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‘During the design stage, we talked to Embrace efficiency and automation
Finance can’t be a good business partner if
each other, we talked to IT experts, it doesn’t have its own house in order.
“You can’t forecast off of books that
and we talked to selected people aren’t accurate and reliable,” Hood said. “I
would start with closing your books as fast
within our own business units.’ as you can, and beginning to immediately
divert your team to analysing what those
numbers mean.”
Venkataraman agreed, saying: “The
Marta Weglinska, FCMA, CGMA, finance and strategy manager for Liberty Powder Metals finance team — they’re often being asked
to do more with less.” By embracing
automation, “the time that you [save] can
be used for adding value to the business
regularly extracting real-time information technology in its business partnerships. — by playing more of the strategist and the
about each game’s daily population of “We call this a defining moment for catalyst role.”
users, for example, and the amount of finance and accounting. It’s now the That might include implementing new
money that each user was spending in the moment for CFOs to really rise to that tools for robotic process automation and
games’ virtual stores. value partner role,” Hood added. machine learning — but those capabilities
“We fed that all into the system, and we Here’s how to ensure your team is ready also are being added to larger enterprise
could do better forecasting,” Venkataraman for a tech-based approach to business risk management (ERM) platforms. With
said. “And this improved the rapport of partnering. the pace of technological change, nearly
finance with the business counterparts, complete automation seems inevitable,
reduced frustration, and increased their Choose a goal Sehgal said.
trust in us.” There is no technological “magic wand” for “If we can have driverless cars, why
It’s an example, he said, of how finance business partnering — no single product can’t we have a touchless close process?
can use technology to improve its that will help every effort. Instead, Why can’t we have a touchless forecasting
partnerships with business counterparts Venkataraman suggested starting with an process?” he asked.
and help drive better decisions in an effort overall goal.
to deliver better results for the company. “With so many technologies emerging, Know your audience
Other experts in the field agree. They choosing where to begin can be a big Technology can boost finance’s mission to
describe a growing opportunity — and challenge,” he said. share information and support decision-
expectation — that finance will not just He suggested a few broad frameworks. making in other parts of the business. But
track transactions but will also support For example, if the goal is to reduce success still depends on relationships
strategic decisions about the business enterprise risk, finance might look broadly within the business.
itself — and that they’ll use the latest at improving data security, data quality, UK-based Marta Weglinska, FCMA,
technology to do it. and the accuracy of its forecasts. CGMA, is the finance and strategy manager
“I’m watching finance transform If the company wants to improve for Liberty Powder Metals, which is
completely,” said Sanjay Sehgal, a US-based decision-making, then the focus might be producing powder metals for 3D printing
KPMG partner working on clients’ finance to “get the right information to the right technology. It’s a spinoff of a much larger
transformation. “It’s more technology- people in a timely fashion”, especially steel company in the UK.
enabled, heavier on data and analytics, through dashboards, self-serve software, Designing a brand-new financial
heavier on innovative thinking.” and automated reports. information architecture for the startup
The demand for tech transformations If the goal is to increase overall is a daunting task, so she has drawn on
of finance has accelerated amidst the innovation, finance might help to tap new her experience in business partnering at
uncertainty of the pandemic, supply chain sources of data, especially unstructured the larger company, TATA Steel. She
disruptions, inflation, and the threat of a data, such as comments on social media or recalls previously working with a team of
recession, said Tom Hood, CPA/CITP, in emails. about ten people to assess the needs of
CGMA, the executive vice-president– Those ideas cover a wide range of partners across the company for a new
Business Engagement and Growth at the technology, from machine learning to data self-service spend report for all TATA
Association of International Certified visualisation. The key is not for finance to sites.
Professional Accountants, representing master each one, but to understand their “During the design stage, we talked to
AICPA & CIMA. breadth. each other, we talked to IT experts, and we
“Suddenly, the businesses were “You don’t need to know the ins and talked to selected people within our own
vulnerable, and they had to constantly ask, outs. You need to know the extent of business units. You have to understand,
‘What [does] this look like ahead of us?’ ” capabilities that technology affords you,” ‘What does the end user really need?’ ” she
he said. Venkataraman said. “As long as you know said. That kind of research ensured that
Answering that question, he said, is the capabilities that technology can afford the new cloud-based report didn’t
going to require a finance function that you, then you can marry your overwhelm its intended audience with
has the talent and resources to utilise requirements with that.” excessive information.

14 I FM MAGAZINE I October 2022