Cloud Automation Helps Finance Teams Save Time and Refocus On Strategy

Gary Boniface

Brovanture Consultant

Forward-thinking business leaders are automating their companies’ financial processes end to end. They’re transitioning from standalone spreadsheets, while streamlining account reconciliation, shortening the financial close, and freeing their financial experts to spend more time on strategic matters.

The time that automation gives back is the most essential resource that any organisation has. That is, when finance teams reduce the time they spend gathering and organising their data, they can spend more time analysing it to make significantly better decisions.

That’s the case at Australian investment services company ClearView Wealth Ltd., whose adoption of an ERP financial reporting platform allowed the finance team to shift its focus to analytical work, says Louise Hulley, head of financial management and operations.

ClearView’s finance staff used to compile a wide range of reports manually, to meet changing regulatory requirements, a time-consuming and onerous process. “Now with an ERP cloud service, the IT department has fewer on-premises systems to manage and the finance group has simplified its reporting processes, leaving them more time to focus on business opportunities”, Hulley says.

“Another bonus of the new cloud service is that it has minimised IT costs, which is critical for a small company like us”, she says.

The Numbers Add Up

And Dubai-based Access Power, one of the fast-growing independent power producers in emerging African and Asian markets, chose ERP Cloud to automate the financial reconciliation of data coming in from operations in many different countries, each one with its own regulations and accounting practices. It’s also improving the accuracy of financial reports to the management team, and helping the company track costs better.

“An ERP Cloud solution provides Access Power with the flexibility to manage both the complex development and ongoing operation of new sustainable energy plants, greatly facilitating our growth plans,” says Umair Junaid, Access Power head of finance.

Today’s companies just don’t have the time and resources to spend most of their finance resources on gathering and reporting data. Instead, they want to draw insights from that data that they can turn into a competitive advantage.