The event established a clear direction for the finance function: the transition from isolated digitization to performance orchestration. As AI becomes embedded in core operations and expectations in finance continue to rise, the ability to link financial results to operational drivers in real time has become a defining capability. For the Office of the CFO, this means acting as a performance orchestrator, translating complex operational activity into clear, accountable decisions.

Among the keynote speakers was Atul Dubey, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CCH® Tagetik, who presented his vision for the evolving role of the CFO as a performance orchestrator, a theme that shaped discussions throughout the event

Trust as the Prerequisite for Autonomous Finance

The finance function is not short on data. What has changed is the complexity of the environment and the need to orchestrate that data across the enterprise in a way that can be trusted. While the vision of autonomous finance is compelling, the current reality remains fragmented. Polling conducted during the event revealed that 58% of respondents reported that their systems remain manual or siloed, limiting their ability to respond to market shifts. Critically, 47% of respondents cited trusted data as a prerequisite for adopting autonomous agents, underscoring that governance and auditability are not secondary concerns, but the foundation on which transformation depends.

Human judgment remains central to these outcomes: polling showed teams most often lead or hold primary responsibility for accounting and financial close (72%) and cash flow and liquidity oversight (61%). When planning, closing, and reporting environments are only partially aligned, visibility drops, execution slows, and accountability becomes harder to maintain.

Embedding Intelligence into Existing Workflows

The focus has shifted from treating AI as a separate tool to embedding capabilities directly into planning, reporting, and performance management workflows. Expert AI analyzes data to support forecasting and reporting, providing a grounded starting point for human analysis within the processes teams already own. Planning Sentinel detects changes, risks, and outliers across planning environments before they become systemic issues, functioning not as a standalone product, but as an embedded layer within CCH® Tagetik’s broader performance management ecosystem. The objective is an environment where outputs are trusted, assumptions are visible, and decisions remain grounded in governed data.

CRMT: Bringing CCH® Tagetik to Life in Your Organization

At CRMT, we work with finance teams to translate the capabilities presented in inTouch into working implementations. As a CCH® Tagetik Platinum implementation partner, our role is practical: designing planning models, configuring workflows, and connecting the platform to the data sources your organization already relies on. The quality of that implementation work directly determines whether capabilities such as Expert AI and Planning Sentinel operate on data that is consistent, current, and meaningful to your team.

Moving from fragmented reporting to a connected performance management model within CCH® Tagetik is achievable, but it requires getting the foundational configuration right. That means aligning planning structures with how your business actually operates, ensuring data flows correctly between systems, and building workflows that finance teams will use consistently. If you are considering a CCH® Tagetik implementation or looking to improve an existing one, we would be happy to discuss where to start. Get in touch with our team of experts.


CCH® Tagetik inTouch 2026 Highlights

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On May 26, 2026, the 21st Adriatic Controlling Conference took place, marking the region’s flagship event for finance professionals and controllers. Under the program leadership of Jan Markun (XP&A Senior Consultant, CRMT) and with support building on the guidance and mentorship of its long-standing former program chair, Dragica Erčulj, the event offered exceptional insights into the transformation of the profession through the lens of agility, new competencies, and artificial intelligence.

The event, dynamically guided by the master of ceremonies, Vid Sodnik, addressed the urgent need for radical changes in the profession driven by current modernization trends in controlling. As Jan Markun emphasized, this is not just about blindly adopting technology, but rather about a holistic shift based on three pillars:

• Processes: Moving away from rigid structures toward agile planning and rapid responses to market disruptions.
• Competencies and Talent: The role of the traditional controller is now merging with those of Data Scientists and Finance Business Partners. Alongside advanced analytics, excellent communication skills are becoming crucial for partnering with management.
• Technology: The controller is becoming the vital link between IT and the business side, with AI serving as the primary tool for boosting productivity.

International Inspiration: The Controller as a Co-Pilot (The Zalando Case Study)

Via live stream, attendees followed presentations by Pia Burkarth (Board Member of the International Association of Controllers – ICV) and Christian Brumm (Head of Financial Operations Excellence at Zalando SE). They presented concepts of agile controlling in a complex world and shared a case study from the German e-commerce giant Zalando. There, finance functions are no longer viewed merely as report preparers, but as co-pilots providing management with real-time scenario simulations to help steer the company toward growth.

Strategic Partnership, Advanced Tools, and Empowerment

Next, Aleš Štempihar (CEO of SKIT d.o.o. and author of the AIVaaS concept) expanded on the controller’s role as a strategic partner to management in the AI era. Tomaž Žele (Head of Controlling at BTC d.d.) and Aleš Jurak (COO at Resalta) complemented the technological perspective with concrete examples of modern tools. Addressing the talent pillar and empowering employees to achieve bold goals, Jan Markun spoke with Dejan Kovačič (Director, Peruna d.o.o.), a finalist for the Young Manager Award.

Panel Discussion: Boosting Productivity and the Power of Data

The afternoon session featured a high-impact panel discussion titled “Boosting Productivity as a Key Challenge for the EU Economy: What Can Controllers Do?”, moderated by Peter Ribarič (Planet GV). Panelists Andreja Štirn (Data Strategist, DataUM), Metka Erlač (Finance Business Partner, Perutnina Ptuj), and Matej Petrovčič (Co-founder and Managing Director, CRMT) shed light on why digital transformation, process reorganization, and AI are inevitable for the future of business:

• Aleš Štempihar set the strategic framework for the debate. He emphasized that in the era of AI, controllers must look beyond traditional accounting boundaries and become true strategic partners to management. They need to challenge leadership teams by asking whether their analyses act as a brake or an accelerator for development, ensuring company ambitions align with reality in the AI age.
• Matej Petrovčič highlighted the technological aspect, warning about corporate “technical debt.” He pointed out that while AI is currently a massive commercial hype, its utility depends entirely on data quality. Without clean foundations and integrated systems, no AI agent can provide accurate or actionable insights for business decision-making.
• Andreja Štirn stressed the importance of methodology and corporate analytical maturity. She warned that productivity cannot be raised simply by purchasing new, expensive software. Companies must first change their data culture, establish clear data ownership, and equip employees with the skills to interpret data correctly.
• Metka Erlač supported the theory with an excellent real-world example. She presented a comprehensive reorganization of controlling during their migration to the advanced S/4HANA system. The team broke the tradition of “rearview-mirror reporting” and successfully shifted the company’s focus from merely tracking sales volumes to precisely analyzing margins and the profitability of high-value-added products.

In conclusion, the panelists agreed that the primary duty of modern controllers in driving productivity is to clean raw data, make sense of it, and deliver timely strategic guidance that enables management to make faster, safer, and more profitable decisions.

The conference wrapped up with presentations from Matic Hren (Zavarovalnica Sava), who demonstrated real-time data pipelines for AI needs, and Eva Esih, a successful young entrepreneur featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, who highlighted where young founders most often miss high-quality control support during their entrepreneurial journey.

Key Takeaway: In the age of artificial intelligence, controllers will not lose their jobs; instead, they will become indispensable orchestrators of the future. While technology will automate routine work, human professionals with a broader strategic vision will continue to deliver and secure true business value.

📸 CONFERENCE PHOTO GALLERY Author: Matej Tomić, Fotko.siKako iz klasičnega poročevalca prerasti v strateškega orkestratorja prihodnosti?

Avtor: Matej Tomić, Fotko.si

Special Thanks to Our Partners and Sponsors

The success of this event would not have been possible without the close collaboration of our partners and the generous support of our sponsors:

• Conference Organizers: CRMT & Šola kontrolinga (The School of Controlling)
• Partners: ICV (International Association of Controllers), Managers’ Association of Slovenia (Združenje Manager), Planet GV
• Sponsors: Jedox, Strategy, Qlik

📅 Save the Date for Next Year!

At the close of the conference, Jan Markun officially announced our next gathering.

The 22nd Adriatic Controlling Conference will take place on May 27, 2027. See you next year!

The post Modernizing Controlling in the Age of AI: Highlights from the 21st Adriatic Controlling Conference appeared first on crmt.com.

This readiness gap, highlighted in the Future Ready CFO Report, suggests that the era of experimental AI pilots is coming to an end. The requirement now is for governed, production-ready intelligence that operates within the core processes finance teams rely on every day.

The introduction of the CCH® Tagetik Expert AI Readiness Program marks a shift in how organizations approach digital transformation. It moves the focus away from generic tools and toward Expert AI with a Finance Brain™: intelligence purpose-built for the rigors of the office of the CFO. This initiative is designed to help finance teams move from aspiration to operations by embedding machine learning and deep learning directly into the systems they already trust.

Overcoming Operational Hurdles

In our experience, most AI projects do not fail because the technology is insufficient. They stall due to operational hurdles such as data silos, governance gaps, and difficulty securing IT sign-off for logic that lacks auditability. When AI is treated as a parallel initiative, it often struggles to move into governed workflows. The CCH® Tagetik program addresses these friction points by integrating capabilities directly into the close, planning, and reporting processes.

From Manual Manipulation to Agentic AI

The goal is to transition from manual data manipulation to agentic AI experiences. Key capabilities being operationalized include predictive forecasting, anomaly detection, and touchless reconciliation. A notable innovation is the Planning Sentinel, where AI agents monitor performance, notify teams of deviations, and simulate alternative scenarios to help finance leaders anticipate risk. The impact is already visible in the market: Members 1st Credit Union achieved a 27 percent improvement in forecast accuracy and 400,000 Euros in efficiency gains within six months by using these embedded workflows.

“Finance teams make progress with AI when it is grounded in trusted financial data, embedded directly into the workflows they already use, and designed to support decisions under real scrutiny. That philosophy is at the core of Expert AI with a Finance Brain, and it’s what the Expert AI Readiness Program delivers for finance leaders.”

Fabrizio Tocchini, VP, Technology Product Management, CCH® Tagetik.

Building a Secure Data Foundation

At CRMT, we believe that while a vendor program provides the tools, your internal data architecture determines the ultimate results. AI is only as effective as the data model it sits upon.

As implementation experts, we ensure that when you deploy CCH® Tagetik Expert AI, it is supported by a secure, governed foundation where data lineage is intact, and insights are fully explainable to auditors. We translate these advanced features into a roadmap that respects your existing IT constraints and business priorities.

To discuss how to prepare your data architecture for agentic AI and ensure your environment is ready for the CCH® Tagetik Expert AI Readiness Program, contact our team to schedule a technical architecture review.

The post Operationalizing Finance with the CCH® Tagetik Expert AI Readiness Program appeared first on crmt.com.

Gold for the “Intelligent Platform”: Meet Your New AI Teammates

The Gold award highlights the CCH® Tagetik Intelligent Platform and its use of Agentic AI. But what does that actually mean for the Office of the CFO?

It means software that doesn’t just sit there—it acts. Specialized AI agents are now designed to:

• Ensure consistency across global entities without needing constant IT intervention.
• Automate tedious intercompany reconciliations.
• Handle complex regulatory data entry.

Silver for ESG Planning & Analytics: Turning “Extra” into “Essential”

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reporting isn’t just a side project anymore; it’s a core financial requirement. The Silver Globee recognizes that CCH® Tagetik treats ESG data with the same rigor as a year-end close.

The big fix: We all know the headache of “data sprawl”, when information is scattered across departments and buried in endless spreadsheets. CCH® Tagetik centralizes this data, eliminating manual errors and ensuring that your sustainability metrics are audit-ready and integrated directly into your strategic planning.

These awards reflect our focus on helping finance leaders navigate growing complexity with confidence. By embedding generative and agentic AI across the CCH Tagetik platform, we enable teams to improve performance, strengthen ESG reporting, and deliver solutions that create value for customers while meeting the highest standards of governance and transparency.

Maria Montenegro, CEO, Wolters Kluwer Corporate Performance & ESG

Bridging the Gap: From Innovation to Implementation

At CRMT, we believe that even the smartest software is only as good as the foundation it’s built on. A platform can be brilliant, but if your data is still in silos, you’re just “automating chaos.”

Our job is to make sure these innovations actually work in your specific operational reality. We focus on:

• Breaking down data silos once and for all.
• Ensuring data lineage for modern audit scrutiny.
• Designing a “governance-first” foundation that makes your reporting both compliant and strategic.

Ready to modernize? Whether you’re looking to integrate ESG into your current setup or want to see what Agentic AI can do for your consolidation process, we’re here to help.

Contact us today to discuss your financial and ESG data architecture. Let’s turn that award-winning potential into your daily reality.

The post Big Wins for CCH® Tagetik: Celebrating Excellence in ESG and Agentic AI appeared first on crmt.com.

The Shift Toward an Agentic Experience

The primary innovation is the shift toward an agentic experience. Rather than having finance teams search through spreadsheets for errors, the platform is moving toward a model where AI agents act as proactive allies.

“Global inTouch 2026 shows how Expert AI is embedded directly into finance processes to help teams detect risk earlier, explain performance clearly, and take action with confidence and control.”

Key capabilities showcased this year include the Planning Sentinel, which involves AI agents that continuously monitor performance, explain variances through automated narratives, and simulate alternative scenarios.

Addressing Practical Hurdles in Modern Finance

While AI is the focal point, the underlying platform updates address the practical hurdles of modern finance, including:

• IFRS 18 Compliance: Expanded capabilities for restatements and ready-to-use reporting structures.
• Touchless Reconciliation: Reducing friction during the month-end close.
• Open Connectivity: Native integration with Snowflake, Databricks, and Google BigQuery.
• Real-time Reporting: Seamless automation within Excel 365 and PowerPoint 365.

CRMT: 20 Years of Expertise and 15 Years of Partnership

At CRMT, we view these innovations as powerful accelerators. For 20 years, we have been helping companies navigate the complexities of data, and for 15 of those years, we have stood firmly as a business partner and representative of CCH® Tagetik.

We chose to represent CCH® Tagetik because we believe in their solutions. Our long-term partnership is built on the proven ability of this platform to transform the office of finance into a strategic powerhouse. Our role is to help you translate these vendor capabilities into a secure, governed foundation, ensuring that when an AI agent explains a variance, the logic is transparent, auditable, and trusted by the board.

Join Us in Lucca – We Are Proud Silver Sponsors!

As a Silver Sponsor of the CCH® Tagetik Global inTouch 2026 conference, we are excited to witness the next generation of finance technology alongside our partners and clients.

We cordially invite our clients to join us in Lucca from May 19 to 21. This is a unique opportunity to:

1. Explore over 100 breakout sessions across specialized tracks (Ignite, Build, Master, Deliver).
2. Experience hands-on learning in the Empowerment Zone.
3. Connect with the CRMT team to discuss how 15 years of Tagetik expertise can help you implement these new AI features.

The post CCH® Tagetik Global inTouch 2026: Showcasing Expert AI for the CFO appeared first on crmt.com.

The pressure on data teams has evolved. It is no longer sufficient to merely move data from point A to point B. Organizations now demand pipelines that are resilient, audit-ready, and capable of supporting real-time AI workflows. Qlik’s latest release addresses these challenges by introducing agentic capabilities directly into the engineering workflow.

Advancing Data Engineering with Agentic Capabilities

Declarative pipelines allow engineers to use natural language to define intent, enabling the system to suggest next steps and build trusted flows, thus reducing time spent on repetitive tasks. The AI Assistant for Talend Studio, planned for later this year, will help developers generate jobs and documentation using natural language, shifting focus from manual syntax to high-level orchestration. Real-time routing for agentic flows supports real-time message routing, enabling the creation of domain-specific RAG pipelines and connecting agentic systems through standard components.

Unifying Data with the Open Lakehouse

One of the greatest risks to data integrity is tool fragmentation. When event data, batch workloads, and CDC are handled in silos, the single version of the truth disappears. Qlik’s extension of the Open Lakehouse with native streaming support aims to solve this by unifying continuous event data with traditional workloads in one environment. This allows teams to keep their analytics and AI models closer to current business conditions without the overhead of separate, disconnected tooling.

Governance and Reliability in the AI Era

At CRMT, we view these technological advancements as powerful tools, but they are not plug-and-play solutions for complex enterprises. A tool that builds pipelines faster can also create technical debt faster if not implemented within a robust governance framework. The real challenge for a CTO or CFO is not just speed to delivery, but ensuring that every automated pipeline meets internal audit standards and passes IT sign-offs. We specialize in translating these vendor features into a secure, governed foundation. Whether integrating Qlik with your existing stack or optimizing your data architecture for AI, the focus must remain on reliability.

If your organization is struggling to move past the pilot phase of AI due to data engineering bottlenecks, the real differentiator is a governed, automated architecture. CRMT helps you design a foundation that balances the speed of agentic execution with the rigor required for enterprise-scale operations.

The post Advancing Data Engineering with Qlik Agentic Execution and Governed AI Automation appeared first on crmt.com.

What Makes This AI “Award-Winning”?

The award recognizes the platform’s ability to transform massive amounts of data into actionable intelligence. By embedding “agentic” Expert AI directly into the performance management cycle, CCH® Tagetik helps finance leaders automate core processes while maintaining full control over their numbers.

Key drivers behind this recognition include:

• Seamless Integration: The platform’s cloud-ready architecture natively connects to over 300 source systems, including SAP, ensuring a consistent, reliable data foundation.
• Predictive Power: Built-in AI anomaly detection and driver-based analysis provide a level of confidence in financial decision-making that wasn’t possible before.
• Unified Environment: Whether it’s close, consolidation, planning, or the increasingly complex ESG and tax reporting, everything lives within a single, integrated solution.

Innovation You Can Trust

In the regulated world of finance, “black box” AI isn’t an option. The CCH® Tagetik approach is built on Wolters Kluwer’s AI Assurance Framework, which ensures:

1. Modernization at Your Pace: The data-centric architecture allows organizations to evolve their finance functions without compromising consistency.
2. Data Privacy: Client data is strictly protected and never used to train public AI models.
3. Explainability: AI outputs are validated by domain experts, ensuring every insight is audit-ready and transparent.

The CRMT Perspective

At CRMT, we see this award as a validation of the strategy we recommend to our clients: focus on the data foundation. The real power of CCH® Tagetik’s AI is only fully realized when supported by a governance-first architecture.

We are here to help you bridge the gap between AI’s potential and your organization’s specific needs, ensuring your transformation is secure, compliant, and ready to deliver measurable value.

Contact us to discuss how the award-winning CCH® Tagetik Intelligent Platform can elevate your finance operations.

The post BIG Awards for Excellence in AI for CCH® Tagetik appeared first on crmt.com.

Strategy is once again bringing Strategy World Vienna to the Austrian capital. This year, the event will take place earlier than in previous years, with the Vienna edition scheduled for May 20, 2026.

Strategy World Vienna will gather data, AI, and analytics professionals for a day focused on current trends, practical insights, and conversations on the future of business intelligence and analytics. The event is designed for professionals from a broader region who want to stay up to date on the latest developments in data-driven decision-making.

Attendees can look forward to expert discussions, valuable networking opportunities, and fresh perspectives on how AI continues to shape modern analytics. Set in the heart of Vienna, the event also offers the chance to connect with peers and industry experts in one of the region’s most dynamic business and technology hubs.

We would be very pleased to see you there. If you are attending, be sure to contact us in advance!

What?

Strategy World Vienna 2026

Save the date!

May 20th 2026

Where?

Hyatt Regency (former Andaz Vienna)

Agenda

Agenda is subject to change. Visit their page to learn more

CRMT will be attending the event

If you are also planning to join, we would be glad to connect with you in Vienna. Reach out to us in advance, and let’s take the opportunity to meet and exchange insights during the event.

Don’t miss this chance to be part of the conversation that is shaping the future of AI and analytics.

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Advancing Financial Intelligence with Expert AI

The 2026 report also highlights CCH® Tagetik Expert AI, which is not a mere chatbot but a sophisticated system powered by a “Finance Brain”, designed to comprehend financial logic and context. This includes:

• Agentic workflows that can “think”, collaborate, and execute across core CPM processes.
• Context-aware insights derived from specific data and workflows.
• A unified performance management approach that connects financial results with operational drivers.

Strategic Implementation and Data Architecture

At CRMT, we understand that even the most advanced platform requires a solid data strategy to succeed. While CCH® Tagetik provides the “Expert AI” and the “Finance Brain,” we offer the architectural expertise to ensure your data lineage is transparent and your processes are audit-ready. We focus on the practical aspects of implementation: navigating internal politics, securing IT approval, and ensuring your team adopts the new technology effectively.

For those seeking to unify financial and operational planning within a single, governed environment, the real challenge often lies in the underlying data structure. CRMT assists in designing a secure, scalable foundation that transforms these platform features into measurable business value.

The post CCH® Tagetik Recognised as Market Leader in BARC Score FPM 2026 Report appeared first on crmt.com.

Date & Venue

This year’s gathering will take place on May 26, 2026, at the Hotel Four Points by Sheraton Ljubljana Mons. The new Ljubljana location offers even more networking space, modern infrastructure, and easy accessibility for all participants.

The Core Theme: Modernizing Controlling

The world is changing faster than ever. Rigid annual planning cycles are giving way to iterative steering, and controllers are becoming indispensable navigators of strategic alignment. At the conference, we will focus on how to bridge the gap between ambitious goals and real-world execution using advanced tools, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and agile principles.

Featured Speakers

The agenda is filling up fast with top-tier local and international experts. Among the first confirmed speakers who will share their valuable insights are:

• Christian Brumm (Zalando SE) – Expert in financial operational excellence.
• Pia Burkarth (Veridos Mexico) – CFO and Board Member at ICV.
• Eva Esih (PsyBit) – Expert in the psychology of business.
• Aleš Štempihar – On the role of the controller as a navigator in the AI era.
• Dejan Kovačič (Peruna d.o.o.) – Finalist for Young Manager of the Year 2025.

Why Join Us?

This conference is more than just a learning opportunity; it is a hub for exchanging best practices and connecting with peers. As a proud co-organizer, CRMT believes that networking and collaboration are what drive progress in the controlling profession.

Don’t miss out on “Early Bird” registration!

Check out the full program and secure your spot at: www.kontroling-konferenca.si/en

We look forward to seeing you in Ljubljana on May 26!

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