There's evidence from major organisations that they have transformed their Accounting and Finance functions. They have invested in Business Intelligence and shared service centres so the accounts function can produce better information more efficiently. I know this from working with CIMA members from well known organizations on CIMA’s Forum on Improving Decision Making

Some have engaged finance people to help to manage the business, as Business Partners with reported benefits that include lower overhead costs, better performance management and superior returns for shareholders as results improve and better forecasting increases investors' confidence.

However, there is also evidence that, despite all this talk of Finance Transformation, for many management accountants the role has not changed. Indeed, there is a lot of extra work in cobbling information together from diverse systems to consolidate reports and produce the analysis the management really want.

Business Partners
The term "business partnering" is applied in different ways. Some use it to nominate those people on the accounts team who have contact with people in the business to provide standard reports and support them in preparing budgets and forecasts. Others use the same term to describe financial analysts who support business managers by producing the information and analysis they really require.

But some say the only real business partners are those at financial director level who can relate to managing directors as sparring partners or financial coaches to help improve their division’s performance

Some employers have development programs to help accountants to acquire the strategic business understanding and influencing skills necessary to be business partners. They believe that experience in accounts provides the core skill set required.

Number cruncher
Others say accountants prefer to crunch numbers and lack the passion for the business. They say it is easier to combine financial and management skills in a business partner by giving people who already have the business management experience an understanding of finance.

I'm currently preparing a report about Business Partnering. This is to be a third report in the Improving Decision Making series http://www.cimaglobal.com/decisionmaking. A theme of this series is that the role of the management accountant is becoming less about producing reports and analysis and more about providing financial support as "Business Partners" to help management to interpret that information and identify how to improve performance. This must be an important role in the current climate. But there's some conflicting evidence. I'd welcome your insights.

What does business partnering role mean in your organisation? Is it a new role or something management accountants have always done? What is business partners' contribution and how can it be measured? What are the skills required and how can these be developed?