The Rising Importance of Cloud ERP for Finance and...
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The time and resources demanded from every business function are stretching thinner and thinner by the day. But for finance and accounting operations, the nature of this pressure to handle more responsibility and stay ahead of operational risks is creating an environment of ever-evolving fire drills threatening all financial measures.
According to Aberdeen Group, surveyed finance and accounting teams face an increasingly wide variety of organizational and business challenges – some of which are outside their traditional domain. For example, current budgeting and forecasting capabilities need to be streamlined and automated wherever possible to keep up with changing customer needs and the adoption of new business models. Meanwhile, market volatility is creating the need to account for shifts dynamically – and the reasons behind them – in their reporting.
Given what finance and accounting organizations are up against, the adoption of cloud-based ERP is proving to be a significant advantage for top performers. In fact, Aberdeen Group research revealed that the importance of streamlined processes in present-day and future business success is further accentuated with the use of digital capabilities for collaboration, risk reporting, and analyses.
Expanding organizational capacity to meet demands
All the unknowns in the marketplace and economy can make predicting what lies ahead impossible, especially in an environment of isolated data, projects, and decision-making. But once finance and accounting teams open their doors to multiple business units, opportunities for collaboration lead to expanded capacity for themselves and the rest of the business.
In the Aberdeen Group study, organizations that use cloud ERP across critical process capabilities are 40% more likely to have a standardized workflow for decision-making. This approach helps ensure the business is not using multiple versions of the same process, empowering everyone with the same insights to optimize their performance and deliver on business objectives.
An even more powerful benefit of using cloud ERP is the satisfaction of knowing what processes work and which ones require additional support or refinement. The ability to link business performance to processes allows decision-makers to identify the root cause of actualized or emerging problems quickly. More importantly, all business units can work in unison to respond in a manner that drastically reduces the risk of operational disruption, regulatory and industry noncompliance, productivity loss, and revenue leakage.
All these capabilities gained through a cloud ERP bring the potential to communicate the latest financial information across the enterprise with multi-dimensional reporting with roll-ups. In return, decision-makers can see the data they need in the form best suited for their understanding of the business situation or issue. No further manipulation and one-off reporting are required, just the authorization to roll the data up and down as necessary.
However, company-wide improvements in data sharing, analysis, communication, and decision-making accuracy are not the only improvements finance and accounting teams realize from cloud ERP. Based on Aberdeen Group research data, they can also realize KPI improvements such as 15.6% faster decision and business processes and 12.9% greater accuracy in financial reports.
Leading the enterprise forward – together
Success in the rapidly changing digital economy today hinges on streamlined and fast processes and real-time access to strategic business insights. And no organization understands that reality better than finance and accounting organizations.
By multiplying finance intelligence and sharing it through a single, unified cloud ERP, finance and accounting teams can become the partners that their company needs now. Together, they can shape differentiating value that drives business continuity, wins over customers, and fuels ongoing growth.
