How FDs are addressing key challenges with digital transformation

Recent times have been difficult for everyone. Finance Directors have faced their own particular challenges as a result of the need for greater levels of agility and the requirement to make accurate and appropriate real-time decisions quickly.

The ability to adapt to these requirements has been the difference between Finance Directors who have flourished despite challenges and changes such as the global pandemic and Making Tax Digital and those who have floundered. Top-performing finance directors have embraced digital transformation to enable them to address the key challenges they have faced.

How the Finance Director role has changed

In order to examine how technology assists with addressing these challenges it’s essential to understand exactly how the role of the finance director has changed recently. Traditionally, the role involved reviewing financial performance based on retrospective data.

Top-performing finance professionals know that this is no longer the case. They make quick decisions based on real-time data that enable the senior team to take the business forward in the most financially productive manner. This is a complex role in a landscape that is constantly changing and there are many challenges to overcome.

Digital transformation addressing modern finance director challenges

There is no doubt that the current climate is a challenging one for finance directors and that modern finance professionals have to be adaptable if they want to succeed. The most productive professionals utilise technology in order to overcome the challenges they face. Let’s examine this in more detail.

• Cloud software enables finance teams to work remotely as it allows them to have secure access to finance systems and accounting software. This is impactful at a time when hybrid working is in the plans of many companies going forward.
• Digitalisation of finance systems means that finance teams can move away from reliance on paper-based systems thereby allowing them to change and evolve more easily. Modern finance directors understand that this digitalisation also improves accuracy and helps to prevent fraud.
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is in the armoury of today’s successful finance directors. It promotes the move away from manual processes and therefore enhances efficiency. The use of RPA also allows finance directors to provide the real-time financial analysis that is so vital to the ongoing survival and growth of the organisation.

Quite simply, digital transformation is extremely powerful in helping finance directors to address the challenges they face in the modern world of finance. It allows them to take a proactive rather than a reactive approach which is essential to the success of organisations, especially in today’s challenging climate.

Digitalisation of processes also releases more time for finance directors to provide a more valuable service to the organisation by helping to build informed and accurate strategies and financial plans and by providing valuable advice and solutions to the senior team. These activities are all part of the role of the modern finance director, and they are all made possible by digital transformation.

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