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Technology:

Seizing the

future

By Andrew Harding, FCMA, CGMA

hink about how technology has traditional financial metrics. Data will be to include resources for small
helped improve our lives in required by a wider variety of stakeholders, businesses and on governance, there
recent years. For example, look whose needs are not met by traditional is also information about recent
at how Apple became one of the accounting alone. cybersecurity trends, implementing
Tmost successful companies on controls, and responding to
earth and transformed accounting. Changing the profession ransomware requests. Cybersecurity
Back in the 1970s, it made home Exploiting this data will require well- risk management and building cyber
computers for hobbyists, the type of people developed communication and resilience are key parts of doing
who programmed their own games. Clever, commercial skills to tell the story of the business in the digital age.
but niche. Then one day, Dan Bricklin was business, generate new insights, and find y The Agile Finance Transformation
watching his accounting lecturer filling in new solutions to old problems. Certificate Series (available in the
a handwritten ledger. Changing one Finance professionals who are proficient CGMA Store and the AICPA Store)
number meant redoing all the other in data analytics, risk management, and has been created in partnership
calculations. Bricklin realised he could cybersecurity will be well placed to with Oracle. It explores how
program his Apple computer to do this capitalise on these opportunities. finance professionals can leverage
automatically. The result was VisiCalc, the They will be guiding strategic choices, technology to deliver better reporting,
first commercially available spreadsheet. managing risks, implementing projects, deeper business insights, and a
PHOTO BY STEVE FORREST/STEVE FORREST PHOTOGRAPHY
and providing reliable management superior strategic direction for their
The birth of a revolution information. This is how the profession organisation.
In an instant, computers became an will add new value, just like it did after the Technology is changing the way we
obligatory professional tool, and the invention of Bricklin’s spreadsheet. work, giving the profession a tremendous
accountancy profession was AICPA & CIMA remain by your side with opportunity to reimagine its role in
revolutionised. It gave us the power to use the resources you need to stay ahead: business. To be successful, we must
and analyse data in ways that were y Our Future of Finance 2.0 research develop a digital mindset that will help us
previously unimaginable. programme explores the future state tackle the challenges — and the
Today, the possibilities offered by the of our profession and its broader opportunities — of the digital era. ■
latest technology are still at the very early ecosystem and defines the essential
stages of being understood. But it won’t be skills, competencies, and knowledge Andrew Harding, FCMA, CGMA, is chief
long before the next “killer app” arrives. that finance professionals need. executive–Management Accounting at
Making the most of this opportunity will y The CGMA Cybersecurity Tool helps the Association of International
mean reimagining the finance function. finance professionals understand Certified Professional Accountants,
That starts with data. We need to be issues including malware, representing AICPA & CIMA.
gathering more of it, and not using just maladvertising, and botnets. Updated

6 I FM MAGAZINE I December 2022