We solve data problems.
Data is often the most underutilized resource in a finance organization. CFGI’s Data & Analytics team helps clients uncover meaningful insights, automate manual processes, and turn raw data into a competitive advantage, working alongside the tools and platforms each team already prefers.
The same four problems show up again and again.
Finance teams have the data they need to make better decisions. The problem is rarely the data itself. It is process, governance, and the time the team spends preparing data instead of acting on it.
Data silos and manual handling
Finance teams dedicate over 50% of their time manually collecting, organizing, and analyzing data, a process that consumes resources and crowds out strategic focus.
Lack of actionable insights
Teams struggle to link business decisions to the underlying data, identify the KPIs that matter, and build measurable tracking methods.
Reactive decisions
Reacting to market shifts rather than addressing them proactively with quick, data-informed decisions limits the organization’s ability to stay ahead of competitors and adapt.
No single source of truth
Reporting challenges stem from poor data quality, limited access, and fragmented systems. Without a reliable source of truth, teams struggle to produce timely, accurate insights.
Five pillars to turn data obstacles into business clarity.
CFGI’s Data & Analytics offering is built on five foundational pillars. Each addresses a distinct layer of the data problem, from manual workflow drag to enterprise-wide governance, and engagements scale from a complimentary two-hour workshop through full enterprise transformation.
Automation
Right-sized automation of manual and repetitive processes for scalability and accuracy. Eliminates slow Excel files, fragile consolidations, and siloed reporting workflows.
Dashboards
Drive business decisions through visualizations, trend identification, and actionable insights. Replace static reports with dynamic, real-time views that drill into transactional detail.
Predictive Analytics
Anticipate future trends and behaviors through machine learning, data mining, and advanced statistics. Move teams beyond gut-feel decisions to data-driven foresight.
Data Integration & Warehouse
Consolidate data from multiple sources for seamless integration and accessibility. Build a scalable foundation that supports growth without manual data shuffling.
Master Data & Governance
Establish a single source of truth across systems. Improve data quality, integrity, and auditability so leadership can trust the numbers in front of them.
AI-Ready Data
- Automated data wrangling and validation
- Duplicate elimination and inconsistency fixes
- Standardized formats across systems
- Intelligent profiling and anomaly detection
- Foundations that make AI models sharper
Real-Time Decisions
- Real-time data processing and analytics
- Cloud-based dashboards on business health
- Trend response in days, not weeks
- Operational and customer-experience signals
- Faster, more informed decision-making
Focused Data Strategy
- Data governance frameworks aligned to ASC and GAAP
- Defined data elements mapped to regulatory requirements
- Documented data lineage across decisions
- Risk mitigation and stakeholder trust
- Compliance that scales with the business
Data as Competitive Advantage
- Advanced data management platforms
- Validation protocols and cleansing mechanisms
- Predictive analytics and machine learning
- Inconsistency detection and gap-filling
- Decisions made with confidence
D&A Workshop
A complimentary two-hour workshop introducing AI, automation, and data quality strategies for finance workflows. Showcases opportunities to streamline reporting, automate repetitive tasks, and improve data reliability.
Participants leave with actionable recommendations and pain points identified, laying the foundation for deeper workshops.
AI & Automation Workshop
A three-day workshop to explore AI and automation in finance workflows. Pinpoints repetitive manual tasks and reporting bottlenecks across the close, forecast, and reporting cycles.
Outcome: a clear path for automation and efficiency gains, with prioritization tied to the highest-impact opportunities.
Automation Training
A three-day workshop tailored to the client’s preferred tool: Alteryx, Power Query, or Power BI. Hands-on enablement of finance staff to build and automate workflows or reports independently.
Reduces reliance on manual processes and accelerates adoption of self-service analytics across the team.
Finance-first data experts. Vendor-agnostic by design.
CFGI’s Data & Analytics team sits inside Business Transformation, not standalone tech consulting. The work starts with the financial outcome and works back to the data, the platform, and the workflow that gets there.
Home to CFGI’s Data Analytics Center of Excellence.
- Vendor agnosticWe work with the tools clients already use: Alteryx, Power BI, Power Query, Python, Tableau, and the major cloud platforms. No platform sales agenda.
- Center of Excellence-ledBlair Craske leads CFGI’s Data Analytics Center of Excellence, driving innovation and best practices across every D&A engagement firm-wide.
- Finance fluency, not just data fluencyThe team brings deep expertise in advanced analytics, data visualization, process automation, and high-volume ETL, paired with a CFO-side view of the work.
- From two hours to enterpriseEngagements scale from a complimentary two-hour workshop through enterprise data governance build-outs, depending on what the client needs.
- No audit restrictionsIndependent advisory support without audit-firm independence constraints. We move at the speed of the business.
The friction points we see most often, and how we clear them.
Data silos across departments
Inaccessible or disconnected data makes it hard to get a unified view. We consolidate, cleanse, and structure data so teams can produce better dashboards, reporting, and decision support.
Poor data quality
Inconsistent, incomplete, or outdated data leads to unreliable analysis and decisions. We install validation protocols, cleansing mechanisms, and master data practices that the business can trust.
Lack of real-time insights
Delayed reporting hampers timely decision-making. We rebuild the reporting cadence around the data’s actual refresh rhythm, often using Power BI or Tableau to deliver insights when they matter.
Limited in-house experience
Teams often lack the tools or skills to manage and interpret complex data. We run hands-on enablement on Alteryx, Power Query, or Power BI so the team can sustain the work after we leave.
Data not aligned with business goals
Data is collected but not effectively tied to measurable outcomes. We run the five-phase Data Health Workshop to clarify goals, define KPI requirements, and map data to the decisions it should inform.
Compliance and reconciliation overhead
Preparing data for regulatory requirements involves tedious cleaning, structuring, and reconciling, increasing error risk. We implement governance frameworks and automation that make compliance scalable.
Numbers that came out of real client work.
Where the data started getting in the way, and what we did about it.
Python-powered reconciliation at scale
700+ accounts · 93% manual effort eliminatedScenario
The client’s finance team was running manual reconciliation across more than 700 accounts every period. The work consumed days of cycle time, introduced errors, and pulled experienced team members away from analysis.
Action taken
CFGI built a Python-based automation that handled the bulk of the reconciliation work end to end, with exception handling for the cases that still required a human reviewer. Process documentation and training transferred ownership to the in-house team.
Outcomes
- 93% of manual reconciliation effort eliminated.
- Error rates fell and confidence in the closing process improved.
- Team time freed for higher-value analysis and business partnering.
From Excel variance model to Power BI dashboard
Sub-hour turnaround on expense reportingScenario
Expense variance reporting was running through a fragile, manual Excel model that took most of a workday to refresh. The cadence was slow, the file was error-prone, and operational stakeholders rarely got the report when decisions actually got made.
Action taken
CFGI rebuilt the variance model as an automated Power BI dashboard, with unified data sources and refresh logic that ran on the underlying data’s natural cadence rather than the Excel owner’s availability.
Outcomes
- Turnaround time cut to under one hour.
- Real-time visibility into expense variances for the operational team.
- Dashboard scales without manual intervention as the business grows.
Customer call analytics with custom ML
100K+ recordings · 13% lifetime value boostScenario
The client wanted to understand what was actually driving customer engagement at scale. Audio recordings of customer calls held the answer, but the team had no way to extract patterns from over 100,000 conversations.
Action taken
CFGI processed the audio recordings using custom machine learning models, categorizing topics and analyzing sentiment across the dataset. The output fed directly into the client’s customer engagement strategy.
Outcomes
- 100,000+ recordings processed and categorized.
- Customer engagement deepened through evidence-based strategy shifts.
- 13% boost in customer lifetime value tied to the engagement work.
Talk to the partner who leads CFGI’s D&A practice.
Blair Craske
Partner, Data & Analytics | Business Transformation
Leads CFGI’s Data Analytics Center of Excellence. Deep expertise in advanced analytics, data visualization, process automation, and high-volume ETL across Private Equity, Technology, and Financial Services clients.
Ready to make data work for the business?
Start with the complimentary two-hour D&A workshop, or jump straight into automation, dashboarding, predictive analytics, or governance work. Whichever stage of the journey makes sense for the team.