How businesses and finance teams are adapting to increasing technological change

AI and RPA

Advances in machine learning software and smart technology are transforming the way businesses operate and are speeding up processes through the implementation of AI. This encompasses a range of technologies including chatbots, the Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented reality. Finance leaders are also reaping major rewards from the simple process of delegating tedious business tasks to automated software. Robotic process automation (RPA) is a development that is already having a significant impact on streamlining workflows for early adopters in the finance sector.

A recent survey by Gartner revealed that RPA software revenue increased by 63.1% in 2018 to $846m, becoming the fastest-growing element of the global enterprise software market. Businesses that fail to ride the cresting wave of RPA technology may cause them to lose their competitive edge, resulting in a loss of business revenue.

The Access Group’s Chief Financial Officer Rob Binns said: “All finance teams need to be cognisant as the pace of change continues to accelerate. Business are increasingly looking to respond to changing market conditions and how they can compete and be successful in the markets that they play in. Our role in finance is to help support that”.

Rob has over 20 years of finance experience in the technology sector at both public and private firms. At Access, he is responsible for all finance, accounting and tax matters. He further elaborated: “I think technologies like AI and machine learning will really help streamline business processes and make software, tools and applications such as those that we provide, and that others provide, easier to use and more effective for organisations”.

Cloud and blockchain

Cloud and blockchain technologies can also be very helpful in terms of speeding up business processes and offering support. With 67% of users looking to upscale cloud usage in the next year, businesses that fail to maintain the pace will miss out on key benefits including cutting costs, increasing scalability, efficiency and flexibility, and improving the customer experience by speeding up service and forging better relationships with consumers.

In addition one of the most visible opportunities made possible by moving to the cloud is the ability to introduce widespread remote working. More than simply a way to increase storage and bandwidth, software as a service (SaaS) solutions for finance teams are cloud based, which means finance professionals can quite literally work from anywhere using the latest technology and the tools they are familiar with. Being tied to a desk or a building where systems are housed is no longer necessary.

Blockchain, a public decentralised transaction ledger secured by cryptography, is another disruptor that is expected to continue its meteoric rise in 2020. Transaction-based businesses or any organisation that requires data transparency or untampered auditing histories will benefit from the security, speed and control of blockchain.

On a more practical level, Blockchain secure contracts remove the need for the traditional finance team sitting in a physical office looking at paper copies of contracts and enforcing terms. Every stage of the contractual process from set up to approval to payment or credit terms can all be done remotely using this new technology. Not only are physical barriers removed, so too are the international ones which previously added practical complexities to the process.

CFOs beware

However, Rob Binns warns that finance leaders must have measures in place before trying to adapt to the increasing rate of change: “You’ve got to have clear and robust business processes before you think about how you want to automate them and look at leveraging some of that technology”.

Rob also offers a stark warning to companies that fail to adapt to the increasing rate of change: “If you’re not thinking about those things now or in the near future, then you do potentially run the risk of not exploiting some of the opportunities that are out there. There are AI and machine learning organisations, but where it’s probably more powerful is when you get organisations like Access, and others, embedding those sort of capabilities into the products that they provide their customers”.

The bottom line

To keep up with the pace of change in 2020, the technologies discussed above are a must for businesses and finance leaders to ensure business is running as smoothly as possible in these times of uncertainty. From providing a stronger consumer experience to augmenting automation and data security, these new technologies will play a vital role in the everyday business functions of CFOs in the near future.

Find out more about technologies set to transform the world of finance in our digital transformation hub here.