Finance 2025 – are you ready?

Finance in the digital world – you might think we’re already there, but with the fast pace of new technologies and a rapidly changing work culture, the changes we will be seeing by 2025 will be transformative. Let’s take a deep-dive and look at what the future of finance in a digital world will look like.

To start, let’s examine the meaning of the popular catchphrase “digital transformation”. Is it technology, a culture, or a new way of working? Digital transformation is the adoption of technology by an organization. It includes improving efficiency, value, or innovation.

Finance is an age-old profession, and it is a good sector to look at when analyzing just how far digital transformation has come. The finance function is changing rapidly and is led by how leading companies experiment with innovative technologies and change the way work gets done.

The pandemic has propelled finance leaders to accelerate the automation journey.

68% of CFOs are currently investing in digital transformation, including technologies like Cloud and analytics according to PwCs latest CFO poll survey. But it’s not just digital transformation that CFOs are investing in, there is also a big focus on people and getting their teams ready for the finance of the future. Taking full advantage of the technology of the future requires a blended focus between new technology and people.

Here are some predictions about trends you can see in the finance world leading up to 2025:

• You can look forward to cloud-based ERP, automation, and cognitive innovation. Computers powered by artificial intelligence and blockchain will increasingly work alongside humans, which creates opportunities to simplify processes and free up your team. This also presents an opportunity for you to be more innovative when it comes to your decision-making and advisory services.

 

• Finance functions and teams will likely be leaner, but both will continue to exist. In fact, expectations of support from business finance functions will continue to grow.

 

• Increasing work automation will give finance more insights and the ability to expand its services. This also means that finance will have to excel in business insights and service.

 

• Gone are the days of periodic reporting. The digital world will allow the business to gain on-demand access to reports and forecasts. The distinction between analytical and operational data will begin to disappear as investors and boards will require more frequent performance information.

 

• Technology will uncomplicate finance, giving clients the ability to solve problems on their own. You can look forward to automated activities such as budgets and report production.

 

• Be ready to take advantage of finance applications and microservices that will challenge resource planning. ERP vendors are already building technologies like automation, blockchain, and cognitive tools into their latest products. You will see new operating models emerge as the finance team integrates more with freelancers and clients.

 

• Data standardization won’t be enough. The increase of available data will drive an ongoing need to clean up this data. It is imperative to align and integrate data to capture the full value of digital transformation.

 

• What will the future role of a finance professional look like? CFOs and their teams will need to become data scientists while being effective communicators as the finance team works more closely with digital tools. Some finance teams will evolve into business service centres.

The automation journey is just the beginning – the future will be about getting better information and better insights to help drive innovative business decisions that will help your company excel.