Telecom CFOs: Complexity is rising. Margins are under pressure. And the systems meant to help you manage it are often too slow to see the risk until it’s too late.
Many finance teams are relying on disconnected systems, static spreadsheets, and tools designed to report the past, not shape the future.
This blog explores what’s holding telecom CFOs back, and how a more integrated approach to financial control is helping them protect margin, manage risk, and move faster.
The Visibility Gap That’s Costing You
In fast-moving telecom environments, traditional accounting systems aren’t enough. They can tell you where the money went, but not where it’s going.
Without real-time visibility, you’re always reacting. Forecasts get fuzzy. Decisions are delayed. Margins suffer.
An integrated ERP backbone with project-level control is now essential, not just for managing financials, but for steering the business forward.
Disconnected Systems, Disjointed Decisions
Telecom finance teams are often forced to stitch together insights from too many sources – isolated spreadsheets, outdated reports, and best-of-breed tools that don’t talk to each other.
The result?
- Inconsistent, late, or inaccurate data
- Risk exposure hidden in subcontractor costs and scope changes
- Asset planning that’s disconnected from financial forecasts
- Forecasts that collapse when reality changes
You need one version of truth across your projects, and you need it in real time.
Resource Management: Where Margin Lives or Dies
Margins don’t vanish on spreadsheets. They leak away on the ground. From labor inefficiencies to equipment delays and missed material deliveries, poor coordination across resources is a silent killer.
When labor, subcontractors, equipment, and materials are planned in silos, costs balloon. A single system that aligns all project resources with financial control is the only way to predict, and protect, margin outcomes.
The Four Capabilities That Matter
Effective project financial control goes well beyond accounting. It requires four fully integrated capabilities:
- Financial Accounting — with multi-entity consolidation and project-level detail
- Cost & Revenue Transactions — tied to real-time project activity
- Project & Contract Management — including risk, change, and subcontractor control
- Project Cost Control — to set accurate budgets and generate reliable forecasts
If your system doesn’t support all four, you’re only seeing part of the picture.
Why Telecom CFOs Choose IFS Cloud
IFS Cloud is purpose-built for complex telecom environments. It connects financial control with operational execution, across every cost driver, project timeline, and stakeholder.
Unlike systems that track past performance, IFS Cloud gives CFOs the ability to act early, manage change in real time, and build confidence into every forecast.
You’ll move from scattered spreadsheets and siloed systems to a single, agile digital backbone.
Get the Full Picture
If your projects feel harder to control, and your margins harder to protect, you’re not alone.
The CFO’s Guide to Project Financial Management in Telecommunications explores the key challenges telecom finance leaders face today and outlines how an integrated, future-focused ERP approach can solve them.
It takes a deeper look at the four essential capabilities that enable true project financial control, helping you move from fragmented reporting to real-time insight, accurate forecasting, and confident decision-making.
SOURCE: Markus Persson (2025 July 15) Telecom CFOs: It’s Time to Rethink Project Financial Control. IFS Blog. https://blog.ifs.com/2025/07/telecom-cfos-its-time-to-rethink-project-financial-control
