Yes, Finance is embracing the cloud!
Two years ago, I presented the topic of Finance solutions in the Cloud at the Financials Insider event. I counted myself lucky to have about a dozen attendees, since most of the event attendees were on-premise customers.
Fast-forward to 2016 – and suddenly, it was a standing-room-only presentation!
What that says to me is that Finance teams are overcoming their hesitancy of putting processes into the Cloud – whether that means all of their finance operations, or specific point-solutions for targeted processes or subsidiaries.
SAP Performance Benchmarking found that 85% of companies believe the cloud will have a major impact on their organization through efficiencies, innovation, or competitive differentiation (SAP Performance Benchmarking).
This observation is supported by several research firms, which was consolidated in Forbes.com, including:
- By 2018, 59% of the total cloud workloads will be Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) workloads, up from 41% in 2013.
- IDC predicts that by 2016, there will be an 11% shift of IT budget away from traditional in-house IT delivery, toward various versions of cloud computing as a new delivery model.
- By 2018, more than 60% of enterprises will have at least half of their infrastructure on cloud-based platforms.
With Finance capabilities being available in the Cloud, the next step to investigate is the integration into other lines of business. Human Resources is a natural extension, since scenarios such as workforce planning, recruiting and talent management have been embraced in the cloud for more than a decade, and now even payroll and expenses. Additionally, these processes all have a financial impact, from the balance sheet (e.g. benefits accruals) to expenses (e.g. travel, training), forming a cohesion of integrated processes, running in the cloud.
This brings us to the new track at the SuccessConnect conference in Las Vegas. For the first time, Finance has a dedicated track, Innovating in Finance, where finance executives as well as HR and IT executives can have a conversation about how they can best cooperate through the use of SAP S/4HANA as the technology basis.
The Innovating in Finance track will be centralized in its own break-out area, where in addition to the Finance-oriented presentations, networking activities and demos will be available. The presentations include information on how finance and HR professionals can better collaborate, in session such as the following:
- Keynote: Extending Your Human Resources with Finance to Drive Value, Ross Wainwright and Thack Brown
- Keynote: Embrace Digital Transformation with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Steve Schnoll
- Presentation: Discover How Intelligent Services Transform the Future of HR and Finance Alex Joseph
- Presentation: Get Instant Insight to Action for Financial Decisions, William Sakaguchi
- Presentation: Improve Project Management with Collaboration Software and a Contingent Workforce, Hans Kroes
- Presentation: Shape Informed Decisions Using Analytics in HCM Solutions and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Jon Locke
We hope to see you there – please visit us here to register.
