Modern organisations run on data pipelines, warehouses, operational databases and enterprise resource planning systems, and every one of them carries a cost that grows with usage. Cloud billing is elastic, licences are complex and migrations overrun. At the same time, the finance information held inside ERP systems must be accurate, reconciled and auditable. Data and ICT professionals who lack financial skills struggle to defend budgets, while finance professionals who do not understand data architecture cannot challenge cost drivers.

This programme closes that gap over ten days. The first block establishes financial foundations for technologists: cost behaviour, budgeting, forecasting, total cost of ownership and the difference between capital and operating expenditure. The second block turns to data platform economics, covering storage, compute, licensing, cloud pricing models and FinOps routines. The third block makes the investment case with discounted cash flow methods, benefits mapping and risk-adjusted appraisal. The final block focuses on ERP data and governance, including master data, ledger structures, close processes, reconciliation, controls, vendor management and performance reporting.

Participants work with sample cost datasets and spreadsheets, build models, and prepare a business case that they present on the last day. They return to work with templates that connect technical decisions to financial outcomes.

By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:

• Prepare budgets and forecasts for data engineering, database and ERP operations.
• Calculate total cost of ownership across on-premises, hybrid and cloud options.
• Apply FinOps practices to monitor and reduce cloud data platform spending.
• Build business cases using NPV, IRR, payback and sensitivity analysis.
• Define and track benefits for data and ERP programmes.
• Explain how ERP finance data is structured, closed and reconciled.
• Establish data quality and control checks over financial master and transaction data.
• Negotiate and manage vendor contracts, licences and service levels with cost in mind.

The programme brings together technical and financial roles who share responsibility for data spending, including:

• Data engineering managers and architects
• Database administrators and platform owners
• ERP analysts, consultants and system owners
• ICT directors and chief data officers
• Finance business partners and FP&A analysts
• Financial controllers responsible for ERP close processes
• Internal auditors reviewing ICT and finance systems
• Project and programme sponsors of digital transformation
• Procurement officers handling software and cloud contracts

Participants leave the programme with:

• A total cost of ownership model for a data platform or ERP landscape.
• A cloud cost-control framework with tagging, allocation and review routines.
• A completed business case with NPV, payback and sensitivity results.
• A benefits register template to track delivered value.
• An ERP finance data quality and reconciliation checklist.
• A cost and performance dashboard specification for management.

The programme mixes finance concepts with technical examples, using the following approaches:

• Spreadsheet-based labs for budgets, TCO and investment appraisal
• Sample cloud billing and usage datasets for FinOps analysis
• Anonymised ERP extracts used to practise reconciliation and data checks
• Case discussions of overspent migrations and successful cost turnarounds
• A running business case developed in teams and defended on the final day

Participants who attend the ten days and complete the labs and final business case presentation are awarded a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion by Vision Reach Global Consultancy, confirming their training in financial management for data and ERP environments.