Norway's Best: CFO Platform gave us job satisfaction

For Anja Hauståker at Norway's Best, the message is clear — CFO Platform has not only streamlined the work, it has also made the job more enjoyable.

As a tourism and experience group, Norway's Best offers trips, activities, accommodations and attractions for visitors from all over the world — from the iconic Flåm Railway to fjord cruises in Nærøyfjord. With complex operations and many companies in the group, the need for smoother financial processes was great.

“Not many people find joy in moving numbers between spreadsheets. It is much more fun to analyze the numbers than to create them yourself. CFO Platform helps us not only to recruit new employees, but also to maintain the job satisfaction of those who already work here,” she says with a smile.

From spreadsheets to control

Anja, Head of Accounting at Norway's Best, and colleague Tord Gjerløw, Financial Analyst, have been working with CFO Platform for almost a year. Previously, the budgeting and forecasting processes were based entirely on Excel sheets — a method that no longer held up as the number of versions, departments and file owners grew.

“Many working days have been saved thanks to CFO Platform, especially this year when we had countless versions of the budget back and forth. I can't imagine how it would have gone with just spreadsheets,” says Tord.

For Anja, the decision was obvious: the pressure to streamline the processes was so great that the change could not be postponed.

It really was time for new systems. And the great thing was that everyone appreciated the decision, she says.

Efficiency and quality

With CFO Platform, everyone in the organization can work in the same system — from team leaders to business area managers and on to management and board of directors. Role-based rights make everyone see what is relevant to their responsibilities.

“Before, we had to create reports manually and send them on. Now the managers are part of the process and have access to the supporting documents themselves. It's a huge difference,” Anja says.

It's not just a matter of time gains, but also security in the numbers.

In the past, it was never entirely certain that we hadn't missed something. Now we are confident that everything is correct,” says Anja and Tord agrees.

From administration to analysis

With CFO Platform, reporting and follow-up has become faster and easier.

“In the past, it took up to a week and a half from the completion of the wards until we could move on. Now it only takes a few days because we do not have all the manual joining of files,” says Tord.

For Anja, the biggest gain is the feeling at work:

It makes so much more sense now. We can spend time analyzing and understanding the numbers instead of just producing them. It makes the work both more fun and more value-creating.

Tord summarizes:

“CFO Platform has freed up time, increased data quality and given us a system in the background that does the hard work. The result is that we can focus on analytics and insights — what really drives the business forward.