A transformation project that integrates data, processes, and people in a single platform optimizes decision-making and planning.
The desire to squeeze more value out of the finance department is driving many companies to embark on finance transformation projects. Put simply, these projects involve implementing measures to free up the finance team from much of its routine, lower-value work. That’s mostly accomplished by automating data management, reconciliation, and other accounting processes.
The “what” and “why” of finance transformation are straightforward. The “how” is where things get tricky. Most important is that finance transformation is largely a matter of digital transformation and how it restructures the function. The centerpiece is the integration of people, data, and processes onto a single platform.
A solution that facilitates this objective will have an architecture that echoes the structure of the function you want to build out. Advances in data processing speed, storage capacity, and system design will permit more connections among different functions and those connections will be made faster and more nimbly because there are fewer steps involved in making them.
Simple and Complex Tasks
The key to success in finance transformation is to understand and make the most of all the ways a fully integrated data solution can take charge of routine processes from front to back. While managing the routine, the solution also will generate better data, more rapidly for the higher-level analytics that finance uses in budgeting, forecasting, planning, and other key operations. Getting the “how” right will help to optimize decision-making, operational efficiency, and ultimately profitability.
The typical company’s systems are likely to move data from one place to the next in a linear fashion — from customer and transaction data to the general ledger, to risk analytics, financial reporting, and so on. That makes them slow and error-prone. As inaccuracies and inconsistencies creep in, the procedure gets bogged down with backfilling. Checking and reconciling the work already done further slows progress.
An additional hindrance is the fragmented, piecemeal nature of many technology solutions. There may be a core system, then a separate, standalone general ledger, as well as other systems that individual departments rely on to do the same job, each in its idiosyncratic way, amplifying the sluggishness and assuring additional errors and reconciliations.