Azimuth

The modern Chief Financial Officer does much, much more than manage the accounting function. CFOs provide the internal platform of administrative services and controls that support every aspect of the business. A good CFO can see into the future, anticipating and preparing for critical business needs before problems arise.

We have many years of CFO experience in private equity financed, high-growth INC 500 businesses. Managing businesses as they scale from pre-revenue to $500 million and more teaches hard-won lessons. We have deep understanding of strategy, finance, technology, and operations. And we have mastered the CFO's art of aligning these internal functions to support sustainable long-term growth.

We can assist your company on a number of fronts:

• Developing financial reporting and controls
• Budgeting
• Acquisitions due diligence and merger integrations
• Capital raising and preparation for sale
• Interim CFO roles

Fast-growing companies with project-driven cost and accounting requirements eventually require systems that support greater scale, complexity, and control. Costpoint is a popular choice for many firms in government contracting, architecture and engineering, construction, and manufacturing.

Unfortunately most Costpoint implementations are wrenching, costly, time-intensive, and poorly executed. Most consultants approach implementations from narrow functional perspectives. Very few have the big picture understanding necessary to develop account, organization, and project structures that will support long-term growth and efficient reporting.

Unlike most, we have a CFO's perspective. We understand the implications of design decisions in terms of reporting, compliance, and efficiency. Where many consultants optimize for the short-term, we help our clients design systems that will support changes as their business grows. In many cases we have been called in by clients to get troubled implementations back on track, or to fix the problems left by previous implementation consultants.

Azimuth can help with a wide range of Costpoint implementation and operational needs, including:

• System design—project, account, and organizations
• Cost pools and allocations
• Accounting processes and best practices
• Staff training and development
• Reporting and Costpoint Analytics

Data-driven organizations outperform their peers by 2 to 3 times, according to research by Harvard Business School. But most companies fail to properly capture, manage, and report the data generated by their daily processes. As a result executives and boards are flying blind, unaware of hidden risks and opportunities. Line staff are frustrated by their inability to access data necessary to manage their projects and optimize efficiency.

Azimuth helps clients develop Key Performance Indicators, map internal and external data sources necessary to support KPI reporting, and create efficient, accessible, and secure reporting systems.

We can assist your organization with the following services:

• Developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Key Result Indicators (KRIs) mapped to strategic objectives
• Designing a data plan and reporting architecture
• Implementing browser-based dashboards to deliver real-time reporting
• Integrating data feeds from multiple accouting and operational systems

One thing every growing company can count upon is that—at some point— the time comes to change platforms or upgrade systems. The migration process can involve complicated tradeoffs. Some information is mission critical; other data can be consolidated or archived. Decisions made during this process have long-lasting impacts on business operations.

Too often the migration process is turned over to technicians. This approach risks prioritizing technical efficacy over business requirements. We marry strong business acumen with deep technical expertise, bridging the critical gap between these two domains. We give clients a clear understanding of the benefits and tradeoffs, and frame technical decisions in terms of business requirements.

Azimuth helps clients understand their data, make smart choices about systems, and create an information infrastructure that sustains and enhances competitive advantage. These services include:

• Mapping legacy data structures to new architectures
• Archiving and consolidation of legacy data
• Data migrations from legacy systems to new systems
• Developing data dictionaries and models to support data warehouses and reporting