Finance transformation is a term used to describe the process of re-envisioning and redesigning financial operations to align with corporate strategy, increase efficiency and scalability, enhance internal controls, and improve the quality of financial information.
Being able to adapt and evolve its financial operations is critical for companies of all sizes, as it enables them to stay competitive and grow in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing business environment.
Finance transformation is not an easy task, and it requires careful planning, execution, and ongoing monitoring. Here are some of the best practices your company can engage in to enable a smooth, effective finance transformation process.
Define what a successful transformation looks like
To begin, you’ll need a clear vision of what you want to achieve. Your vision should align with your business strategy and goals and should be communicated to all stakeholders. This will help ensure that everyone is working towards the same objectives and will make it easier to measure progress.
You’ll want to be thoughtful in how you plan the transformation roadmap, knowing that certain initiatives will take priority due to factors such as risk, level of effort, impact, or other key organizational strategic goals and timelines.
Get buy-in from stakeholders
This will be a collaborative effort involving multiple stakeholders, including finance teams, IT, operations, and senior management. To succeed, you need to get buy-in from all stakeholders and involve them in each stage of the transformation lifecycle, including planning and execution.
Understanding your stakeholders early allows you to have the necessary time to develop a collaborative environment, getting a wide range of opinions from the people your changes will affect.
Adhere to best practices for project management and change management
Effective project management and change management are key to the successful execution of finance transformation initiatives. Having adequate project management and change management support are vital for ensuring transparency and that stakeholders are properly engaged throughout the lifecycle of the initiative.
By having a project management and change management strategy, you’ll hit your milestones and clearly communicate what changes will be happening and when.
Every phase of transformation should be designed to take the end-user perspective into account.
Simplify and streamline processes
You can simplify and streamline your financial processes using automation. This can be achieved by deploying cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology, such as Unanet, coupled with Business Intelligence (BI) tools to eliminate the reliance on disparate systems and manual processes. This enable your finance team to focus on more strategic activities that add value to the business.
Focus on data quality
Effective finance transformation relies on having access to accurate and timely financial data. Therefore, it is essential to invest in data quality initiatives so that your financial data is comprehensive, correct, and consistent.
This can be achieved through the implementation of data governance policies, improving data entry processes, and using data validation tools.
Foster a culture of continuous improvement
Finance transformation requires continuous improvement. View it not as a one-off, static undertaking, but rather an ongoing process.
Foster a culture of continuous improvement within the finance team and the organization as a whole. This can be achieved by setting performance metrics, measuring progress, and providing feedback and recognition to employees.
How The Alliance Group’s Financial Systems Team and Unanet can help
The Alliance Group’s Financial Systems Team and Unanet can provide valuable support and expertise throughout the finance transformation lifecycle.
Our teams have experience working with companies of all sizes and can help you:
best practices and leveraging the expertise of The Alliance Group’s Financial Systems Team and Unanet, you can achieve a successful finance transformation and realize the full benefits of modern financial systems and processes.
For more on how to leverage the experience of The Alliance Group’s Financial Systems Team, Contact us for more information.
Jean is the Senior Director heading up the Unanet Group at Alliance. Before joining Alliance, Jean spent over 8 years implementing the Unanet GovCon ERP system. There Jean led many of the largest and most complex implementations earning acknowledgements for her deep knowledge of both the product and the challenges clients in the government contracting industry face. Jean is known for creative solutioning. Prior to her time with Unanet Jean was a Finance Director for a government contractor. Jean started her career earning her CPA working for a big 4 firm and later received her MBA.