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In today’s constrained business environment, chief financial officers (CFOs) are being tasked with achieving more with less. As a result, the accounting and finance teams at many companies are delaying big technology purchases and instead seeking to optimize and make the most efficient use of the technologies already at hand. And due to slowdowns in the deal market, many organizations within the private equity lifecycle are reevaluating ways to drive value by shifting focus toward optimizing business operations and reducing costs.
Unlocking possibilities: why CFOs are optimizing existing technologies
Technology and data-related issues are causing many constraints in the way today’s companies operate, particularly for accounting and finance teams. Companies that have recently undergone a series of acquisitions may now be faced with duplicative customer relationship management (CRM) tools, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and budgeting and forecasting tools. Following these acquisitions, if company leaders fail to allocate the necessary time and resources for the seamless integration of systems and processes, employees are left to spend countless hours making manual adjustments and rectifying data discrepancies across various applications and touchpoints.
Operating without a cohesive approach to technology only exacerbates existing system issues and creates unreliable, disparate data sets. When companies are experiencing high-growth periods, their technology and software purchases are often a tactical fit — an essential fix for a given timeframe but not an overall strategic solution that fits the business growth plans.
Enabling efficiency and streamlining siloes: In many cases, a company’s use of technology is misaligned to its current needs. This can happen because key users and buyers of those point solutions and tactical-fit software may no longer be at the company. Inefficiencies can also occur when multiple parties implement siloed technology solutions.
Ultimately, the approach helped reduce technology-related costs while the shared-services model (within the ERP) drove efficiency across the accounting team. It also made management reporting and other hard-to-get data much more easily accessible.
CFOs are using available technologies while avoiding unnecessary new investments
Optimizing existing technologies can be an attainable path to success versus a large undertaking of implementing an entirely new system. Especially for accounting and finance teams, new technology products are not always the right answer. Many leaders already have the tools they need within one or more of their company’s existing ERPs, or they can use what’s available within the tech stack of a company they’ve recently acquired. In other cases, companies aren’t tapping into the entire functionality of the tools they have already purchased. Investigating the capabilities of the tool can help optimize and simplify the process.
Doing more with data: Unnecessary workloads can burden the Office of the CFO when an organization’s data isn’t consolidated, requiring brute force —headcount— rather than making operations more streamlined through the smart use of technology. In the worst of these cases, companies continue to hire more people to do the same tasks that can be automated. Additionally, if mergers and acquisitions are planned, data can be even harder to manage with a hodgepodge of ERPs but no roadmap or plan. This gives rise to more pain points, processing fatigue, additional headcount, and additional cost. When these data-related pain points arise, CFOs and company leaders can address these challenges by better using the technology at hand—and doing so in a coordinated manner.
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