Despite a year of accelerated digital transformation within the industry, 21% of UK-based finance professionals remain concerned that the systems they use are unsuitable in assisting with the completion of tasks when working remotely. This is according to the annual FinTech Barometer 2021 conducted by Visma | Onguard, the fintech company dedicated to the order-to-cash process. This news comes despite a significant 79% of finance professionals currently working from home at least 50% of the time, with many businesses likely to introduce a hybrid working policy in the coming months as Covid-19 restrictions ease.
For 28% of professionals, the main frustration is in having to deal with a lot of different systems. This is reflected in the third of finance professionals (33%) who identified the challenge of integrating or aligning systems as the biggest hurdle in improving the order-to-cash process. Despite this, only just over half (54%) of businesses have implemented a specialist software solution to support their financial department while working remotely, while a further 13% have no intention of doing so in the future.
This dissatisfaction with available technology could be having a worrying impact on company culture, with disparate systems and processes meaning that operations are becoming more fragmented and one-sided, creating silos among employees and stifling collaboration. This is reflected in the survey results, revealing that 66% of finance professionals do not fully connect to their organisation when working remotely.
Marieke Saeij, CEO at Visma | Onguard said, “Looking ahead over the course of the next 12 months, it’s increasingly clear that many financial departments are going to be completing tasks remotely for at least part of their working week, even as Covid-19 restrictions ease. Without the right solutions in place however, finance professionals won’t have visibility of important information across departments, such as customer issues and escalations, which can be compounded with a distributed workforce. The onus now sits with leadership teams to introduce innovative financial software to facilitate better collaboration that can ultimately enable professionals to feel more connected to their organisation and its wider goals.”
