08 Jan
KPMG has issued Future Ready Finance Survey 2019. They have surveyed more than 800 CFO’s and other top executives about the modernization of finance function in their companies. One of the conclusions is that revolutionary improvements are achievable, and they can bring significant benefits, but not all companies succeed in their modernization plans.
One of the key findings of the survey is a five-step roadmap that KPMG suggests as a way to future-proof finance function in your company. Koabo very nicely fits in all five steps.
Determine what analysis is beneficial and focus on it
KPMG warns against the old fashioned model where finance focuses mainly on cost control and cost-cutting. They instead propose an approach where finance function needs to determine what are the valuable insights that the company needs to better serve their customers. They suggest investing in technologies and processes to create a single version of the truth and make sure that these insights will get to people that may use them to benefit the customers and the company.
Koabo can serve as a hub of valuable information for all the departments.
We fully support this idea, and Koabo works in this way. It can serve as a hub of valuable information for all the departments that can all work with one set of data, but always analyze the data with their unique point of view.
Be agile with investing in modernization plans
Modernization means that old things need to be replaced by new ones. The number of possibilities available nowadays is enormous, and it is not easy to always pick the correct solution or technology. But if you want to catch the rising wave of modernization, you need to move forward. A good way to solve this dilemma is to adopt an agile approach where you are continually assessing whether your efforts are moving you in the correct direction. You need to make sure that the wrong solutions fail quickly so that you can refocus your efforts without wasting too many resources. The agile approach clearly does not fit very well with large legacy systems where their implementation takes a year or more.
Koabo opens lots of opportunities thanks to its location in the cloud, and it also can work as an analytical sandbox where it is possible to add, remove or quickly change any analysis you are interested in.
Attract top talent
Whether we like it or not, accountants and finance professionals of the future must become more capable in data science and IT technologies.
There is, and there will be a skill gap with accountants, but Koabo lessens this issue by allowing accountants to work within a familiar environment.
There is, and there will be a skill gap with accountants, but Koabo lessens this issue by allowing accountants to work within a familiar environment like Excel. Accountants with skills in data science or IT technologies will want to have an opportunity to be creative, to use their skills to innovate the work of finance departments, and Koabo is giving them opportunities to do so.
Adopt advanced analytics and automation technologies
KPMG claims that one of the most critical characteristics that distinguish high-performing organizations from others is that finance emphasizes using automation and analytics to answer the most pressing business questions.
This approach is one of the main ideas behind Koabo – to enable advanced valuable analysis that can be quickly delivered to people outside of the finance department.
Have processes that cross departmental boundaries
I consider this last step to be crucial. If accountants do not leave their departments to speak with the rest of the company to find out what are the needs of other departments, they will never be able to deliver beneficial services. KPMG also suggests promoting self-service within the organization to let everybody come up with their ideas for analysis and improvements in the usage of data.
I have already mentioned that Koabo can serve as a centralized analytical sandbox where everybody can share the same core data, but use them in different ways.
The whole document from KPMG is available at this link. Key insights from the survey are available at this link.
