Effective Strategies for Digitally Transforming Finance in the Ever-Changing World of Business

Even before the 2020 pandemic, the business world was evolving (and streamlining) to meet the needs of today’s digital landscape. 

In the past, companies were able to rely on individuals and teams of employees to handle their finances. Today, companies are digitally transforming their finances to adapt to a tech-driven business climate. 

As a digital strategy company, Insights ABM understands the need for businesses to grow and change to meet the demands of a new ecosystem. In this post, we’ll cover six strategies for transforming finance in an evolving business environment.

Define Your Goals

What are your top priorities? Better yet, can you define just one primary goal for digitalization? Some common goals might include:

• Increasing accuracy/speed
• Improving reporting
• Reducing cost
• Automating work processes

Try to narrow your goals so that you can focus on digitally transforming your business one step at a time.

Determine How Finances Align with Your Business Strategy

Determine how your finance department aligns with your company’s overall vision and strategy. 

Sometimes, companies have reached a plateau (or are experiencing a decline), which means that they may need to cut costs to achieve new levels of financial agility. Automating certain work processes can reduce overhead costs and ensure future success. 

Conversely, during a period of growth, businesses can benefit from easier access to cash. Understanding these principles can help to hone your approach to finance at the company-wide level.

Determine the Technology You Need to Meet Your Goals

Chances are that you’re already relying on some form of technological infrastructure. What programs or services are you currently using? Do these programs or services offer scalability or other features that can help you reach your goals? 

If not, you may want to investigate the other alternatives that are available. Consider how you might leverage these resources to streamline your business.

Show the Need

Take your case to management, but be smart. Don’t just bring them a proposal; bring data. Your company’s managers will be more likely to consider a proposal when it includes specific data, such as:

• A clearly articulated goal
• The technology you believe will be most beneficial to attain said goal
• Calculations regarding the return on investment (ROI)
• The benefits provided by automating certain financial processes

It never hurts to share examples of other companies that are implementing similar technologies and procedures, too. This can increase the chances of getting buy-in from your management team.

Identify Your Long-Term Plan

How do your goals fit into your company’s long-term plan? In other words, once you meet your immediate goals, what’s next? 

Automating your financial processes can be a great goal to reach, but you’ll still have to determine how to move forward as a company. Will you use the money saved from overhead to invest further in the company? Offer dividends to shareholders? 

This is where partnering with a digital strategy company can be helpful, as these organizations can help you to clarify and articulate your long-term plan. They can also help you to identify the changes you’ll need to make to your strategy to meet your goals effectively.

Discuss the Ways You Will Build Your Infrastructure

Decide how to implement these technological changes. Will you rely on cloud-based systems? How will you ensure data security? 

These kinds of nuts-and-bolts questions are important. They can help to bring the larger vision into a concrete reality through the strategic implementation of software and analytics.

Trust a Leading Digital Strategy Company

Although we are based in Dallas, the team at Insights ABM is committed to globally-minded change. We can help you adapt to today’s evolving business climate and ensure that your strategies align with your goals. When you’re ready to see how our innovative team can help your business, contact us.