To sustainably develop in today’s volatile, disruptive and unstable environment, businesses need to accelerate their digital transformation. Digitalizing finance and accounting operations cannot be left out of this game. This is the process of redefining the role of finance leaders and their teams and exploiting the full potential and capabilities of working with new technology solutions.
Digital transformation comes with huge opportunities. Join Bizzi to learn 5 steps to help finance leaders successfully transform digitally.
1/ Start with a detailed roadmap to digital transformation
The first step in financial digital transformation is to map out the processes for your business. This means you need to identify where you are and where you want to go. So look at your current processes, procedures, tools, software that need to change. You should also review the ways of working and the processes for implementing activities for the financial accounting department.
You need to be clear about what your goals are as well as the issues, pressure points and develop a clear strategy, and communicate it to everyone specifically.
A detailed roadmap provides vision and allows for clarity on output goals from the start, according to James Miln, ACMA, CGMA, senior vice president of Finance and Investor Relations at Yelp.
“Understand the strategy, think about the bigger picture,” he added. “Where do we want to go, who do we need, what skills do we need? But think about what can be done to optimize the process. Then think about using tools and solutions that will help you do your job better.”
To create a detailed digital transformation roadmap, finance leaders need to take the following steps:
- Current status assessment: Identify current financial and accounting processes, identify weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
- Define your goals: Clearly define digital transformation goals, such as improving performance, reducing costs, increasing transparency, and regulatory compliance.
- Requirements analysis: Find out what technologies and solutions will help achieve those goals.
- Deployment planning: Establish a specific implementation plan, including steps, time, and resources required.
- Communication and training: Make sure all team members understand the plan and are fully trained to use new technologies.
2/ Build a solid process
Processes should be streamlined with everyone involved agreeing on where and how technology should work during digital transformation. Processes also need to support strategies efficiently and quickly. For example, when you want to build a human resource management platform, the first step is to standardize the tasks, making sure that you are left with only the tasks you have to do. This helps to avoid digitization waste.
In building processes, finance leaders should:
- Ensuring consistency: Processes need to be standardized to ensure consistency and efficiency in financial operations.
- Focus on core values: Eliminate unnecessary processes to focus on the activities that deliver the highest value.
- Ensuring flexibility: Processes should be flexible enough to be adjusted as needed to meet changing business and market needs.
- Measurement and continuous improvement: Continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of processes, implementing improvements as necessary.
3/ Implement data analysis standards
Data analysis is becoming more and more urgent and plays an important role in the financial accounting of businesses. The financial accounting department must have access to real-time data as it enables better and smarter decision making. Accounting and finance professionals can add value by having data analytics that go beyond the financial books, Mr. Miln said.
“As a finance officer, skills can lead to better data and business insights to drive decision making.”
The steps to perform standard data analysis include:
- Building data infrastructure: Ensure the business has a robust data infrastructure, including data storage and management systems.
- Using modern analytical tools: Use advanced data analytics tools like BI (Business Intelligence), AI and Machine Learning to analyze data effectively.
- Ensuring data integrity: Ensure data is collected and stored accurately and reliably.
- Staff training: Train financial accounting staff in data analytics skills so they can take full advantage of this technology.
4/ Learn from others
Financial accountants need to be provided with learning resources and time to improve their expertise. Businesses should train each employee and show them what to do. Simultaneously drawing skills and experiences from a wide network of leaders and employees at all levels.
Continually adopt an innovation mindset to take advantage of the opportunities and technologies present. We can openly learn that from others, and we can also teach others how to transform to drive value for the organization.
To learn effectively from others, finance leaders can:
- Attend seminars and courses: Regularly attend seminars and in-depth courses on finance and technology.
- Building a professional network: Connect and learn from experts and peers in and outside the industry.
- Share knowledge: Encourage sharing of knowledge and experience among team members.
- Implement pilot projects: Use pilot projects to test and learn from new technologies and processes.
5/ Cloud computing tool development
Coventry Building Society implemented a cloud-based reporting tool in late 2021 and estimates that they saved 1,200 hours of effort over the course of eight weeks, significantly reducing their time and manpower pressures.
With cloud-based tools, businesses quickly reduce system complexity and costs. Exploiting the advantages of cloud computing to establish powerful digital transformation frameworks while supporting easy integration of high-tech solutions such as AI, Learning Machine, Big Data, Internet of Things, etc.
In September 2019, after a period of research and development, Bizzi launched a suite of lean cost management solutions for businesses. The solution supports organizations to automatically process input invoices, reduce manual tasks, optimize performance and improve operational quality of the financial accounting team.
Bizzi is a pioneer in Vietnam providing automated invoice processing and streamlined cost management solutions for businesses through the application of AI technology and process automation using RPA robots. Thereby, Bizzi helps organizations reduce 80% of processing time and 50% of invoice processing costs, while increasing transparency and tax compliance for businesses.
With Bizzi, businesses own a solution set that helps streamline digitalization and cost management, while supporting the improvement of accounting team performance:
- Increase work productivity with the system to automatically check invoice information
- Minimize tax and financial reporting risks
- Automatic intelligent collation with 99.9% . accuracy
- Real-time cost control and management
- Maximize savings on manpower and paper costs
- Automate the document making and payment request process
- Speed up approval time
Automating the lean cost management process with Bizzi robots helps reduce repetitive operations, the processing process is automated up to 90%. Tasks that require 2-3 people to handle can now be handled by Bizzi with 24/7/365 productivity without needing a break. Therefore, Bizzi helps reduce work pressure for accounting staff.
If in the past, businesses often needed 2-3 employees to perform repetitive tasks, now Bizzi and only 1 employee can handle the tasks with higher efficiency.
Digital transformation in the field of finance and accounting is not only a trend but also a decisive factor for the success and sustainability of businesses in the modern business environment. By implementing the above 5 steps, financial leaders can lead their businesses towards a digital future, improve performance, minimize risks and create sustainable value. Bizzi, with advanced technology solutions, is always ready to accompany businesses on the path of digital transformation.
See more articles: Take a look at the 4 challenges that every accountant has to face
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