A 3-wave roadmap towards a future-proof finance department

Most finance departments have their operational and financial responsibilities well covered. But this is no longer enough. They must take up new roles and responsibilities, facing the following transformation challenges:

• Redefining KPIs
  Cash flow, EBITDA and other balance sheet details are not enough to understand how a company is faring. To determine their future strategies and business models, businesses need metrics like customer profitability and equity, brand equity, customer life time value, etc. 
• Ensuring always-on data access
  Valuable data about customers, channels and products should not be dotted throughout the company or locked away in siloes. It must be readily available to the people who need it, when they need it and on whatever device. In other words, data, as well as its availability – even its presentation – has to be reorganized. 
• Turning data into insights
  Determining the right KPIs requires a deep understanding of the business. To get the most out of the data and turn it into actionable insight, today’s finance teams need ample analytical skills, too. 
• Onboarding the right people
  As finance is about much more than numbers and results, it requires a great deal of people skills. Finance departments need empathetic, creative people who can connect with colleagues in operations, sales and marketing, report to management, cut the knots whenever needed and realize that they can set trends rather than simply following them.
• Freeing people from repetitive tasks
  To give finance professionals space to collect and analyze data, collaborate and think, they must be freed from repetitive tasks. Automation can help e.g. through the installation of a rule-based exception-handling center in the cloud, through Robotic Process Automation, etc.

delaware helps customers move towards a finance office that creates value for the business. Our 3-wave transformation model illustrates how a company can evolve from focusing on operational aspects that increase efficiency to using smart tools that create true value. Based on this model, we help companies define their own roadmap towards becoming fully future-proof:

• Wave 1 focuses on efficiency: we help customers understand how they can streamline finance, optimizing the operational aspects of accounting, budgeting, costing and reporting. Here, finance is seen as a ‘must-do’ as it mainly concerns legal compliance and basic reporting. Wave 1, where most companies currently sit, is closely linked to the ERP implementations in the past.
• Wave 2 takes finance one step further, exploring ways to increase its effectiveness: we introduce next-level controlling. By extending the year-end closing with continuous accounting and soft closes, for example, or by introducing cost-to- serve concepts, driver-based modeling and management reporting, our customers gain insights into how their businesses evolve over time. 
• Wave 3 focuses on value creation: we truly transform finance to help it create value for the business by introducing robo-accounting (RPA) in finance processes, by harnessing innovative technology, such as SAP integrated business planning and performance reporting,next-generation business intelligence solutions (Microsoft PowerBI) enabling real time right time reporting and much more.