Yes, Finance Departments are "getting it" by realizing that their objectives can be met in large part by increasing the maturity of their processes in enabling technology. This article named four trends that point to an increasing adoption of automation in their processes, along with standardization across entity levels.
Other key points in this survey of 118 Finance Execs: CFO article on a changing Finance Process
- Agreement that analytics have to advance, along with "digitization" in general.
- Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) processes and structures have to become more advanced as well (ERM packages, for example).
- Finance process automation must rise to a higher level.
- A more centralized and standardized finance function is a high priority.
Good news, bad news is not new news for denizens of finance and accounting. On the one hand, we'd all like to be more productive, but on the other, "productivity" can be code for budget cuts for departmental personnel. We all know, I suppose, that Finance has to lead by example in holding the line in expenses, so even though a lot of money passes through their hands, it doesn't necessarily stay to pay for raises and fund ample staff structures.
Let's be part of the catalyst for change and then we'll be continue to be seen as leaders in the charge toward higher productivity by understanding the cost-benefit issues involved in technology enablement and implementation in the face of a high implementation failure rate (75% of IT projects fail, by some estimates). COMPLEXITY is a root cause of the failure in this one area that seems to hold so much promise of efficiency gains, so let's show that we can comprehend through superior organizational and analytical skills (if we can fathom tax and accounting, we can help guide system or process improvement).
These are exciting times that are moving faster, with or without accounting professionals (just wait for those accounting bots to come along...no - don't wait, get ahead of the curve).