Finance Teams are undertaking a transformation, similar to the one that IT and HR have been on for some time. No longer are finance teams a back office support function and in fact business partnering, truly collaborating and leading with sales and operations teams to drive success, is common place. CFO’s are now highly commercial, operational and able to easily transition into CEO roles as a result of being so close to the business. We work across a large range of sectors and businesses and finance often has a lot to offer, however can at times be disconnected from the business or at times have a sense that they do not have strong voice in terms of driving true business partnering, advice and challenge, where expertise allows.
Conversely where we see less emphasis on the transactional finance and strong efficiencies through automation and technology, we see models that are business partnering focused, targeted on pro active information vs historic information and a higher engagement across the business, which often has a direct link to the bottom line.
TECHNOLOGY AS A DRIVER – ARE YOU & YOUR BUSINESS KEEPING UP & EVOLVING?
Technology has dually had a considerable impact on the way that finance teams are being structured and how they are adding value, with progressive businesses automating in areas this makes sense for high volume and lower value areas such as AP/AR and with the adoption of technologies such as XERO, MYOB and the like this has also impacted SME businesses.
As a Finance leader, are you and your team engaging with the business and adopting value add activities, which link to the strategic direction of the business and support and influence decisions in real time and looking ahead?
FINANCE TRENDS & IMPACT FOR THE FUTURE:
- Cloud Accounting
- Automation
- Social Media Strategy
- Collaborative Accounting
- Outsourcing
- Blockchain
- Different influencing, negotiation and business skills required- as finance leads from the front
GAME PLAN – DO YOU HAVE ONE?
- What is your current state of play?
- What is taking up too much time and not adding value to the business?
- Are there areas that can be more efficient?
- Where are your risks?
- Is your finance team spending time in the business and supporting the direction?
- Are there further areas that time permitting you would like finance to invest in and where are they?
- What technology solutions may support the above and readiness/ your budget to implement these?
- Are their tasks you are doing because they have always been done, reports for reporting sake and are their areas that would have a higher return on investment if your focus was there?
- Are you personally across the trends and what other businesses are doing in terms of finance value and how can you apply some of their learnings – good / bad?
- Have you engaged some experts to support you with change?
For future discussion on how to structure your team, grow higher engagement between your finance team and the business or to discuss talent in Finance – reach out today.
