Amistoso
Pamela Jean M. Bonifacio
ACTCY21S2

Submitted to:
Mr. Heherson M. Martinez, CPA
 Before starting up explaining about the different approaches of a financial manager to
manage and solve business problem, let us first discuss what, when and who invented the
Microsoft Inc. Just like other companies that’s just starting, Microsoft Inc was found by the two
childhood friends, Bill Gates and Paul G. Allen from Seattle. They converted BASIC, a popular
mainframe computer programming language, for use on an early personal computer (PC), the
Altair. Shortly afterward, Gates and Allen founded Microsoft, deriving the name from the words
microcomputer and software. After many years passed Microsoft Corporation is now known as a
leading developer of personal-computer software systems and application. But it wouldn’t be
successful without those people who find different approaches just to manage and solve the
business problems.

As part of a multi-year transformation effort, Microsoft is streamlining and expanding the

finance function’s role to have greater impact on the company, its customers and its partners.
With the continuing evolution of the role of finance function’s contributions, many financial
leaders in the company are tasked in balancing their traditional job requirements of accurate and
timely financial reporting with new necessities, including setting the company’s new or old
strategic technological direction, discovering insights in a maximize loads of data and driving
corporate performance through the use of technology.

Microsoft Finance experienced this transformation to digital as it evolved over the

company’s last 40 years. The first two (2) decades of Microsoft Finance were defined by a
centralized system focusing only on primarily controllership and fundamentals, an appropriate
approach for a fast-growing and relatively small company. As the company’s business became
more complex from a product and geographic standpoint, the finance function was decentralized,
moving all financial roles into growing business groups and appointing new divisional CFOs
(Chief of Finance Officer). Advancing into the second half of the 2000s’, the complexity of the
business increased exponentially. In addition to big product families such as Windows and
Microsoft Office, there were new growth areas in products like Xbox, Bing and different
Window Devices. Each product presented different business models and challenges for
Microsoft Finance, which were further complicated further by geographic expansion into new,
emerging markets.

As a company that prides itself on it’s long history of developing technology to help
people maximize productivity and realize their full potential, a change was clearly required.
Microsoft Finance decided to address these challenges on head-on embarking on a digital
transformation. Marc Reguera, Microsoft Director of Finance says “At Microsoft, Finance is
very focused on driving impact so we can maximize shareholder value” “There are two big steps
in that process. The first step is examining our data, systems and standards to make sure we have
the right discipline at the core to efficiently convert data into insights and gain a unified view of
our business. The second step is using that intelligence to influence decision-makers and
empower our employees with the flexible technology tools and applications they need to drive
impact.” When it comes to establishing discipline at the core and flexibility at the edge, the
mission focused on discovering business insights and driving impact. This process meant
outsourcing and centralizing transactional activities to address the following key objectives:

 Reducing Complexity
- The team focused on improving operational efficiency within the Microsoft Finance
Organization as part of the “One Finance” Initiative. The Finance began to outsource
repetitive, non-strategic finance activities, including some accounting, accounts
payable and procurement functions, to trusted partners to maximize the productivity
of their own employees. The use of outsourcing focused on internal teams on the
strategic task central to the future success of the business.

 Process Standardization & Controls

- Recognizing that an intuitive user experience would be critical to the adoption of a

new financial strategy, Microsoft Finance next focused on promoting a culture of
self-service where finance professionals within the company could access a single
business insight portal as an access point for standard reports and scorecards.

 Digital Transformation Results

- The results of this digital financial transformation were dramatic and felt almost
immediately. The qualitative impact of the transformation was substantial as well.
Before the financial infrastructure update, the company was consistently producing
reports and information in silos, and storing critical information on local servers that
prevented cross-department sharing. After the cloud transition, the centralized,
flexible platform provided controls and access that people in Microsoft Finance, and
across the organization, needed to transform data into insights and impact.

 Continuous Innovation
- Microsoft’s financial transformation efforts didn’t stop once its initial objectives were
met. The company continues to increase focus on using next-generation business
intelligence tools to influence business strategy and operations.

 Digital Journey Lessons

 - This progression of Microsoft Finance's digital transformation journey did not happen
quickly. It was the consequence of realizing that a better method was feasible, as well
as a coordinated effort by the whole business to build the infrastructure, architecture,
user interface, and tools required to meet the firm's objectives.
- Microsoft Finance continues to benefit from the qualitative and quantitative outcomes
of this change, but other companies may learn from Microsoft's internal experience as
well, including: Ascertain that you have the appropriate tools in place to quickly
transform data into insights, Building a centralized hybrid cloud infrastructure was
one of the first challenges Microsoft tackled internally. 

“I accept responsibility for my role in ensuring the integrity of

the work submitted by the group in which I participated.”