Palo Alto Networks CEO shares how to accommodate customers focused on cost-cutting
Palo Alto Networks is a global leader in cybersecurity technology with well over 10,000 employees. Their CEO, Nikesh Arora, was recently interviewed on the Mad Money show hosted by Jim Cramer. Mr. Arora described a new pattern they’re experiencing in their customers prioritizing lowering their costs above all else. These customers are very much concerned with cybersecurity threats but want solutions that allow them to consolidate products and in turn lower their expenses.
“The silver lining in the current environment is that we’re having more consolidation conversations —because suddenly, the number one priority in addition to being secure is: ‘Can you help me do that without me increasing costs?’” he told Jim Cramer.
This emerging focus on cost-cutting is driven by several events including:
- Persistent inflation
- The Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
- Covid shutdowns in China
As a result of these events, companies across regions have been forced to perform layoffs, hiring freezes and reduction of other expenses.
While there’s a focus on spending big bucks on front-office technology solutions when economic times are good including marketing and sales automation, the coin flips to prioritizing automation in the back-office during economic downturns. At least that coin flips when at the hands of dynamic CFOs leading world-class organizations. Poorly run organizations will gut the capabilities of their back office teams just when they are needed the most.
A finance and accounting function reliant on dated tools including disconnected spreadsheets can be a disastrous recipe when combined with unpredictable and recessionary periods. Why? Because it is precisely during these nerve wracking times that your backoffice units, including the FP&A team, need to operate at their very best. If your organization is to withstand a pounding from these external factors, you require a team equipped with the best tools available to produce quicker analysis and constant re-forecasting. You cannot afford to have an FP&A team that is wasting most of their time on manual activities that produce far too many errors. The last place a CFO should focus for cost-savings is on the capabilities of the FP&A team. This team will help the enterprise navigate tough times if they’re well resourced with modern technology.
FinLogic.io is picking up steam with larger enterprises who recognize they need to elevate their team’s capability by filling a technology gap. These companies were concerned about the high-costs of today’s enterprise software platforms. They selected FinLogic.io due to its relatively low cost in relation to the enterprise features it offers. By using the most modern components available today, FinLogic.io is able to provide features that address complex FP&A requirements at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions.