At ASUG, we like to hear from our community about relevant topics, trends, and shifts in the marketplace. If you’ve participated in some of the surveys we’ve conducted on topics like this one, we’d like to thank you.
Finance and IT Teaming Up
In a study we conducted for LeaseAccelerator earlier this year, we asked some questions to better understand behaviors and preferences related to financial technology, including how finance departments and IT departments are working together.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the study.
Current adoption of SAP S/4HANA Finance is low, but we expect it to grow soon. While less than 10 percent of ASUG’s finance community is currently using SAP S/4HANA Finance, another 50 percent is expected to adopt the package within the next three years. And the product should have near-optimal market penetration when it’s all said and done. Only 6 percent of ASUG members in finance say they have no plans to move to SAP S/4HANA Finance.
Responsibility for financial technology purchases depends on the company’s organizational structure. When the finance department sits in either the CIO’s or CFO’s department, the IT department makes these calls. But when these two executives share the responsibility for the finance department, it’s the finance department that becomes empowered to handle the decisions on financial technology.
Finance and IT departments need to talk more. Those in the finance department (33 percent, in fact) are not as knowledgeable as they should be about the systems needed to execute the company’s financial close process. Conversely, in 45 percent of ASUG member companies that we spoke with, the IT department is not familiar with how many general ledgers its company runs. These two departments both have interest in getting the technological aspect of finance right, so we think these walls need to come down.
Many finance processes are still too manual. And manual can mean time-consuming and/or prone to errors. Even more alarming is that almost half of survey respondents within the finance and IT departments are unaware of what their company is doing when it comes to handling new accounting rules or keeping track of leases for financial reporting. Many companies appear to be lacking in their understanding of financial strategy.
Finance and Technology as a Winning Combo
If you are part of the finance and IT communities, where do you find yourself on each of these issues? Are some of these challenges news to you? If so, you should talk with your team about what actions you can take now to usher in the next wave of inclusivity and innovation in your company’s financial tech strategy.