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Finance departments set to benefit most from Digital Transformation boom
Finance teams are set to undergo major
Digital Transformation and growth over the next five years , with business leaders having identified the area as being the next business function set to be revolutionised by technology .
According to a new survey into the thoughts and expectations of business leaders across the country , carried out by cloud-based accounting specialist bluQube , almost half ( 44 %) of businesses believe that finance departments are set to benefit
the most from technological innovations over the next five years .
Encouragingly , this follows reports of a similar number of businesses ( 47 %) having already seen their finance teams positively impacted by technology – the most affected area over other departments such as sales and marketing ( 40 %), operations ( 36 %) and customer service ( 28 %).
This Digital Transformation can already be seen in the adoption of cloud-based technologies , which are currently used for company accounting in nearly a third ( 30 %) of finance teams . However , a further 27 % still rely upon more basic software packages , such as Microsoft Excel , to manage their accounting , indicating that more could still be done to drive digitally-enabled efficiencies in finance departments .
Ongoing supply chain disruption has a critical impact on the ability to drive profitability
recent study , conducted by Forrester Consulting – on behalf of
A intelligent pricing platform , Flintfox International – reveals that retail , manufacturing and consumer goods companies are facing fundamental challenges in managing their profit margins , due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 , inflation and supply chain issues .
The majority of businesses ( 90 %) report that COVID-19 is having a critical impact on the ability to manage pricing across their product range , with 39 % stating they are unable to keep up with the scale of real-time price fluctuations occurring in the market . This is having a significant knock-on effect ; with businesses losing on average US $ 1 million a year in lost profitability due to their inability to respond quickly enough to market forces .
The study of over 900 business leaders has revealed that existing business models are preventing them from being able to manage the pace of change , with 41 % still relying on manual processes to manage price fluctuations . Over half ( 53 %) state that the pandemic has forced them to need better visibility into business performance on profitability and margins to respond accordingly .
2022 will see business model transformation pushed up the board agenda as global change becomes increasingly unpredictable , with
60 % of businesses claiming that poor data quality and capture is hampering the ability to keep on top of market fluctuations and remain competitive . x
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