Finance

Taking on the uncertain future of financial services

Published

1 year ago

September 8, 2022

admin

By Mark Blakemore, Chief Financial Officer at Compleat Software, the purchase to pay software house

How can CFOs protect their businesses for tomorrow and beyond as inflation continues to rise?

Welcome to reality, where inflation is rapidly dominating the economy around the world. It is an inevitable phenomenon that no person or organisation can escape.

£1 in 2021 is equivalent to the purchasing power of about £1.06 today, crazy right? This means that today’s prices are 1.06 times higher than average prices a year ago with no real end in sight.

Financial concern is more prevalent than ever before, as UK inflation hits 10.1% and continues to rise at pace. This exponential growth is affecting almost all industries and has created huge uncertainty within the economy.

Businesses that have already been battling over the past couple of years are now fighting with even more challenges. This period places Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in a very tricky position, and bears the question – what will the future hold, and how can CFOs ensure there is minimal impact on their business?

Past financial crises proved that acting fast and preparing is key, but what steps can CFOs take today, to protect their businesses for tomorrow and beyond?

We offer two such essential steps.

1. Make the best use of data

Data informs strategic direction. It allows CFOs to make decisions quickly and helps them to gain a complete view of the business, instantly.

From monitoring KPIs to measuring the performance of new initiatives, employees, and the competition – CFOs can use real-time, accurate data to get a view of historical trends and current activity, helping to plan the future – but the data needs to be accurate.

During this challenging period, businesses must look to boost their financial planning and analytics to ensure business continuity.

This means ensuring CFOs must have access to data, which is as close to real-time as possible. In the rapidly evolving environment, we find ourselves in, using out-of-date data may lead to a wrong strategic decision, which may have a significant negative impact on a business.

However, the very uncertain times we find ourselves in should be sounding the klaxon for CFOs to foster a data-driven culture within their organisations, so that accurate data guides the entire business.

In reality, this means that businesses should be investing in systems that can help to contextualise data into actionable insights, that staff at all levels can use to make decisions and act upon.

For CFOs to ensure their businesses are prepared for anything, they must be able to harness available data to evaluate their investments against performance, for both short and long-term goals; especially around workforce and IT investments.

CFOs should work with executive leadership to identify, and where appropriate, scale-up investments that provide value towards innovation and opportunity for business resilience.

2. Make sure you’ve got your workforce right

The way finance teams operate has changed, completely and permanently – this is down to a combination of technology and evolution in working practices accelerated by the pandemic.

For example, shifts to remote working have accelerated new ways of working, communicating and forced business leaders to take note of how they work. For those without businesses with the right systems and culture in place; remote working can have a very positive impact upon productivity.

Although some businesses are exploring the options of moving their workforces to an entirely remote setting, it does come with its own challenges that CFOs must consider, very carefully.

Shifting to this model can incur additional costs to help employees create an adequate home setup while meeting cybersecurity and other requirements. Equally fraught with considerations is a full return to the office, which comes with its own nuances, costs, and risks. In contrast, returning to the office can come with its own costs.

Not an easy ride for CFOs, who must consider the risks and benefits to each.

Automation must be the prime focus – regardless of where workers are

Automation should be a prime focus for CFOs – they should be (if not already) automating core business processes, in order to reduce the risk of external factors which unsteady their businesses, whilst working to foster long-term resilience.

For CFOs, they must ensure that their workforces are dynamic and can adapt to new ways of working. Workplaces, their leaders and staff have already undergone seismic shifts within the last few years. CFOs must establish new processes and systems for their teams, as well as the wider business, that enable seamless collaboration and coordination for the years to come.

Providing certainty in uncertain times

CFOs by the very nature of their role will always face difficult decisions in their quest to balance protecting their business in the here and now, while continuing to ensure the long-term strategy and goals are set and achievable to deal with the increased risks, in a challenging economic climate with the need to take measured risks that build the business.

The rocksteady CFO is well-versed in managing change, risk and financial strategy risk and change – as long as they have access to the accurate data, which relies on having the right technology at its core.

As they continue developing into the CFO of the future, however, their constant struggle will always be to manage the increased risk in a challenging economic climate with the need to take measured risks that build the business.

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Business

How can law firms embrace automation and revolutionise their payments?

Published

22 hours ago

September 28, 2023

editorial

Attributed to: Ed Boal, Head of Legal at Shieldpay

Once again, AI is dominating international headlines. This time, it’s due to a closed-door meeting this month between tech leaders and US senators to discuss the technology’s regulation.

AI and automation isn’t just for the likes of Big Tech. We’re seeing predictive and automated technologies transform almost every sector and the legal industry is no exception. In fact, recent research from HBR Consulting found that 60% of law departments had implemented a legal data analytics tool last year and more than 1 in 4 indicated they were using AI for at least a single use case.

However, adoption isn’t without its challenges. Reticence remains among some and there’s also the danger of ‘transformation fatigue’ slowing real progress. If law firms want to reap the many benefits of automation – including revolutionising their payment processes – these challenges need to be carefully considered and thoughtfully addressed.

An area of great opportunity

Often seen as conservative, the legal industry has been gradually warming up to the idea of automation and technology.

While some pioneering firms have been quick to embrace automation tools, others remain cautious about disrupting their established workflows. As we navigate this landscape, it’s clear that certain areas of legal services are ripe for innovation.

One area is contract management. The process of drafting, reviewing, and managing contracts has traditionally been time-consuming and prone to human errors. Automation can alleviate these pain points by streamlining the entire lifecycle of contracts, from creation to renewal, thereby enhancing efficiency and reducing risks.

Another promising domain is legal research. Thanks to advancements in natural language processing and machine learning, legal professionals can now leverage AI-powered research tools that analyse vast volumes of legal data to provide accurate insights and case precedents swiftly.

But, while progress is undoubtedly being made, the legal sector still lags other sectors when it comes to innovation.

What’s getting in the way of progress?

This isn’t always down to a resistance to change. Often, it’s a result of firms spreading their resources too thinly across numerous technology initiatives.

Ed Boal

Attempting to tackle everything at once can result in ‘transformation fatigue’, where the benefits of individual innovations get diluted – leading to frustration and slower progress.

Before legal firms embark on digital transformation projects, a critical first step is introspection. Recognising and acknowledging areas where legacy processes and manual tasks still hold sway is paramount to optimising the impact of automation.

For many firms, archaic practices continue to consume valuable time and resources, diverting attention from higher value, billable tasks. One often-overlooked area is payments.

Legal firms play a critical role in complex transactions, from M&A and real estate deals to litigation and arbitration payments. The associated admin and processes represent a drain of firms’ time and resources. Spanning everything from collating stakeholder payment details and verifying payee identity to ensuring compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulation, this adds unnecessary stress for lawyers – who would rather dedicate their time and expertise to their clients’ legal needs.

The repercussions of such time-consuming financial processes reverberate throughout the entire organisation. Administrative burden weighs heavily on the team, affecting productivity and ultimately, the bottom line: recent research from Shieldpay, surveying the UK’s Top 100 law firms, found that almost 1 in 3 (32%) say KYC collection and verification checks take 4-9 working days.

At the same time, firms are exposed to significant financial risk which can make handling client funds a costly endeavour. Not only are they penalised with fines if found to be in breach of stringent client account rules but firms are also subject to hefty premiums for Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance. No wonder 73% of all legal professionals and 90% of junior law professionals are concerned about the risks and time costs associated with holding client funds.

Revolutionising payment transactions

In short, manual payment processes are more than just an inconvenience for modern law firms. They can damage relationships with clients – who have come to expect a fast, painless and automated payout experience in a digital world – and impede revenue generation by tying up top talent in an endless cycle of paperwork and (unbillable) admin.

So how can firms take the pain out of legal payments?

Fortunately, new payment technologies have emerged as a formidable ally. Third-party payment providers offering solutions for law firms, such as escrow and paying agent services for specific transactional deals, or more embedded payment solutions such as managed accounts (TPMAs) – i.e. outsourced client account functions – offer secure and instant transactions, while prioritising transparency and automation.

TPMAs operate as an escrow payment service in which the third-party – a licensed external payments partner – receives and disburses funds on behalf of a firm and their client(s).

With advanced encryption ensuring data security, working with a regulated payment partner means legal professionals and their clients can engage in financial transactions with peace of mind – while law firms benefit from improved operational efficiency.

And the advantages don’t stop there. Enhanced transparency builds a sense of confidence and trust, while the elimination of manual data entry and repetitive tasks allows legal professionals to devote more time to legal services and fostering stronger relationships with their clients.

AI and automation has much to offer the legal sector. But its adoption must be carefully planned in order to avoid transformation fatigue that risks stalling progress altogether. With typically shallower pockets than Big Tech giants, it’s important for law firms to focus their efforts on specific areas that could benefit from automation, rather than rush to overhaul their entire way of working, all at once. This controlled phase-out is the key to avoiding adoption frustration, seeing a real impact on profits and productivity and setting firms up for real, lasting change.

Business

In-platform solutions are only a short-term enhancement, but bespoke AI is the future

Published

2 days ago

September 27, 2023

editorial

By Damien Bennett, Global Director, Principal Consultant, Incubeta

If you haven’t heard anyone talking about artificial intelligence (AI) yet, then where have you been? Conversations about AI and its advantages to society have been a key talking point over recent months, with advances being made in the generative AI race and ChatGPT opening a whole plethora of possibilities. Many have highlighted the advantages of AI, but notably it’s ability to create human-like content.

But these discussions have only scratched the surface of what AI is capable of doing. It is for far more than just essay writing, adding Eminem to your rave and photoshopping dogs into pictures.

In marketing, we have been using AI for years, for everything from analyzing customer behaviors to predicting market changes. It’s enabled us to segment customers, forecast sales and provide personalized recommendations, having a huge impact on how our industry works.

It is even, for the more savvy marketers of the world, becoming a key tool in maximizing budget efficiency – which is apt, considering over 70% of CMOs believe they lack sufficient budget to fully execute their 2023 strategy.

Now, as AI becomes more intelligent, the number of efficiencies it can unlock continues to rise. Not only can it help brands get the most out of their available resources and identify any areas of waste, but it can also help highlight new opportunities for growth and maximize the impact of your budget allocation.

The trick, however, is to veer away from the norm of using in-platform solutions with a one-size-fits-all approach and create your own, bespoke solutions that are tailored to your business needs.

Pitfalls of in-platform solutions

In-platform solutions aren’t by any means a bad thing. In fact, built-in AI tools have become increasingly popular, owing to their ease of integration, user-friendly interfaces and minimal set up requirements. They come pre-packaged with the platform, offering the user the ability to leverage AI technologies without the need for in-depth technical expertise or the upfront cost of building a solution from scratch.

However, the streamlined and accessible nature of in-platform AI solutions comes at the expense of complexity and customization. They are designed to serve a broad user base, but for the most part are built using narrow AI solutions with predefined features and workflows.

This makes them great for assisting with common AI tasks, but they lack the flexibility to tailor functionality towards unique business requirements or innovative use cases, limiting the potential efficiencies and cost savings that can be unlocked. Additionally, if a business’ competitors are using the same platform, they are probably using the same AI solution, meaning any strategic advantage gained from these will be reduced.

Bespoke AI solutions, on the other hand, may carry a higher initial investment – but can offer a significantly more attractive ROI over a short amount of time.

Why customized and adapted AI is the key

The difference between bespoke AI and in-platform solutions is similar to that between home cooked food and a microwave meal. Yes, it is more time consuming to prepare, and yes it likely carries more of an upfront cost, but the end result is going to be far more appealing and will carry more long-term value (financially… not nutritionally).

That’s because bespoke solutions, by nature, will have been tailored to address your brands specific needs and challenges. These custom-built tools allow for much greater efficiencies by streamlining workflows across different channels, automating more complex tasks, and providing deeper, more relevant insights.

The increased level of optimization can significantly improve productivity and reduce operational costs over time, offering a higher ROI. The increased flexibility of bespoke AI also allows brands to implement innovative use cases that can significantly differentiate them from their competitors.

The data analyzed can be specifically chosen to match business requirements, as can the outputs of the AI tool, providing a significant advantage when understanding and acting on the insights provided.

Additionally, these tools are, by nature, more scalable. They can be updated, upgraded and expanded as needs change, ensuring they continue delivering value as the business grows. They can also be designed to integrate with any existing IT infrastructure, from CRM systems and databases to marketing platforms and sales tools – leading to more efficient and effective decision-making.

Managing finances with AI

It’s no secret that AI in marketing automation has, and will continue to, revolutionize the way marketing is done. It has a bright, if slightly terrifying, future and can help CMOs to unlock new efficiencies, maximize the impact of their budgets and increase their ROI. And as this technology becomes more advanced, its impact will only increase.

But we already know that…and so does everyone else.

So, in order for businesses to make themselves stand out from the crowd , they must look to fully adopt the power of AI. Creating a customized and unique AI solution could be the way to set yourself apart from your competitors. A bespoke AI tool can provide brands and businesses with features unique to them and their business needs. As a result, companies will benefit from more useful data and better results to make more data-driven decisions for their business. Ultimately, this will help brands to maintain a competitive edge over their competitors, deliver ROI and most importantly optimize their budgets.