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The report, Race for Relevance: Technology opportunities for the finance function, is the first in a series of reports and articles focusing on technology in finance. It explores the opportunities and challenges that technology presents for the future CFO function in the face of extraordinary digital change impacting businesses. The report shares insights from leading executives across the world on the technologies changing the face of the finance function, and examines how finance can harness the explosion in digital capabilities to help drive business success. [...]
The ACCA members interviewed for this research urged CFOs to build a coherent and logical program for technology adoption – which ACCA calls six imperatives for success:
Collectively, these technologies enable enhanced finance processes, support the communication of information both internally and externally, provide protection for information assets, and look to the future while building upon existing technologies. [...]
However, ACCA cautioned that CFOs who fail to take advantage of the opportunities could be removed from the strategic decision-making process and marginalised at the leadership table. CFOs and finance leaders must understand how technology can enable them to transform the finance function through the provision of brilliant, timely insights for business stakeholders to support real-time decision making in addition to its existing stewardship and reporting roles.
CFOs need to consider the impact of key technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), cloud, analytics, social media, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence on finance. To achieve the goal of transforming the finance function, the CFO must understand the emerging technologies, how these relate to the wider use of technology in the organisation and appreciate the opportunities available. [...]