What makes for a successful finance transformation and what are the blockers that typically stand in the way of progress? Aptitude software provide insight into how to execute a successful finance transformation program, avoid mistakes that have tripped up organisations in the past.
Today’s finance departments are constantly transforming. CFOs must address decades of under investment in finance architecture, business model shifts, constant regulatory changes, and the need for real-time access to valuable data.
So, what makes for a successful finance transformation and what are the blockers that typically stand in the way of progress? Ahead of a forthcoming webinar, Aptitude Software sheds light on some of the most pertinent issues facing CFOs.
Finance teams are under extreme pressure to do more with less and do it faster and cheaper. They are hampered by legacy, inflexible systems and multiple siloed data sources and burdened with heavy manual processes. Investment to date has been mainly focused on regulatory needs to ensure compliance which has resulted in lots of tactical often ‘sticky plaster’ solutions that has created lots of complexity. Many finance departments are struggling to get the books closed efficiently and reporting on what has happened with little capacity to deliver forward looking, valuable business insights that the business is demanding.
CFOs are under pressure to do things faster, cheaper and better and to be true value creators and provide strategic guidance to the business. This means that the finance function has to be highly efficient whilst being very agile to respond to market and business demands and opportunities. They still need to ensure that corporate governance controls and regulatory compliance and reporting needs are met too. The only way they can do this is to modernize and redefine the finance operating model, businesses processes and controls as well as the underlying data and solutions. They need to have continuous regulatory compliance and automated processes to do things faster and better so that they can transform to be highly efficient and deliver the valuable business insights need to drive successful company performance now and for the future.
Having a clear data strategy is a critical enabler for a financial transformation strategy. Finance need a single source of trusted, highly granular data that is easily and quickly accessible. There are many paths that can be taken when embarking on finance transformation but the quality and accessibility of data underpins everything associated with transforming finance.
Obtaining the right level of executive sponsorship and funding for a major finance transformation program is critical to it success. If you do not get exec level sponsorship you are highly likely to fail.
Aptitude Software are hosting a webinar in conjunction with Global Treasurer on February 24th. Join this webinar to hear an expert roundtable discussion featuring ING, KPMG and Aptitude Software discussing and sharing first-hand experiences of embarking on a finance transformation journey.
You will discover: