Executive Summary
Business Partnering
The concept of finance providing business support to operational divisions is not new. For some time, progressive companies have encouraged the finance function to exert its influence and spread its insight beyond the four accounting walls. But it is only recently that business partnering really gone mainstream. In the technologically supercharged business environment, business partnering is essential to staying competitive.
But the pervasiveness of business partnering doesn’t translate into universal effectiveness. There are widely different definitions of the process, various levels of engagement, contrasting approaches to partnerships and an as yet undecided view on measuring its success.