Introduction
If you’ve worked in the marketing department for a long, you probably already follow the – ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it’ rule, right? Well, it works in some ways, yes. However, if you’re trying to improve your finances, it won’t be the best plan in the future.
Why?
Well, to begin with, your finance department will be all about collecting data. Hence, if you were to do it manually, you may end up making a mistake, or it would be way too time-taking.
Due to this reason, if you want to take care of your cash flow, you have to let technology take over manual proceedings. Let’s see how it can be beneficial for your purpose.
Role of Technology in Finance Transformation
Whether you believe it or not, technology can be critical to your financial prowess. It can boost your operational capability, improve efficiency, and more.
Furthermore, it can also reduce your organizational expenses while offering a much better service to your clientele. Here are some other ways technology can help you pave the path of economic transformation.
1: Automation
An automation method or technology, such as RPA (robotic process automation), can aid you in automating repetitive tasks efficiently. With it by your side, you can quickly take care of various pesky tasks, like reconciliation or data entry.
Also, as it no longer requires manual intervention, you can save money too. And, if you want, let your staff focus on something more substantial.
2: Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, can also help you manage your financial data more efficiently. It might make it easier to manage the decision-making processes and ensure you can use the accumulated resources effectively. It can reduce data wastage to some extent too.
Moreover, AI can also be used to personalize customer experience while helping you manage organization- or business-related risks without any issue at all.
3: Blockchain Technology
When it comes to blockchain technology, most people tend to refer to it as Cryptocurrency. But that’s not the only reason we are mentioning it here. Blockchain technology can also help you make money transactions much more transparent and secure.
It, in turn, can reduce the risk of fraudulence and ensure you are not getting robbed by an external entity. The usage of such a technology can increase trust between parties as well.
4: Cloud Computing
With cloud computing, you can make your financial department or institution more flexible and scalable. On the other hand, your organization’s IT infrastructure could be improved as well – enabling them to store, access, and manage data on the go.
Also, cloud computing can make accessing your data much more secure. Hence, it might be easier to prevent data management risks to some extent too.
5: Big Data Analysis
Your financial department is probably getting tons of data and information daily. It is standard, too, if you ask us. After all, the financial department will primarily focus on data and try to evaluate it so that you can understand the game of profits and losses.
With big data analytics, you will get valuable insights into – marketing trends, the behavior of your clientele, and so on. So once you can assess all these, it will be easier for you to take care of your financial department and make well-informed decisions.
Note: No matter how you look at it, technology can, indeed, help you increase the potential of your financial department. However, for that, you’ll need to ensure that you’re using it correctly and precisely. Keep reading to learn more about this aspect.
How to Implement Technology in Your Finance Department?
The best practices for implementing technology can vary depending on the needs and goals of your organization. Hence, before you start the transformation, here are a few things you need to know regarding the same.
Practice – 1: Set a Clear Line of Objectives.
Before you embark on any transformation objective, the first thing that you must do is define a clear line of dreams. It, in turn, will ensure that your initiative is aligned with the best strategies of your organization. And you can also make everyone understand what you want to see from them, alongside their usual hard work, intensity, and efficiency.
Practice – 2: Create a Well-Defined Roadmap.
Once you have jotted down the objectives and goals, you may start working on creating a well and proper roadmap. This must include the following –
- The timeline you want to maintain for a project
- The milestones you want to achieve through the technologies you have implemented
- The specific actions you want to perform with the newfound methods
Doing these can help you have a clear goal in mind and ensure that you will achieve it quickly. Just make sure to share the same with your teammates, too, so they are on the same page.
Practice – 3: Embrace the Change.
Implementing technology into a manually-operated business will bring a huge change, whether you like it or not. While the time consumption of the proceedings will decrease, your learning curve, especially regarding the integrated technology, will increase.
Hence, you must have a good team behind you who can perfectly operate the new tools. You have to initiate a training session or two for the same if needed.
Practice – 4: Build a Strong Team.
Working with new technology can take time and effort. It’ll require an advanced level of know-how of the tool being used. And the users will also need to know how to operate the system properly. So, if you want to succeed in your approach, having a solid team is necessary.
While making the team, you should also ensure that you only have people who like the sudden change. It could affect the progress of your approach.
Practice – 5: Emphasize Data.
Collecting data and analyzing the same correctly will be essential in making an informed and effective business decision. An organization must continually develop a robust data evaluation and analytics strategy to gain insights into their – markets, operations, and customers.
Moreover, knowing the competitive market might also be vital to acquire a more extensive client base. After all, if you know how your consumers think, you can make more personalized marketing campaigns. And that’ll surely get their attention.
Practice – 6: Focus on the Improvement of the Processes.
More than simply adding one or two technologies within your infrastructure is required. In addition to this, you will also need to improve the core operational process. If you cannot ease up how you work, it will be impossible to become more efficient.
As an organization, your focus must be on identifying inefficiencies accordingly. This, in turn, can ensure that you are developing the right solutions to address the bottlenecks.
Practice – 7: Effective Communication and Collaboration.
Communication and collaboration are crucial for any team considering making a change or two in their financial infrastructure. After all, no matter what you’re doing, it will always be vital for you to communicate your plans, goals, and objectives.
This will make it easier for you to ensure everyone is on the same page. And you may also be able to take care of a complicated project properly as a team.
Note: Successful finance transformation is a complex process. Therefore, even if you have an excellent team working in your favor, the proceeding will take some time. Also, being opposed by a member or two of your team is expected.
So, make sure that you are communicating your plan with everyone elaborately and extensively. Ensure that no one is confused about their role or how they’ll need to work. And ask for their suggestions to improve the process too.
The more inclusive your people feel about the project, the better.
Technology is the Way to Go!
Creating a perfect finance department is a challenging task. For that, you will need the assistance of the best technology and people who understand how to use the same correctly.
So, if you’re thinking about making your team technically advanced, you first need to get a good team. After that, you can take their assistance in choosing the right software and start working on implementation accordingly.
This way, the likelihood of you being successful in your approach will be much higher.
So, are you ready to transform your finance department with the latest technology and strategies?
Join cbs at SAP Sapphire Orlando 2023! Mark your calendars for May 16-17 and visit us at Booth #805 in Orlando.
You can also schedule a one-on-one meeting with our experts to learn how our innovative solutions can revolutionise your financial operations.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to elevate your business – register for SAP Sapphire 2023 now!
