By Ramamoorthy Rajagopal
The last decade has seen the world about us alter swiftly with the advent of digital technologies which have transformed our day to day lives. The current COVID induced lockdown has brought all of that to vivid life and demonstrated the art of what is attainable, along with a possible glimpse of how the future may evolve. Looking inward inside an organization, Digital technologies have permeated across most functions and Finance is no exception. However, the pace of adoption across Finance functions has varied with most organizations stratifying the decrease to middle element of the spectrum. The most frequent element for this slow course of action is the lack of digitally savvy Finance talent.
As we look into the future, the definition of what we get in touch with ‘talent’ in the Finance function is going to swiftly evolve with a premium becoming placed on these who have an understanding of information and information structures, enterprise insights and are excellent storytellers. In essence, future finance ‘talent’ will require to a person who can consume & translate a significant quantity of information and communicate the output in an engaging way for genuine persons to drive actions in the genuine world.
But quite a few CFOs today are increasingly seen struggling to construct a group that can embrace and adapt the pace of digital alter, largely since of a “Digital Knowledge gap” in their teams. This is reflected in the team’s lack of an understanding on how to apply and leverage disruptive technologies for maximum advantage.
While the world of Digital abilities is really broad, inside the realms of the Finance Function they can be broadly categorised into 4 significant locations:
- Automation – Process Automation via VBA, RPA and so forth.,
- Analytics and Insights – Data crunching to determine dangers and possibilities
- Business Partnering – Communicating final results for genuine world actions
- Emerging Technologies – Changing the strategies of working i.e., blockchain, chatbots
The beginning point for any digital alter have to start with the CFO establishing the Digital Agenda for the Finance function. For it to be efficient, the Digital Agenda should really be closely aligned to the organisation priorities and on what is anticipated from the Finance function. Once established, the digital agenda will additional determine the abilities necessary in the quick, medium and lengthy term and seek to plug the very same by up-skilling the current group members and concentrate on wider recruitment for precise abilities.
CFOs will require to lead the digital agenda from the front, be it in terms of investments towards instruction & improvement, external hiring as nicely as sponsoring “Pilot Projects” that can demonstrate this accomplishment. These Pilot projects should really be driven by digital advocates who lead the all-natural working group to determine, define and implement modest scale digital resolution, with the CFO financially incentivizing a profitable outcome.
Financial Automation such as Robotic Process Automation options are fantastic examples of “Pilot Projects” offered their low expenses, fast deployment time and the potential to straight influence the day-to-day work of the group. These RPA projects can be expanded to provide group members an chance to discover genuine concepts, implement options and see very first-hand, the influence of embracing digital abilities.
The accomplishment of the Pilot projects should really be leveraged as catalysts to invoke curiosity which are then addressed via instruction & improvement, thereby major to more digital projects, ultimately resulting in a gradual alter in the organisation culture to completely embrace the digitalisation.
As the digital culture evolves, CFOs at some point in time will have to invest in hiring specialized folks in the type of Data Analysts, Machine Learning Engineers, Business Analysts and Data scientists to bridge the ability gaps inside teams. They would work in conjunction with the Finance group to interpret information, address challenges, determine and resolve enterprise troubles. CFO’s require to periodically overview their digitalisation plans with precise emphasize on generating exposure to the influence of the new digital technologies, creating a robust foundation in digital fluency and incentivise adoptions across their teams.
While most Finance and accounting teams will not evolve into information scientists, they will require to undergo frequent instruction & improvement to have an understanding of the important ideas of Data and Data sciences to communicate with information scientists in their personal language. As technologies continues to evolve, this becomes increasingly crucial to steer clear of the creation of a new “digital divide”, generating new impediments in leveraging positive aspects.
The rise of digital technologies inside the Finance group, can be anticipated to transform standard finance roles, but at the very same time is probably to generate new possibilities for finance specialists. Among these, the two most prominent roles that I count on are: a) Data Controllers and b) Data Business Partners.
With more and more enterprise choices becoming based on Data, the Data controllers will play a pivotal function in guaranteeing accuracy and authenticity of information akin to Financial Controllers. On comparable lines, Data Business Partners will combine enterprise abilities with robust technical abilities and interface in between selection makers and information scientists.
Finally, with most items based on technologies, the significance of ongoing education and instruction can’t be adequately emphasised. As CFO’s appears to raise the level of digital abilities in their teams, they require to prioritise instruction in 3 important locations namely:
- Programming abilities (going beyond Spreadsheets)
- Data visualization tools (going beyond Presentation) and
- Developing a logical and important pondering mindset.
(Ramamoorthy Rajagopal is the Finance Director, Tesco Business Services & Tesco Bengaluru. Views expressed are his personal.)