CFOs want more insights - the cloud makes it possible

Every industry has had to respond to multiple events over the past few years, for example to deal with the impact of the pandemic and the Ukraine crisis. And while the world strives to gradually find a new normal, economic uncertainty remains. To foster growth and innovation, modern systems are needed to respond quickly to market changes.

Legacy systems have no future

Legacy systems are usually an unnecessary burden on a company, its IT infrastructure, and corporate departments - including Finance and Accounting (F&A). This is because, in addition to the high costs and enormous maintenance effort, old technology hinders agility above all else. For example, companies that work with legacy platforms need a longer period of time to implement a new solution, and they have a harder time adapting to changing situations. They can't make important decisions based on secure data like a company working with modern systems. In short, outdated technology leads to rigid, manual processes and workflows that are costly and unprofitable for the business to maintain. The same is true for finance and accounting. Legacy systems make it nearly impossible for finance teams to extract key insights from financial data in a timely manner because it resides in many different silos, and manually merging information is enormously time-consuming.

Accenture, for example, reports that 85 percent of C-level executives are not convinced that their operating model meets changing strategic priorities. As a result, 92 percent of CFOs want to introduce more automation and technology into their operations.

In order to become more flexible, C-Level is increasingly turning to the cloud, also in the area of F&A and Controlling. This allows automation to be driven forward, risks of manual processing of financial figures to be significantly minimized and decisive added value to be derived from financial data. CFOs can thus replace traditional ways of working with new, more efficient processes, minimize or even completely eliminate manual work and, with Continuous Accounting, set completely new processes and standards that noticeably move companies forward.

Cloud technology revolutionizes Q&A

A cloud infrastructure is the fastest and most cost-effective way to introduce modern technology. Instead of spending time and money on deploying and maintaining on-premise IT technologies, cloud enables companies to focus on introducing new products and services to their core business. A major achievement of the cloud is the significant reduction in costly custom software development. Moreover, thanks to the cloud, they can scale their business, including the F&A, almost at will. An important advantage that results from this is the much easier and more efficient use of financial data.

A modern configurable F&A solution, such as one from BlackLine, offers both the scaling of IT resources and the opportunity for greater innovation in business - including security and compliance - through cloud technology. Companies whose F&A processes run on a SaaS cloud have the freedom to support new ways of working. Whether hybrid, virtual or global, all authorized users have access to relevant financial data and up-to-date analyses in real time from anywhere. Last but not least, migrations and transformation initiatives that put additional strain on finance teams are also greatly simplified by BlackLine and cloud technology.