I heard an interesting soundbite from management consultant, Jim Collins this morning: “We found no evidence that the good-to-great companies had more or better information than the comparison companies. None. Both sets of companies had virtually identical access to good information. The key, then lies not in better information, but in turning information into information that cannot be ignored.”

In one sense, I agree. With so much data available, there is a need to identify that which is business critical.  However, if your organisation is able to gain its information via superior financial technology in real time – in contrast with a company in your market that has to wait several weeks – you have a potentially significant competitive advantage.

The 360 degree combination of timeliness, accuracy, transparency and analytics delivers business information that certainly cannot be ignored.