How Agility Can Support Your Vision for Finance Transformation
We live in an era where the financial status quo can change faster than ever. Events like the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank or the closing of cryptocurrency-driven banks remind us how fast circumstances change and how important it is to stay agile. For finance teams to react quickly, they need a flexible, proactive, forward-looking approach.
In the 2023 Finance Leaders Survey, 700 finance leaders shared insights into their departments’ agility. Nearly all (96%) finance leaders agreed that agility is essential, while an overwhelming majority (86%) said their department is somewhat or very agile.
But even with these substantial numbers, our respondents agreed that barriers exist to increasing their agility.
Here’s how finance leaders can overcome those challenges and become more agile.
How to increase agility in finance
Achieving greater agility in finance does not come from simply doing the same processes faster. It requires a fundamental shift in how processes are handled, enhancing and transforming them to take full advantage of new technologies.
According to our report:
- 63% of finance leaders said having a plan to align their processes and new technologies was the biggest challenge to becoming more agile.
- 62% of finance leaders said implementing new technology is a top barrier to increasing agility.
In other words, finance leaders see automation as the path forward but lack time to implement it—or have not yet invested in the technology to do so.
To increase agility, finance teams need to focus on three factors:
1. Process automation
At the time of our survey, 73% of finance leaders had fewer than half of their processes automated. While automating even a few functions, such as month-end reporting or forecasting, will provide the flexibility needed to become more agile, finance teams should strive to automate as many repetitive, manual processes as possible.
2. Training employees
Having the technology is one thing—it’s another to use it most effectively. Training that ensures your employees can take full advantage of your automation solutions is the key to freeing them from time-consuming tasks.
Training helps employees to understand the various high-value insights automation solutions provide. Team members must also be able to communicate those insights to their colleagues so all stakeholders can make business decisions based on the most up-to-date data.
3. Fostering collaboration
Once processes are automated, everyone on the finance team will have access to the same centralized data that is continually updated. When all employees can use the new technology to its fullest potential, your team can focus on more analytical, highly strategic tasks.
Current data is key for agility
Agile finance functions are defined by their ability to create forecasts on the fly—in hours or days instead of weeks or months. These functions allow finance teams to develop forecasts, scenario plans, and models more often and accurately. These enhanced capabilities can better equip finance leaders to pivot quickly when conditions look unfavorable.
But to achieve this level of agility, finance leaders need access to current data to create these various reports based on the latest numbers in near real-time.
When finance leaders can count on automated reporting created with the latest data, they can act quickly and contribute actionable insights to the C-suite. These insights empower executives to make better-informed decisions for the company’s direction, even when circumstances change quickly.
Discover how finance leaders worldwide are elevating the finance function by reading our 2023 Finance Leaders Survey.
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