Debbie Green, VP of Applications at Oracle
As businesses across the globe come to terms with a future of uncertainty, an agile mindset has never been more important. Keeping up productivity and efficiency is critical to business survival, and companies must look for faster time-to-value across business operations. Today there’s a whole host of emerging technologies that have been purposefully designed to allow businesses to reach new heights in efficiency, from technology that helps to close the books at record speed, to intelligent automation that eliminates the manual tasks that forever remain at the bottom of the list.
The 84 % of finance and supply chain professionals that are capitalising on emerging technologies are reaping the rewards when it comes to enhancing finance and supply chain operations. When artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain are built into commonly-used applications like ERP, organisations are seeing even bigger jumps in finance and operations efficiency – all without long waits or heavy lifting.
Challenge the C-Suite
For example, by incorporating AI into ERP systems, finance teams can yield a 36% drop in errors and reduce the time it takes to close the books by 3.5 days. Speeding processes up while reducing the risk of critical errors is crucial to business resilience particularly in times of uncertainty.
However, none of this progress can be achieved without the full support of the C-Suite. In organisations where the COO’s understanding of IoT is lacking, only 14% use IoT to improve supply chain management. This puts them at risk of falling behind the 64% of organisations with IoT-savvy COOs, who are pushing themselves outside of their comfort zones and seeing the rewards this brings. Organisations that are embracing this technology are seeing a huge increase in overall business performance and are able to provide their employees with important opportunities to upskill, helping them prepare for the next challenge.
Unlock AI potential
By harnessing the power of intelligent automation and using it to drive back-office processes, businesses can minimise, and in some cases eliminate, precious time spent on arduous, manual tasks. A cloud platform with built in AI capabilities, for example, uses financial consolidation and close capability—along with enhanced narrative reporting—to auto-populate financial statements for use across payroll and other key financial functions. The results speak for themselves: we found that finance teams using AI technology reported a 30% improvement in productivity, and a 32% improvement in forecast accuracy.
The same ability to transform working practices can also be said for AI-powered chatbots. In the case of project management, by automatically displaying relevant data to a project manager, the use of a chatbot eliminates the need to look for information across multiple systems. Companies investing in chatbots have seen 38% faster analysis, and a resulting 36% increase in productivity levels across their finance teams. By integrating this technology into everyday financial functions, businesses can equip their employees with the latest tools that will allow them to upskill and offer a greater contribution to business performance and efficiency.
Embrace emerging technologies of the future
New technologies offer a world of new possibilities, and embracing opportunities for exploration is how businesses can ensure their survival in such a turbulent climate. When it comes to emerging technologies, we are at the tip of the iceberg with the potential of AI, chatbots and blockchain. Twice as many businesses said that they prefer to use pre-built AI and machine learning technologies to those who prefer building their own – largely because this streamlined, integrated approach helps them keep up productivity and efficiency as much as possible.
Looking ahead for the next 5 years, we can expect AI to completely automate the financial close; see most financial approvals be automated; reduce fraud by at least half thanks to blockchain; and crown intelligent automation the critical component to keep pace with rapidly shifting regulations. With these advances, we can expect to see the role of finance teams transform. The best way for businesses to prepare is to delay no further, and get both themselves and their existing systems ready for this inevitable change.
What we do know is that the businesses that remain agile, open-minded and resilient are going to be the businesses that come out of the other side stronger than they were before. By embracing technology in the here and now, organisations can empower their employees, boost efficiency and re-define resilience.
