How to achieve enterprise-wide digital transformation
A finance first approach will see your organisation better placed to benefit from a major program of work.
Is digitisation sitting squarely at the top of the investment agenda in your organisation this year? If the answer is yes, you’re in good company. Around the country, businesses of all stripes and sizes have accelerated their investment in wholesale digital transformation initiatives, in the wake of the Covid crisis.
They’ve been wise to do so. Today’s business landscape is evolving at bewildering speed, leaving Australian businesses with two choices. They can innovate apace, or be left behind, as nimble, digitally driven upstarts seize mind and market share.
Said upstarts are very often outperforming established industry competitors, in no small part due to their ability to make and implement smart, speedy, data driven decisions.
Diving into digital
Little surprise, then, that digitisation is a priority for 87 per cent of senior leaders, according to latest BlackLine research.
But while they may know where they want to go, working out the optimum way to get there remains the sixty-four-million-dollar question.
Historically, organisations effecting enterprise-wide digital transformation programs have tended to focus on the front end first.
It’s certainly high impact, from a customer perspective at least, but is it the best way to proceed? Or would taking a finance first approach lay the groundwork for better long term outcomes?
Finance first
The short answer is yes, it most certainly can. Putting finance transformation at the top of the To Do list enables organisations to establish a reliable, efficient, up to date source of data. This can serve as a solid foundation for future transformation projects; making it possible to move forward with greater certainty and reduced risk.
And it can free finance personnel up to play a key role in the broader transformation program too.
Accurate finance and business insights and advanced modelling activities are integral components of every transformation project and in-house finance professionals are well placed to assist their colleagues on both fronts.
Enabling them to lend their expertise and insights to broader transformation initiatives can be a boon for both parties. For the division or project team in question, it means on-tap access to highly skilled resources who have in-depth knowledge of the company’s goals, challenges and inner workings.
For the finance professionals themselves, it can be an opportunity to swap the weekly and monthly grind for meaningful, higher level activities which make a material contribution to their employer’s long term productivity and profitability.
Technology that makes it possible
Kick off your digital transformation program with the deployment of continuous accounting software and your finance team will be well placed to provide this support to other divisions, as they adopt digital solutions and process, and deliver on their core remit – collecting cash and balancing the books – too.
The term continuous accounting refers to a methodology for managing the accounting cycle digitally and in real time. Designed to distribute workloads evenly across the accounting period, it eliminates the activity surge finance departments typically experience around close time.
The concept is centred around three key principles: automating repetitive processes; eliminating end-of-period bottlenecks; and creating a culture of continuous improvement.
Continuous accounting eliminates opportunities for human error to occur, making it both fast and highly accurate.
Furthermore, it enables decision makers to have unprecedented visibility into the performance and financial position of their organisation. Being able to access up-to-the-minute data and analytics on demand makes for better decision making, particularly when economic conditions are volatile.
Clocking the benefits
As always, the numbers tell the story. Organisations which adopt continuous accounting see a 70 per cent reduction in the time taken to complete a close, while slashing the time they spend on manual work by 50 per cent, according to latest research from BlackLine. Their finance teams complete upwards of 250 per cent more work, with no increase in headcount, and they’re enjoying a return of $2.77 for every dollar invested.
Bottom line? Letting finance take the lead delivers a quick and compelling win. It lays the groundwork for successful digitisation elsewhere in the enterprise, by creating a reliable source of current financial data and releasing highly skilled resources to work on programs and projects.
If productive digital transformation is a priority for your organisation in FY2024, there’s no smarter place to start your journey.
By Rosie Cairnes, regional vice president of BlackLine’s Account Management Organisation for Asia Pacific
