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February 20, 2024
4 ways CFOs can use technology to improve their firm’s financial efficiency.
“Alexa, please close the accounts books!” The day is near when CFOs and finance departments can give voice commands to Alexa or Siri to settle payroll and carry out mundane financial tasks. Still, until that day comes, we must recognize the gravitas of responsibility on their shoulders – to maximize output with their limited resources.
With the current economic climate, CFOs are cautious about overspending and over-allocating budgets to specific departments. They’re committed to balancing growth and cost management to avoid cutting corners.
Today, financial giants aren’t competing with just one another but against artificial intelligence and fintech startups that are quickly eating into the market to monopolize the target consumer. To stay ahead of these growing AI startups, CFOs must integrate technology into their services to enhance financial efficiency and stay on top of their A-game.
How exciting would it be to peek into a CFO’s mind? Let us take you through it in this tech-first era.
With tech on the rise and the digital landscape everchanging, CFOs often look at all the cards they’ve been dealt with and:
While adopting and investing in new tech is an agenda on their minds, CFOs often like to work through what they’ve got at hand. The key priority is identifying pain points and improving existing integrated tech rather than over-indulging oneself in new tech toys.
A pivotal thought is integrating a people-first strategy. Of course, incorporating tech for financial efficiency is essential to reduce costs and come up with solutions based on the data collected; however, a big one is a shift in mindset – creating an environment that fosters creativity and enables employees to stay proactive and thereby contribute to the company’s growth (reduced costs and improved efficiency will follow).
By using AI and automating a company’s financial operations, CFOs look to reduce company costs by curtailing the otherwise long hours allocated to the finance and accounting personnel for data compilation and reconciliation. This also helps to ensure efficiency without compromising on accuracy. When a machine takes over the tasks, it eradicates the possibility of human error, avoiding a back-and-forth between the company and the employee responsible for the task, thereby saving time, money, and opportunity costs. With this, CFOs can redirect efforts towards strategy-driven aspects of the business and focus on R&D, innovation, and growth strategies
In this digital era where change is the only constant, CFOs stand as that one persistent factor, quite like the queen bee of the swarm, leading the organization to its optimum prosperity. Their paramount objective revolves around orchestrating operations in compliance with regulations to enhance profitability. The integration of a suite of cutting-edge tools, such as artificial intelligence, cloud technology, data analytics, blockchain technology, predictive analytics, and cybersecurity, to name a few, transcends conventional reporting. This empowers CFOs to recognize trends, anticipate future threats, and craft informed strategies. Through predictive modeling, CFOs can forecast financial trajectories, optimize resource allocation, and fortify risk management, resulting in heightened economic efficiency.
Blockchain technology has transformed financial security. CFOs are adopting blockchain tech to boost security, mitigate fraud, and streamline audits. This innovation has significant potential to revolutionize traditional financial practices and enhance efficiency. AI-backed financial systems help offer a real-time update on a company’s economic well-being. This clear snapshot helps CFOs stay on top of trends, seize opportunities, and combat foreseeable risks.
Remember that joy you felt when planning trips, shopping lists, and gifting ideas were made seamless by Apple when they introduced the collaborative feature for the Notes app? Imagine how that would feel at a much larger scale when companies could collaboratively work across a standardized financial system. Voila! Make some noise for the cloud.
Cloud-based financial systems help companies engage in real-time collaboration, making processes more efficient and transparent and allowing CFOs to adopt a cohesive, integrated management approach. It helps departments and teams work closely with one another, thereby helping financial goals align and improve overall decision-making.
Want to know more? Escalon has helped over 5,000 companies across a range of industries improve their compliance regarding internal controls and streamline processes. Talk to an expert today.
With 6 years of experience in copywriting and social media management across genres, Devayani's heart lies with weaving words into stories and visuals into carefully crafted narratives that’ll keep you wanting more. She carries with her, her pocket notebook, a trusted confidante that goes with her wherever she goes, and scribbles down into it anecdotes on the go. Her secret weapon for keeping all things copy interesting! Apart from writing, Devayani is huge on travelling. You'll find her booking her next adventure while she's on her current one. And while on those adventures, you'll find her devouring true crime books one after the other. Whether it's a low down on a recent case or one that occurred 70 years ago, she can cook up a story narration you'll never forget.
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