Part 1/4
Digital transformation has gone from being key to survival for businesses during the pandemic to becoming central to an organisation’s growth and recovery objectives.
However, with the imperative to accelerate technology investment, there is a danger that systems can diverge in an exaggerated fashion if key business functions are not aligned before deploying one or many standalone solutions available today for back, middle, and front office processes respectively.
Stark findings by the Value of Connection report include:
- Just over 40% of finance and operations leaders are very satisfied with the integration between their respective IT systems.
- Yet, 74% of finance and operations leaders do not coordinate with other business functions when acquiring and implementing new technology.
The report cautions business leaders against making technology investments in silos and finds that deeper integration between finance and operations can transform customer experiences, build trust and accelerate value creation as organisations rebuild in a new era of growth.
Using IT systems that do not interface can lead to higher technology acquisition and maintenance costs as systems must be replicated across the business, bringing internal inefficiencies that can both feed through detrimentally to the end-customer experience and cause leaders to make decisions without taking into account data across multiple business functions.
Wiise customer and one of Australia’s leading distributors of hydraulic hose systems, Taipan, faced some of these challenges first-hand. Limited integration between the different systems on which their key business processes were managed — including Ostendo, Sage Pastel and Sybiz Visypay — meant that updating spreadsheets and consolidating data manually would take up a lot of the staff’s time. Managing all their processes in the same system has given the management at Taipan a single source of truth for business data, allowing them to be more data-driven and agile with decision-making. Read their story here.
In a nutshell, a lack of integration between data from finance and operations can lead to:
- Internal inefficiencies
- Higher than necessary costs
- Poor customer experiences
- Flawed decision-making
To this end, deploying core cloud-based and SaaS technologies such as ERP systems that enable data sharing, informed decision-making and greater collaboration between finance, operations and other teams is key to accelerating business-wide digital transformation. For organisations, the benefits of coming together to deploy end-to-end business management solutions can be manifold.
- Drive down CapEx spend
- Business-wide insights and better reporting
- Strengthen resilience to risk
- Minimise the value of data left on the table
- Maximise ROI on tech investments
About the Wiise Value of Connection series
KPMG surveyed 1,300 finance and operations leaders from organisations in 16 countries across multiple sectors to quantify the impact of disconnected business functions. It published the findings in a June 2022 report titled Value of Connection, which you can download below. The report explains how deeper integration between Finance and Operations can transform customer experiences, build trust, and accelerate value creation.
With organisations in the APAC region making up 25% of this survey, the 2022 Value of Connection report has significant implications for business leaders in Australia.
Our four-part series unpacks the key takeaways from the report, which is a must-read for finance and operations leaders.
Other articles in the series
