The Strategic CFO’s Technology Strategy for Finance Goes Beyond Workflow Automation

CFOs everywhere are evaluating and adopting digital technologies to streamline and optimize their finance organizations. This flurry of activity is happening for several reasons: in response to the remote work migration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, to obtain and retain talent through the Great Resignation, as part of growth or efficiency plans, to take advantage of emerging finance tools, or because of a combination of these or other reasons.

No matter where your finance tech stack stands today, you would probably like to know what strategy your peer CFOs are employing to improve their technology. Here’s your chance to find out.

A Peek Inside Other Organizations’ Technology Plans for the Finance Function

Together with Tipalti, Tesorio recently surveyed over 200 companies of varying sizes from a wide range of industries. In our Driving Growth Through Cash Flow & Working Capital Management survey, we asked participants which of the following technologies they planned to evaluate or adopt for the finance function in the next six to 12 months:

• Advanced or Predictive Analytics
• Artificial Intelligence
• Blockchain
• Cloud-based EPM System
• Digital Document Management (OCR technology)
• Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Machine Learning
• RPA (Robotic Process Automation)

Four statistics immediately stand out among their answers:

• Over a quarter have already adopted Cloud-based EPM systems (27.7%) and Distributed Ledger Technology (25.3%), the most of any technologies.
• Over half are currently adopting or have already adopted Digital Document Management (56.9%) and Cloud-based EPM Systems (55.9%).
• Over three-quarters are either evaluating, currently adopting, or have already adopted Cloud-based EPM Systems (80.8%) and Digital Document Management (76.2%), indicating that they are currently the two most sought-after technologies.
• More than 66% are either planning to evaluate, currently adopting, or have already adopted every other listed technology as follows: Internet of Things: 74.1%; Distributed Ledger Technology: 71.4%; Machine Learning: 69.4%; Advanced or Predictive Analytics: 68.6%; Artificial Intelligence (AI): 67.3%; Blockchain: 67.2%; RPA (Robotic Process Automation): 66.8%

Technology Provides More than Just Automation

The results from our survey show that CFOs everywhere view these finance technologies as critical ingredients for current and future organizational success. This is primarily because they know such technologies can automate otherwise repetitive and error-prone manual processes.

However, the most advanced, AI-powered digital finance tools can do more. They can help drive organizational strategy and significantly increase its success rate because they provide more control, connectedness, visibility, and predictability into things like company cash flow. This shift from focusing on workflow automation to achieving outcome automation is seismic, allowing companies to go from:

• Siloed servers to API accessibility
• Departmental workflows to unified dataflows
• IFTTT to so what
• Excel, AR automation, and TMS to cash flow performance

CFOs who understand and capitalize on this shift can better serve their CEO, boards, shareholders, employees, and customers.

What’s Your Technology Strategy for Finance?

CFOs and finance organizations the world over are on the move, turning their finance technology strategy into reality. Do you have a strategy—one that yields better cash flow performance and ultimately greater company success? Discuss your plans today with Tesorio. We can help.

For more results from our survey, download the Executive Summary: CFOs Drive Business Value.