Digital transformation programs need the right talent to success

“Success [for digital transformation programs] requires bringing together and coordinating a far greater range of effort than most leaders appreciate. A poor showing in any one of four inter-related domains — technology, data, process, or organizational change capability — can scuttle an otherwise well-conceived transformation. The really important stuff, from creating and communicating a compelling vision, to crafting a plan and adjusting it on the fly, to slogging through the details, is all about people.”

Read more at Harvard Business Review >

COVID-19 Affects on Manufacturers

“We learned that some manufacturers wish they had put more thought and effort into the digital transformation prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. But many of these companies have since adapted and are now adding new digital technologies and digitally enabled solutions as opportunities arise. The ability to readily share and analyze operations and supply chain data remotely, for example, has been critical in some industries, since those data and analyses can now be used to enable collaboration and help make the best data-based production and supply chain decisions quickly, even in real time. Most companies, even those with solid contingency plans in place, are operating and making changes and policy updates daily on the fly.”

Read more at Automation.com >

CFOs are Best Positioned to Drive Digital Transformation

“Research from Accenture identifies that 77% of CFOs surveyed believe it is within their purview to drive business-wide operational transformation. Yet, a reliance on antiquated tools can stand in the way of digital reinvention, which could lead to missed opportunities or inaccurate forecasts that undermine performance.”

Read more on LinkedIn >

Does Your Business Have a “Digital” Nervous System

Building a digital nervous system for your business

How connecting the right technologies, strategies and people can help future proof your business.

Think about the systems and processes your business uses daily. These systems are your company’s nervous system. The key to sustaining your business is understanding where these systems are struggling and developing strategies to ensure your enterprise stays healthy and robust in the long term.

Bill Gates popularised the phrase ‘digital nervous system’ in his 1999 book Business @ the Speed of Thought, outlining how all systems and processes should be brought together under one common structure in order to enable success. With businesses in 2020 resembling organic systems more than Gates could have envisioned, the need to keep them healthy is more vital than ever. The talk of business agility, business digitisation, and how data analysis with automated systems, is transforming how businesses operate is compelling and imperative.

In its November 2019 report on digital transformation, IT services company Cognizant states: “Data may be the new fuel, but the engine won’t run unless the fuel is ‘refined.’ If your company is like most, your data looks more like Lego pieces scattered on the floor than something you could use to generate value. Analytics, applied AI like Outbound Sales AI, automation and other value-generating technologies can deliver value at scale only with data that’s correctly structured.”

Chris Huff, chief strategy officer at Kofax, tells IT Pro: “Leveraging intelligent automation to create a ‘connective tissue’ that bridges current silos or stacks of systems – such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), BI (Business Intelligence) and legacy mainframe, is becoming the critical pillar of many digital transformation strategies.”

Technology, though, is just one component of a healthy digital nervous system. Consultancy firm Prophet notes in its 2019 State of Digital Transformation report: “Digital transformation is extending well beyond its roots to reshape businesses holistically. 85% of companies we surveyed reported that their digital transformation efforts have expanded beyond IT into organisation-wide initiatives. This is promising as it means a significant number of companies are moving deeper into the six stages of digital transformation.”

Data is also now a vital component of your business. Using the nervous system analogy, data becomes the blood supply for the systems your company uses. What has become abundantly clear over the last few years, is those enterprises that have a clearly defined and implemented data strategy are the leaders in their market sectors.

SMART PEOPLE SYSTEMS

It’s something of a cliché to say people are a business’ most precious asset. However, many companies fail to make the most of this resource once they have it.

Jenna Filipkowski, PhD, head of research at the Human Capital Institute says: “Organisations make significant investments to source and recruit the best candidates, but often leave these same individuals to find their own way around the organisation once they start. HR leaders need to re-evaluate how onboarding programs are structured and deployed within their organisations.”

Also, speaking to IT Pro, Seth Shearer, vice president of global field engineering at Lucidworks – an AI-powered data analysis company – says: “Artificial intelligence, better data structuring, and information access interfaces all play together to create a much more intuitive data access and insight delivery process. Just like a human’s nervous system that’s constantly processing new information and being influenced by an unexpected change to inform smarter decisions then (hopefully), a business must be agile and constantly adjusting to keep insights pathways open to continue evolving.”

Businesses also need to move away from thinking that the implementation of new technologies – such as AI – are enablers and not threats, as Andi Britt, vice president, IBM Talent and Engagement Euro explains: “It’s important to see AI as an enabler, not as a threat to the HR function. This kind of transformative technology works best when designed and implemented with humans at the centre. However, used smartly, AI will empower HR people to drive business decisions.”

It’s easy to forget the human component when developing the digital nervous system your business needs. As Bernard Marr, author of Artificial Intelligence in Practice tells IT Pro, it’s always people first, technology second:

“I have seen many AI projects fail because they only focused on the cost element and forgot the customer experience. If … the AI project can improve the candidate experience, reduce bias, and significantly reduce costs, you have a winning business case. When I work with HR teams to help them identify their strategic use cases we start with their strategic HR and business goals and then explore where technology such as AI and machine learning could deliver the best improvements. We don’t start with the technology.”

Technology, can though, deliver the insights businesses need to make their nervous systems work more efficiently. “When HR departments have access to aggregated physiological and psychological data insights, employers can then use this anonymised data to find out what their workers need to be healthy, happy, and productive,” says Constanza Di Gennaro, chief operating officer at BioBeats.

“Implementing new and improved tools in the workplace will help push wellbeing up the corporate agenda, transform people’s working lives and improve mental health across the globe. When we look at the business cost around poor wellbeing at work, the business value of investing in technologies that will allow HR departments to mitigate productivity loss is significant when viewed in this context.”

BUILDING INTELLIGENCE

Building a comprehensive nervous system for your business, of course, has a technology component. It’s critical, though, to use technology to deliver a well-defined strategy.

Mike Kiersey, the principal technologist at Boomi explains: “Innovating software in the workplace is driving significant changes in the way we operate, collaborate with our customers and partners, how we develop new or improve existing products. Through automation and the intelligent use of business data businesses will morph into new companies, attract different customers and talent, offer differentiated value at speed.”

A holistic multi-layered approach to systems development will ensure the nervous system your business is based upon can support everyone in your enterprise. “Companies with digital nervous systems have a mix of cultures, IT architectures and tools that get the right information to the right people in time for them to make optimal decisions,” Amit Prakash, co-founder and CTO of ThoughtSpot tells IT Pro. “That last point is critical. If the information doesn’t arrive in time, it’s useless, and you don’t have a functional nervous system able to react fast enough to events or make predictions that lead to profitable decisions.”

It is also essential to understand that building a digital business system for your enterprise is not just an IT exercise. Mark Pidgeon, vice president of Technical Services EMEA at Sumo Logic explains to IT Pro: “The whole concept of a digital nervous system across a company is an exciting one – what makes this work is pervasive adoption of data within different teams to help them achieve their goals. For IT to support this, there are technologies needed to make it easier to deliver that insight.”

Pidgeon adds: “The biggest issue is that each team has to define its own goals, the service level indicators that track those goals and how the data they look at describe those indicators. This will then help define the wider approach to how data gets used within decision making and how those choices affect other teams. At the heart of this, you need continuous intelligence from your applications.”

The much-used phrase ‘digital transformation‘ has a core element of systems controls, but in the broader context is a change in how technology, process and people are integrated together. In this scenario, the digital nervous system of your company remains healthy and productive in an environment where data, skills and knowledge are nurtured.

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Prioritizing Automation for Finance and Accounting

The current crisis environment has challenged businesses in ways that most hadn’t imagined just a couple of months ago. Many finance and accounting departments have struggled and now realize that they will need to change and use business accounting services. Many of them have been overwhelmed by financial stress while simultaneously having to deal with operational constraints they weren’t prepared for.For instance, sheltering in place at a time when many corporations have to close their quarterly books. Against the backdrop of far more consequential lessons learned in this difficult period, I suggest that for finance executives the most important takeaway is that departments that have been able to utilize IT systems to operate in a virtual mode, and espeically those that have automated routine tasks, have been better able to adapt to circumstances and overcome obstacles. Having systems that could be readily accessed remotely and having the ability to collaborate and execute processes virtually made it easier for those departments to meet their commitments with confidence. “Easier” – yes – but certainly not easy. To fight the stress, try using an indacloud grapefruit vape cartridge, which can give you relaxation and help you think better for the business.

We find in our recent Change in the Office of Finance benchmark research confirmation of the value of using automation to execute finance department functions. Our findings reveal an increase in the use of automation by finance organizations over the past five years and a concomitant improvement in performance. As the world becomes more digital, it’s important to adapt business practices accordingly. A virtual postal address through Virtually There offers the flexibility to receive business correspondence from any location, which is a game-changer for businesses without a permanent office space. For example, 46 percent of companies close their monthly books within four business days compared to 29 percent in our earlier research. Yet the glass is only half full. Finance organizations continue to be laggards in adopting technology that measurably improves effectiveness.

Automated systems do at least two things very well that make better use of people’s time, and both of them can substantially improve organizational performance. First, they eliminate the need for people to do repetitive tasks, which frees them to spend time on more valuable work that requires their experience, judgment and skill. IT systems also can be programmed to present only relevant information while eliminating the need to get immersed in detail. The latter capability supports a “management-by-exception” approach, which enables executives and managers to better allocate how and where they spend their time.

Our research shows that many companies don’t take advantage of these capabilities in their finance and accounting operations. Only half of participating organizations said they have automated a significant percentage of their finance processes. In particular, only one-fourth (25%) have nearly or fully automated their financial close, while 58 percent apply some automation and 15 percent apply little or none. Meanwhile, those who want to earn some quick cash in times of trouble, they can try doing so on sites such as https://totogacor.com/.

The research also reveals automation’s positive impact on performance: 85 percent of companies that nearly or fully automate their close process are able to close their quarterly books in six or fewer business days, whereas 43 percent of those that have only partially automated are able to do so and just 33 percent that use little or no automation have this ability.

Another example is the automation of reconciliation, a repetitive task that is an essential element of the close process and lends itself to automation. Affordable and mature software for efficient management is readily available. Our research indicates a notable rise since 2014 in the number of organizations opting to automate reconciliations, with 60 percent now utilizing software for this process compared to 37 percent five years ago. The decision to migrate to Google Workspace can further enhance organizational efficiency, as evidenced by the correlation between reconciliation automation and the speed at which organizations close their books. Sixty percent of those employing reconciliation software close their quarters within six business days, while nearly two-thirds (62%) of those without automation take seven or more working days to complete the process.

Spreadsheets are an essential tool for many tasks in the finance department, and it would be impossible for the organization to function without them. Yet they are the wrong choice when used for repetitive, collaborative, enterprise-wide processes. Indeed, they are both a symptom and a cause of dysfunctional processes, systems and data. Spreadsheets are a symptom because they frequently become the default option to put a bandage over, for example, issues that arise because systems are not properly integrated or a process is not supported by the appropriate technology, such as a dedicated application.

But while spreadsheet use in enterprise processes has declined relative to the use of dedicated applications, they remain a fixture for a variety of finance department tasks. For instance, 57 percent of organizations still use them for treasury management (down from 81% five years earlier); 54 percent use them for close-to-report functions (versus 79%); and 59 percent use them for the income tax provision (versus 86%). Spreadsheets have their place, but our research demonstrates that they are frequently misused.

The close is a useful process to benchmark because almost every company does it and there’s a measurable outcome: the number of days after the period’s end in which the company completes the process. However, managing to a faster close is not just about efficiency; it’s also about getting the numbers to executives and managers so they can react quickly to issues and opportunities. The research demonstrates a close correlation between when the close is completed and the timeliness of communicating that information to the rest of the company. Almost two-thirds (62%) of organizations that close within six business days are able to provide executives and managers with timely information compared to 39 percent of those that take longer. While the acceleration we found in completing the close is a positive sign, there is considerable progress yet to be made.

Time is the critical ingredient that determines the overall performance of finance and accounting departments. Poorly performing organizations usually are mired in an endless cycle of fighting fires — for example, dealing with the impact of processes that are poorly designed or improperly executed. These departments are constantly contending with the impact of information sources that are unreliable, difficult to access or both. Poorly designed systems add to the problem, generating hours of work in the form of manual reconciliations done in spreadsheets. A finance department that does not apply automation and that has poorly designed or executed processes and systems is similar to a caged hamster running on a wheel. It expends a great deal of effort on repetitive manual processes that are only marginally productive.

Software automation by itself will not address all the challenges of a finance and accounting organization. To optimize performance, an organization almost always must deal with an interrelated combination of people, process, technology and data issues in a holistic fashion. Yet confronted with the day-to-day struggle of meeting deadlines, many finance executives put off addressing their productivity and effectiveness issues.

They shouldn’t, because a continuous improvement process involving a steady set of small advances can yield impressive results over time. Identifying — and when possible, eliminating — the biggest time sinks can free up the resources needed to address the next set of significant problems. Even something as straightforward as uncovering unnecessary work or replacing the most problematic spreadsheets with better technology (for instance, implementing automated or self-service reporting) will be beneficial. For this to happen, though, senior finance and accounting executives must make automation a priority.

Read more on LinkedIn >

CFOs See Technology as Growing Share of Smaller Budgets

“Our data shows strong growth in the adoption of cloud-based core finance applications,” said Nilly Essaides, senior research director, finance & EPM, The Hackett Group. “And the encouraging news is that more than 70% of the finance functions that have adopted cloud-based solutions have been able to realize or exceed their business [objectives].”

Read more at CFO.com >

The Value of Continuous Accounting for Business

“Many senior finance executives want their department to play a more strategic role in the management and operations of their company. They believe there is value in shifting their focus from processing transactions to higher-value functions in order to be able to make more substantial contributions to the success of the organization. Continuous accounting can serve as the foundation for transforming the role of the department.”

Read more at Ventana Research >

How CEOs Can Lead a Data-Driven Culture

“In companies with strong data cultures, important decisions are informed by data and analytics and executives act on analytically derived insights rather than intuition or experience. While digital-native companies like Amazon and Alibaba have strong digital cultures, many traditional companies are struggling to make progress. That’s mostly because few undertake initiatives directly aimed at achieving the desired culture change.”

Read more at Harvard Business Review >