Why do you think finance is behind the other departments in the business when it comes to investing in and using the latest technology?
Due to need for financial statements to be accurate12%
Due to lack of investment in Finance department58%
Due to lack of skillset among Finance35%
Due to risk adverse nature of finance professionals50%
Due to overdependence on spreadsheets19%
Other (Please Comment)12%
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CFO in Finance (non-banking)a year ago
Agree with all of this. I have made mistakes with sales commissions and paid the wrong people and also seen payroll make mistakes with it and it is always really painful when you have those type of mistakes. Much more painful then if I have a typo in my most recent LInkedIn post.
Founder in Miscellaneousa year ago
I always have typos in my LinkedIn posts lol
CFO Advisory Director in Finance (non-banking)a year ago
Not a detailed Finance technology ( digital transformation ) Strategy. Change adverse Finance people.
Lack of understanding by finance people of the Step change Cloud technology brings.
Take SAP ECC vs S4 / Hana.
Still too much reliance on spreadsheets
Poor ability to articulate the ROI of step change technology
Founder & CEO in Finance (non-banking)a year ago
One the reasons is that Finance is seen as cost center as opposed to a profit center, If Finance is able to lead projects that add value to the corporation as a whole, I sense CEOs would be more open to invest in finance. I know this change is not easy but possible. Founder in Miscellaneousa year ago
I don't necessary think finance are always behind. It depends on the nature of the organisation and the appetite of the team.As with all things, transformation comes from the members of the team that shout the loudest, and can justify the best business case.
Is it easier for a salesperson to sell internally?
Definitely...
Does that mean sales have a more urgent need for tech vs finance
Maybe not...
There is a reason why the concept of the finance business partner is becoming more and more mainstream.
Anyone who is able to effectively communicate the value of new technology to an organisation, and justify the business case, will be leading the transformation.
Does that make sense?
CFO Advisory Director in Finance (non-banking)8 months ago
Finance systems investment are often the poor relative to investment in business systems. As the ROI / cost cutting / income or lead generation is much easier to see and articulate. So finance needs to “step up the game “ and compete for those investment funds. Examples a SaaS accounting software will lead to better data / analysis and hence more ARR and MRR. Sell that to the CEO.
There's also more risk in finance and accounting if something goes wrong, which is sometimes reflected in the people, but often is just a function of the responsibilities (e.g., you really don't want to get payroll wrong, but if you have a typo in a marketing email, that's okay).
Also, Excel is a solid tool, super flexible.... and free!