How to accelerate digitization by focusing on your core 

Today’s CFO is increasing focusing on a paradigm shift, moving away from retrospective reporting in lieu of data driven prospective analysis to fuel nimble decision making.  To enable this shift, organizations are seeking to modernize their financial management processes by  identifying new ways to keep costs contained by prioritizing the implementation of a modern and flexible digital core. Bolting on new technology to yesterday’s infrastructure will not create the agility needed to thrive in the ever-changing, highly competitive future market. Real transformation is required.

CFOs need to change their outlook toward digital technology. This means no longer seeing it as a cost center that supports other revenue-generating activities and recognizing instead as a critical investment in the future that drives competitive advantage and organizational growth. Businesses face increasing pressure to decrease operating costs without sacrificing customer service while also identifying new revenue streams. Creating flexible, integrated technology in the form of a digital core enable CFO’s to harness data and analytics for nimble decision making.

Have you embarked on the process of overhauling your technology infrastructure? Here are three key actions to help your company move toward the agile and modern digital core you need.

True digital transformation will only come by overhauling the old infrastructure and implementing a modern cloud-based platform. To enable continuous change and flexibility, you must develop and implement tools and platforms that promote a growth mindset. Continued development will lead to continuous deployment. Most importantly, all the business-process-enabling tools should be integrated into a single-source-of-truth (SSOT) framework to optimize data-driven decision-making and business solutions. Without overhauling the inner layers of the digital infrastructure, the business-enabling technology — applications that provide insight, engagement and record-keeping — will not be appropriately positioned for future success.

Legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems were designed to capture data rather than facilitating fast and easy decision-making. As a result, companies have had to add reporting solutions or implement data marts to make the data actionable and meaningful. That adds cost, complexity and the potential for data errors.

A modern, cloud-based platform like Workday allows organizations to do both easily in a single system. This creates a more agile organization with accurate and actionable results.

Collaborative technology design is another way for CFOs to be more proactive. Organizations that involve the employees in the work design process from the development stage can reap significant benefits. Collecting multiple points of view — from leadership, which relies on outputs and insight to make decisions, to the users of your financial tools and processes — is critical to ensure efficiency and effective redesign.

What is the most significant expense on your P&L? Labor. People cost a lot of money — salary, benefits, insurance, etc. When a company can effectively transfer routine processes from employees to a robotic process, this frees up labor costs in a way that is both self-sustaining and has a positive impact on your bottom line. As a bonus, you and your employees are now available to analyze that data more insightfully and drive effective decision-making.

Successful transformation of financial processes is about providing sophisticated decision support tools to allow for innovation and growth. With a well-thought-out plan, you can aggressively create a digital core that is continuously modern and flexible, allowing your organization to thrive both now and in the future. 

Let Workday and Mercer be your trusted partners for true, competitive transformation and digitization.