The CFO Checklist: Navigate Your Business & Seize New Opportunities
NOVEMBER 15, 2021 07:57 AM
The office of the CFO is increasingly essential to any organization - CFOs are expected to play an integral role in leading their companies forward. This means that the CFO works closely with the chief executive and the senior management to construct a cohesive business development strategy, prolonging a forward-looking and proactive stance, and connected with all parts of the business.
Finance leaders are in a critical position to help assess the options and impacts associated with returning to the workplace, including how the business can grow and react differently in the future.
The following checklist includes everything you should expect from a managed services provider; this checklist will also help you identify what questions you should be asking during the decision-making process.
Why CFO'S Should Look for EPM Cloud Right Now
If a business is of constant change, and there is an uncertainty in the economic condition, cloud based EPM solutions enable CFOs to streamline the processes and manage their businesses with agility and speed. Modern EPM solutions help CFOs cut down the costs associated with forecasting and reporting.
A next-generation EPM solution enables finance teams to shift from manual adjustments, processes and spreadsheets to more analysis and decision making by incorporating advanced technologies, such as AI and machine learning. Using predictive analytics and machine learning in the planning process helps uncover hard-to-spot data patterns and insights faster, thereby improving forecast accuracy and the quality of decisions. Automation of labour-intensive tasks such as account reconciliations, transaction matching, consolidation, close-process orchestration and disclosure management allows organizations to redeploy employees to more strategic and rewarding work.
Finding a Vendor that Fits
The EPM vendor demonstrates their software, while you score the functionality. The project team helps find gaps in functionality to identify impact on the overall cost of the solutions. The software bids are received and negotiated, then the project team reviews and refines the suggested roadmap from the EPM vendor.
Get Input from End Users
Ensure to communicate with the project manager and have team leaders adapt to changes effectively. Listen to the end users to see what processes they think need improvement and what functionality they would like to see from financial software; many organizations do not make the end-user experience a critical factor in selecting and implementing financial software.
Ensuring Integration with Existing Systems
Data integration is the key to any business while financial data is the key to the entire organization, and other non-financial data sources can help your team make better predictions. The EPM solution should connect with your ERP and any other data sources containing corporate and operational data.
Invest in High-Quality Support
The EPM cloud service provider should have an easy-to-use, accessible ticketing system so that you have a clear thread of communication and tracked response/resolution times. A proactive support plan anticipates and prevents issues before they arise so that your systems and processes run smoothly.
- Can make enhancements to existing applications
- Provides thorough documentation of your environment with application and process details
- Keeps you informed of new technology requirements, capabilities and trends
- Provides quarterly service reviews
- Offers cloud hosting, relieving the burden of infrastructure and data security
Conclusion
Choosing an EPM software vendor is a tedious task - Customers being unable to get a hold of their managed services team, tickets going unresolved, and providers without the expertise to resolve a customer's issue can be avoided with choosing the right partner. With a proven track record of quickly delivering long-term value to a wide variety of companies, the right Oracle Cloud Partner will deliver the combination of these applications to the businesses based on the requirements.
SMACT Works is a technology-focused systems integrator and IT/ERP consulting firm. We deliver end-to-end consulting, managed, and implementation services for Oracle Cloud Applications, IaaS & PaaS, On-Premise PeopleSoft & EBS Applications. Headquartered in Dublin, OH, we have a global presence with North America and Asia offices. We are an Oracle Gold Partner Cloud Standard, ISO 9001, and 27001 certified delivery organization serving customers with Excellence and Integrity.
