The past few years have seen several sea changes in the higher education sector, not least financial belt-tightening by state and national legislatures, the increasing need for innovative tertiary revenue streams and, of course, the coronavirus’s continuing effects, especially on international student numbers.

The resultant fallout has a significant impact on finance functions. While institutions’ central finance functions have traditionally been the hub of their relatively discrete business units, models are shifting. Today it is possible to centralise data-focused operations across campuses and even beyond, as universities consider partnering and merging to survive and thrive in a post-pandemic world.

Key to this evolution is the need to aggregate available financial information and streamline processes: not only in higher education institutions’ finance departments, but in every cost centre, organisation-wide, and to turn this into meaningful data that cements their authority as a driver of meaningful organisational change and adaptation.

But the crux of the matter is time. There’s never enough of it. Many finance professionals still find themselves engaged in manual and administrative duties that often have little to do with core financial tasks. Depending on automation levels and the maturity of the technologies deployed, these activities are squeezing out more important tasks. As a result, less time-sensitive but more meaningful activities such as strategic planning, policy oversight, impactful reporting and providing guidance and leadership often fall on to the ‘to-do’ pile, but seldom make their way to the ‘have done’ checklist.

By leading the use of advanced financial technology, central finance functions can reduce costs and improve efficiencies internally. And, by amalgamating data sources, meaningful information will flow – putting finance leaders in a position to positively shape other departments’ approaches to financial matters, as well as their conceptions of the central finance department.

Is central control essential?

Almost all enterprise-scale organisations use centralised functions for key operations to reduce duplication of tasks and, therefore, wasted resources. In a shared service model efficiencies abound, but the risk increases as departments are less able to find the information that is meaningful to them. Embracing difference and, therefore, complexity is essential.

Managing financial data begins with technological challenges, but it is not a pure IT exercise. Until the last five years, complex operational procedures have been an anathema to business software. In brief, complex procedures at a significant scale were difficult to mirror in software. This is no longer the case: finance solutions have matured, as have the typical approaches of IT systems in general. With today’s software, multiple so-called point products (specialist solutions capable of doing one thing only, yet doing it well) work in tandem with others, instead of one solution being imposed centrally.

We wondered: how are academic institutions managing this complexity and improving efficiency? And what are the implications on HE staff (academic, administrative, auxiliary) and third parties? When complexity is not fully realised and captured, are clear insights possible?

Centralised processes enable technology like machine learning to interpret POs, invoices, remittances, etc., at scale, without individual departments having to fund this capability. But without appropriate support, institutions who deploy software can still flounder. Using specialist providers who can operate independently whilst still being able to connect data in meaningful ways is essential.

For example, one of Basware’s customers, a Tertiary Education Institution in Australia, says that using a specialist provider for their e-invoicing has allowed them to synchronise activities, while feeling like they are supported every step of the way.

The Basware implementation team has been the most engaged, knowledgeable, and reliable project team of any technology vendor we’ve dealt with. While we’re using a large education-specific ERP vendor, we’re just another number to them. Basware has been with us every step of the way – and continues to add value to us. They’re more than just a software solution.

Customers using software technology to automate previously disparate and disconnected processes are also realising the comfort of improved governance and compliance, especially when the auditors investigate accounts. For example, recent research revealed that only 6% strongly agree that they have deployed automation to monitor and check compliance data across all critical areas of the business. We think this is significantly risky. But what do you think?

Actionable insights begin with accessible data

Businesses making decisions based on outdated information are taking significant risks. Real-time data [1] is a prerequisite for accuracy. In many higher education institutions, like any large business, data flows at necessary speeds. Unfortunately, interpretations of ‘necessary’ vary significantly between departments and functions.

While data collation comprises 12.5 per cent of a person’s average working week or 11 days over the period of one year, [2] information can often reach central finance in a manner timely enough to comply with policies or governance (with a significant amount of manual re-work involved), but no quicker. Operating in discrete business units, academic and administrative departments work to different cadences, determined according to business unit type and internal processes.

We wondered: are universities helping their employees do bigger, higher things than simply moving numbers around? Data siloes may be preventing finance departments from seeing the bigger picture – not to mention delaying decision-making and increasing admin busy-work. The fact is good data provides a foundation for informed decision-making. But it can’t be used if it can’t be obtained. Disconnected systems and processes are a roadmap to stagnation.

Finance is the central hub of a university. In technology terms, data silos are not necessarily problematic, but those silos do need to be filled. Relying on manual processes to achieve this is not ideal.

It’s clear that automation helps central finance get access to (near) real-time data proactively, rather than waiting for the manual receipt of needed information. However, methods of data collation may vary hugely across campus/es. This may include everything from Excel to Google Sheets, .csv, open-source and proprietary software, to isolated and networked applications in local data centres or in cloud repositories.

Leading institutions deploy technology platforms that allow different business units to gain access to financial software that is easy to use. But does it all need to be in one platform? Not necessarily.

It’s worth noting that centralised financial technologies no longer need to rely on a single entity from a single supplier: for instance, spend and cash flow capabilities might be handled by dedicated software but be fully integrated with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Similarly, central finance might operate using an e-invoicing platform, a procurement management solution, and a governance and data security management element. These can form part of the institution’s ERP or integrate with them using APIs. But to end-users the interface with which they interact need not be apparent, with seamless data flows from platform to platform the only visual clue.

Does this make finance and procurement teams’ lives easier? Yes. In an ideal world, finance teams should deploy a solution once and let it do its thing, so they can focus on adding more value back to their institutions. For example, another APAC-based Tertiary Education Provider says, of using Basware:

We’re very happy with our e-invoicing software choice. It’s good. It does its thing. It ticks over. We don’t have to look at it. We’re happy.

Those using automated tools to manage financial processes such as e-invoicing – and even procurement – are reaping the rewards: including improved visibility, time-savings, and cost-reductions. This adds up to improving the lives and reducing workloads on finance teams. It seems like a logical choice to many. But what do you think?

Making the case for financial leadership

It’s well-established that non-financial professionals will interpret and engage with financial information quite differently from their finance-trained colleagues. The de facto tools deployed by many finance departments are not optimised for general use, and therefore any content will have less impact than desired. For example, common tools like PowerPoint and Excel are used in most finance presentations, despite these often not presenting information in ways assimilable by non-finance personnel. These tools are also non-interactive and not collaborative.

As a result, a significant percentage of non-financial personnel feel that the ways they are shown relevant information is not appropriate, with academic studies suggesting that best engagement methods may be found outside the institution altogether, such as freely available “Web 2.0” channels. [3]

As in the case with cross-departmental finances being managed by a central location, the same logic applies to being able to present key findings from connected information in a way that genuinely adds value to institutions and academics. This requires standardisation and clear outputs, based on best-practice processes, so that finance teams and leaders can win hearts and minds.

We wondered: is it clear to those financial professionals who are keen to put forward agendas for the greater good, that activities like ring-fencing and defensive attitudes are natural reactions to difficult circumstances? With this realisation comes the knowledge that, in order to change attitudes to financial matters in areas where such concerns are not of primary concern (in academic or research-led areas of the organisation, for example), care needs to be given to how messages are shared, how the mandate for digitisation can be ‘sold in’ and how an attitudinal shift to the necessity of automation is put across.

The answer may lie in a combination of factors such as improved efficiency, visibility, faster payment times and improved supplier relationships. With the right systems in place, it’s possible to get 100% of visibility of supplier data, a deeper sense of cashflow, and knowledge of committed spend 3-6 months further than is currently possible. The right systems also enable institutions to tick the compliance box, reduce auditing pain, and eliminate fraud. Risk reduction is also possible through multi-level approval layers that are quick and easy to approve and audit trails come as standard.

For example, recent research revealed that one of the top three compliance and supplier risk drivers for better data visibility is increased reporting requirements to governments / regulators. In Australia, universities are increasingly concerned about reporting requirements to address regulations such as the Modern Slavery Act and the ABS Survey on Foreign Entities.

One way in which finance can ensure these benefits – including compliance – are realized is by making it easy to implement a solution, as this quote from another Australian-based Basware customer in this sector illustrates:

We love your standardised project delivery and approach. All your systems and processes are standardised, clear, and well documented. It has made it easy to implement your solution and makes us confident that our users will engage with it more easily, so we can get better, more consistent results.

In short, by better synchronising the financial functions in the different parts of the institution – an activity that should be led by central finance – the finance department can show other business units where “quick-win” savings can be made, financial problems alleviated, and difficult decisions made. The decentralised approach to higher education funding is now largely accepted as a cornerstone of financial strategy in the sector. [4] But what do you think?

Polling the professionals

While the questions raised in this article and the solutions suggested (and often observed) to resolve these issues go some way towards addressing the pressures faced by CFOs and senior finance leaders of higher education institutions, we know that because of the rapid changes in financial environments in the last two years, a great deal of information about these issues is now outdated.

That’s why Basware is commissioning independent research in partnership with Tech Wire Asia to ask finance leaders at higher education institutions how they are choosing, using and re-imagining technology tools to achieve their goals: to improve services, streamline processes at data and operational levels, re-position central finance, and change approaches and attitudes to financial matters across the campus.

Participants in the survey from Tech Wire Asia will receive an advanced and exclusive copy of the ensuing research in a condensed report that will enable them to benchmark their own department’s performance against those of their peers.

Register to participate in this research by voicing your opinions and telling us about your experiences.

[1] While “real-time” as an adjective might imply nanosecond precision, in finance, it is interpreted more generally. Information that is weeks out of date might be pertinent; data from months or years ago may not be so. For finance professionals, real-time should be interpreted as less than 24 hours old, in ideal circumstances.

[2] https://blog.statwolf.com/9-key-facts-about-machine-learning-in-2017

[3] https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/331 pp.5

[4] https://www.hanoverresearch.com/media/Financial-Reporting-in-Higher-Education.pdf pp.13

The post Lessons in Higher Education Finance: Lead from the Centre appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The company’s P2P automation and management platform streamlines procurement and accounts payable processes, leverages machine learning to proactively reduce the number of exceptions to its automated processes and provides granular data that transforms finance into a strategic function, across the enterprise.

But what does it look like on the inside, and what role do AI and innovation play in changing the nature of finance operations? We asked Michael and Sush, and this was their expert, detailed response.

What does a finance team look like, with, and without Basware’s help?

As technologists, when we thought about modern-day finance operations, we were inclined to ask Michael what a Basware-enabled finance department might look like: what could be happening on the shop floor?

“In a high-performing company, the first thing that you’re going to be able to see is that there’s a degree of processing taking place, by exception, rather than manually. [This is underpinned by] things like AI, machine learning and business rules that conduct all the heavy lifting you will typically see being done in a back-office finance function,” he said.

In other words, when companies are using automation, the real difference lies in what you don’t see, rather than what you do see.

In companies without Basware, the scenario is somewhat different.

“The thing you’ll notice is that most large companies without an advanced, connected software solution have a lot of paper, PDFs and a lot of people handling most of these tasks manually. Most of these teams are typically used to heavy transaction processing.”

Basware’s software transforms typical, manual, and transaction-heavy environments into ones that are more automated. And the solutions seamlessly enable reporting and compliance using analytics tools that let users see where the problems are, so they can further automate around the blockages. As Michael says, this “fosters an environment of continuous improvement.”

Fostering an environment of continuous improvement with people at the heart

The idea of continuous improvement obviously applies to the processing systems that are the lifeblood of the P2P cycle. But does it also apply to the people? Absolutely. Rather than threatening to replace the jobs that skilled professionals do well, Basware’s technology allows them to put their training and experience to more positive use than mundane admin work.

We asked Sush what a successful finance division – including all staff, managers, and the CFO, looks like once they’re using Basware.

“We do hear a lot from our clients about how user satisfaction has improved, once they put [Basware] in place. So yes, technology can do things a lot better. I see technology as an enabler. There are things that humans do a lot better; that technology can never replace.

But it’s important to note that technology, whether we talk about artificial intelligence, or machine learning, or RPA, does really well within a particular box. If we give any of those technologies a lot of repetitive data, [they] can see the patterns and trends and can process that a lot faster.

At Basware, what we bring to the table is we let the machine learning and the AI and all of the technology handle the rapid amount of stuff that’s a little bit monotonous. [As a result,] instead of spending hours on the phone with a supplier trying to explain why an invoice is lost or missing or why a payment is delayed, they can spend that time looking at where they are spending the money, and with what suppliers.”

The true difference comes with scale

The savings and the possibilities multiply when used on a larger scale, of course. “When you multiply that scenario across 40 people in Europe, maybe for 40 or 50 in the US, maybe another 20 or so in Asia. You can see the impact. This is why I call Basware a platform of continuous improvement,” Michael said.

Does continuous improvement happen overnight or over time?

To us, continuous improvement sounds like it implies a series of long-term gains that might not necessarily be seismic shifts right from day one. We asked Sush if that was the case.

In fact, Sush disagreed. She says that implementing a well-thought-out P2P solution allows organisations to see noticeable differences quite quickly: “Organisations are going to see significant benefits almost immediately, upon implementation. You could call it the Big Bang, if you want. I think that’s going to be true, when switching from a completely manual process to automation, whether they use Basware or a different solution.” But [with Basware, specifically] there will also be smaller, more consistent changes that further amplify a P2P’s usefulness over time.

How do these changes happen? Obviously as users learn, their skills improve. But Sush pointed out that this is not the only source of incremental improvement. “One source of change is the Basware system,” she explains. “The system itself learns and starts giving more recommendations to users – for example, as the AP department uses the system more they can identify areas where they can do more. Basware can look at your historical transactions and identify anything that looks like a recurring payment – this could be a lease or cell phone payment or property maintenance – and then it makes recommendations to the user that you can reduce the amount of processing you’re doing on the back end by moving this to something that we call a spend plan – which is a proactive tool that organisations can use to bring more spend under control.”

As users become more familiar with the Basware platform’s power, their ability to further improve the system is also enhanced.

Since the Basware platform is a cloud service, users get updates and new functional enhancements as the platform evolves. “We’re constantly adding new functionality,” said Michael. “And being a cloud-based service, any new functionality is immediately available for everyone.” Michael explained.

Interoperability with other systems

At an enterprise level, life can be complicated by the need to use, and share data, between existing technology stacks both in the organisation as a whole and in the finance function.

We asked Sush, “Is interoperability with other systems an answer to the data puzzle?”

Her response was, “Yes, interoperability within a client’s existing technology ecosystem is absolutely essential. There is no situation where we would go in and say, ‘Hey, you need to rip out what you already have, and then put Basware in instead.’ We work with clients to understand their existing technology landscape and provide a solution that not only fits within that environment but also adds additional value.

One of the ways we differ from our competition is a lot of our competitors push this idea of, ‘You need to automate the entire source to pay process with one vendor, and we are that vendor that is going to do it.’ We usually go in and say, ‘Hey, whatever is your most urgent need, let’s start with that and then you can build on it either with Basware or with another best-of-breed solution that addresses your needs better.’ The number of permutations and combinations can really be interesting. And for that kind of scenario to be really successful, integration is very, very important.”

Interoperability opens up the possibility of true data visibility

In a world where most organisations create a plethora of data, the art and science of decision-making can often rely on having access to the right data. That’s when the magic happens.

Once Basware is in place and connecting with all relevant systems, Michael explains that, “Instead of tracking transactions being done in different offices around the globe], now it’s being centralised, and we’re consolidating all of that complexity. We’re allowing the machine learning and the business rules to do all the heavy lifting. And then we’re dealing with the exceptions. The reliance on manual effort is diminishing over time. And as the continuous improvement platform continues on its journey of improving things, reliance on human intervention becomes less.”

As users become more interested in seeing a new dimension in procure-to-pay data visibility, they become more curious about the intelligence that their connected businesses operations can show. “Using our Analytics tool, our most successful clients are constantly asking for new dimensions and custom reports to then really fine-tune where those opportunities are to improve the process as they go on,” explains Michael.

Transformation isn’t always easy, but using a best-practice approach pays dividends

Historically, many organisations have shied away from making transformation happen. The Pandemic forced us to re-evaluate remote-working and, as a result, it has also accelerated the pace of business transformation, particularly to the cloud. However, there is little point in bringing in a solution that merely mimics existing and less than ideal processes. True evolution happens when companies re-think the way they undertake every action within the procure-to-pay journey: from sourcing and procuring goods, to reconciling purchase orders with invoices, ensuring three-way matches (automatically, where possible) and reconciling information to see future room for improvement.

Michael summed it up for us like this: “The point is that, if you simply use a system to do the same stuff that you’ve always done, you actually aren’t using best practice. And that is where the real difference comes in. When you can get finance and procurement talking to each other, because they’re using the same language and data, they are able break down traditional the silo walls. And they can actually start to pool their resources by using a unified set of metrics across the entire procure-to-pay process. But more importantly, they’re actually gaining visibility of the quick wins and continuously improving the process with every action they undertake. That becomes part of a mindset of doing what’s right for the business, rather than just accepting the way it’s always been done.”

A clearer picture emerges from the combination of granular detail and high-level dashboards

Even the most highly paid finance professionals in an organisation may well be sidetracked by edge-cases. In part, that’s why humans will always have a role to play in supporting the full P2P process. But, over time, automation software will find more ways of accommodating edge cases. A machine learning-powered P2P engine can learn to deal with more exceptions as time goes by. And that, for many Finance Divisions, is just the beginning. The granular nature of the data ingested by the Basware software ironically creates the clearest birds-eye view of the overall process.

It’s not only a matter of perspective, but it’s the fine detail that gives the clearest picture.

If what you’ve read here is ringing any bells of recognition, now might be the time to talk to Basware. Pick up the phone to a representative local to your centre of operations or request a demonstration of the platform’s full capabilities.

The post Automation advice from the experts: Basware weighs in on simplifying processes and finance operations appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Of all the areas of the enterprise, few functions have been more manual, repetitive and paper-dependent than the finance department. Most business professionals would never consider sending a handwritten letter to a supplier or partner. However, putting a purchase order (PO) or invoice for services rendered in the post was, surprisingly, still an everyday occurrence for many companies until COVID exposed the vulnerabilities of organisations with any paper-based activities.

When country after country went into lockdown, the immediate need for digital solutions required organisations to shift their digital approaches and finance was no exception. That’s why we at Tech Wire Asia are delighted to interview Basware about why this crisis became a catalyst for business teams, including finance, to consider more in-depth, business-impactful solutions immediately and for the longer term.

Paper, cattle and the Coronavirus

The shift to remote working took many of our readers by surprise. In an exclusive interview with Tech Wire Asia, Sush Koka, the Director of Global Product Marketing at Basware, described the challenges of a paper-based lifestyle.

“In the midst of lockdown did you continue to risk employees’ health and send them into the office regularly to pick up documents and scan them?” she asks. This seemingly simple question underpins a fundamental business risk. “If you consider that suppliers, especially smaller ones, struggle to keep their doors open unless buying organisations pay them on time, or even early”, says Sush, the risk to the entire supply chain could be significant. When weeks elapse between invoice pickup, processing and payment, smaller suppliers might, quite frankly, not be able to survive.

That was the situation faced by Pāmu, the state-owned New Zealand company that managed to pay 7,500 invoices in ten working days as the COVID pandemic hit, an action that kept the country’s food supply moving and ensured the continued livelihood of owners and workers on 125 farms.

How did Pāmu achieve this rapid transition to electronic invoicing? It came down to two factors: Basware’s know-how and procure-to-pay SaaS software and Pāmu’s finance and procurement teams’ determination and forward-thinking drive to turn farmers into digitally-enabled procure-to-pay experts.

100% visibility

Being able to quickly turn around payments and support the New Zealand economy when they needed it most was actually an unanticipated bonus for Pāmu. Originally, their intention was to digitise key processes across the business, starting with procurement and finance. However, they soon realised that the benefits of automating 100% of their procure-to-pay processes also gave them 100% visibility of those processes: and that, in turn, unlocked a host of other benefits.

Michael Pyliotis, Basware’s Vice President of APAC, explains that while 100% spend visibility is the company’s mantra, having visibility of what is spent actually translates into complete visibility across all of the company’s commerce flows when it’s done right. For Pāmu this meant the finance and, in turn, leadership team were able to see what their farmers had actually bought, not just what they had spent.

The key to true visibility lies in that small, but significant, three-letter word, ‘all’.

The Basware solution adds the type of profound insight into all the financial activities that take place everywhere in the organisation. “From day one”, Michael says, “we can see everything that our suppliers are doing out there. And from there, we can make real business decisions based on real information. We can answer questions like, ‘What type of spend is coming in? Is it linked to contracts and POs? Is there a lot of non-purchase order-related spend that requires additional processing to get it right, and into the payment process?’ Having access to this information can provide significant value to decision-makers across the organisation, if they choose to use it. For example, managers tasked with driving an R&D project can track every cent spent, analyse the best- and worst-performing cost centres and use this information to reach their project goals faster and more leanly.

How is this possible? Basware uses advanced invoice and PO matching, which matches more scenarios than any of its competitors through the logic built into the application. Basware’s SmartCoding also uses AI and machine learning to leverage historical transactions to suggest coding, even for non-PO invoices, and its SmartPDF solution takes care of the mapping of the fields between the format in which a supplier sent the invoice and the format in which the buyer can receive it. All of these activities make it easier for data to be extracted and, consequentially, acted on by people who need information anywhere in the organisation’s financial process – from the person who requests the PO to the CEO.

Change is hard

Despite the obvious benefits that true visibility brings organisations, many companies have not yet sought to connect their data and their systems in a way that can provide meaningful data that allows actionable insights. Why? The answer often lies in human fear of change.

Despite the fact that COVID illustrated our human potential to adapt rapidly, many people and organisations still believe that change is hard: which has typically been a barrier to adopting new technology. This is partly why, typically, software implementers have chosen to take the stick rather than a carrot approach to change management. However, Basware has seen positive results from approaching things differently. Basware prefers to involve those who understand and are involved in the real day-to-day invoice and purchasing process in its evolution. “When people are involved in designing, learning about, testing and working through a project, they become part of the solution, in a way”, says Michael. Then, once the process evolution has taken place, the whole team can drive reporting and compliance rather than processing transactions. Subsequently, tools like Basware’s reporting and analytics suite help members further evolve their service offering.

For example, “Using tools like analytics helps identify where there are cost blocks in the process, where processes have stopped, where there are disputes” and enable business users and process owners to resolve the underlying issues, creating a virtual cycle of business improvement. “We tend to encourage them to come in and own the process”, says Michael. “This is how we realise true process automation actually occurs. It’s not about changing how the business works. It’s about looking at how we can work across the business and use tools to drive change effectively”. As Sush explains, “Our solutions are built with the end-user in mind, not just the procurement or AP professional. Users adopt our solution not because they are forced to but because it’s the easiest way for them to get their jobs done”.

Fitting in nicely

Many organisations struggle to get full visibility because they simply can’t access all the financial data they need. It’s locked up in systems that don’t talk nicely to each other.

However, Basware’s platform works alongside enterprise’s existing solutions.

“Basware supports an open ecosystem approach”, says Sush. “Our integration capabilities mean that we can connect to whatever systems our customers already have in place (multiple ERPs and even legacy systems) as well as a broader partner ecosystem. For example, we can connect and get the data from specific procurement or marketplace systems as well”. All of which goes back to the 100% data capture approach. “The transaction does not have to originate or terminate in our system for us to capture the data,” Sush explains.

By integrating and connecting the many different business support systems across the entire purchase to pay process, true data visibility becomes possible. Basware uses a combination of its own internal tools and open APIs, which, as Michael describes, “make it pretty simple for IT departments to connect systems in a very secure, safe, structured way”.

Conclusion

As many organisations begin their transition from a COVID-dominated business environment, it may be tempting to think that things can or will return to the way things were. Neither Michael nor Sush believe that companies will want to go back to the dark ages of paper processing. “Financial process automation is clearly critical and strategic – COVID has made that very, very obvious,” says Sush. “Paying suppliers on time, keeping the supply chain moving, enabling a remote workforce… None of that is possible without a digital platform. You just don’t have a good handle of your cashflow in a situation like this, without automation.”

Since finance drives or underpins every single aspect of business life it seems logical that digital change should start with financial technology. Beyond cost savings and processing efficiencies, cost containment and spend management are becoming more important in our current world. Efficiency and improvements in that business function bring enterprise-wide benefits and financial automation has far reaching benefits across the entire organisation.

Indeed, an argument could be made for requiring all departments to co-fund a financial platform like Basware’s, too. But that’s another topic for another day…

To re-examine your digitisation strategies in the light of the COVID epidemic and learn about driving change from the finance department out into the greater enterprise at large, read more in “The Roadmap to Business Continuity,” and speak to Basware about its uniquely powerful offerings.

The post Software, finance and COVID: why life will never go back to normal appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Data is a necessity: but is it usable?

Those involved in the financial supply chain – from accounts payable clerks to CFOs and heads of procurement – need meticulous and scrupulously-accurate figures and supporting data. These departments are involved in every single area of the business, but the number of manual and often repetitive tasks that need to be carried out daily have historically overwhelmed their teams’ ability to see the wood for the trees, data-wise.

But when systems are connected and data flows seamlessly, the power and possibilities of analysing the data in such systems become apparent. Those in the know are aware that by extending their reach technologically, they can create better value for their entire enterprise. Given that the whole FP&A function’s accuracy and depth of insight can be increased significantly if they have access to the enterprise’s larger data repositories, many are now thinking about ways that this can be achieved. Once the enterprise’s many financial threads are pulled together, how can partners, clients or internal stakeholders access and use the information they need to interact?

The logical next step in financial software evolution

We spoke to Michael Pyliotis, Vice-President, APAC, of Basware, one of the best-known procure-to-pay management and automation vendors about the next logical step in the evolution of enterprise-grade financial software. In conversation with Tech Wire Asia, Pyliotis described some of the company’s platform’s new features, which are creating a system of “Visible Commerce,” in which financial information from the enterprise’s many functions can be analysed and acted upon.

“Basware’s core business is to streamline and automate finance and procurement processes. But what we’re finding is the need to encompass more and more financial data is becoming more prevalent,” he told us. The real value of connected data for the FP&A function becomes apparent when “end users are able to see the entire spectrum of their company’s liabilities and disbursements.”

Gaining value from 100 per cent of customers’ business data is rapidly becoming a necessity. When data overlaps between systems, mismatches or data gaps can cause visibility issues. However, when these gaps are addressed and the data is analysed, deep value and insight can be gained. Historically data has sat in silos. “Many organisations in the enterprise space typically have two or three business systems”. Pyliotis elucidates: “For example, order management and inventory, as well as invoicing and purchasing and ERP systems. Basware connects all systems together and be the centralised point to deal with all their transaction processing in the back end.” Imagine a data lake containing centrally connected, need-to-know data that can be interrogated across functions, teams and systems. Suddenly, clarity becomes possible, a concept that Visible Commerce addresses.

The secret sauce to financial visibility

The secret sauce is what Pyliotis describes as “a simple-to-use GUI [graphical user interface] that gives access to 100 per cent of the data.” This apparently obvious statement encapsulates two elements that, when combined, take ordinary financial systems to the next level.

Firstly: there’s the question of ease of use. Historically, giving users access to data in a meaningful way has not been the norm. The usability of any software has often been overlooked by developers putting a solution together, predominantly if they focus on data outputs first, and the user experience second. This has massive implications for user adoption. Since end-users of most software aren’t primarily technical types, if the user interface has to be wrestled with, the expensive software investment just gathers dust in the long run. The second element, being able to view, access and analyse the 100 per cent figure that Pyliotis mentioned makes many finance professionals nervous.

Complete oversight is possible in theory, of course, but inefficient processes have often prevented seamless data flow with the result that gathering 100 per cent of data simply wasn’t possible. Here’s why: as Pyliotis described it, “an invoice from a supplier that doesn’t match creates a raft of inefficiencies.” As soon as anomalies crop up in the day-to-day processes in the FP&A department, complete oversight is lost (and human staff have to try and unpick the idiosyncrasies and work out the problem’s detailed history.) However, “Basware uses AI and business rules to automatically process them, removing inefficiencies for AP teams. Fixing up usability spares a lot of money in the long run and provides quantum benefits for users in terms of processes and efficiency”, he told us.

When automation is the norm, complete business data visibility becomes possible.

True visibility requires connecting every platform, everywhere in the organisation

Unfortunately, the only way to get a bigger picture view is by unifying all the parts of the broader enterprise’s technology systems that have a bearing, financially, on the company: and those are pretty much every platform operating everywhere in the organisation.

Pulling data together means uniting discrete systems like ERPs, CRMs from marketing and sales divisions (for example), HR systems, operations platform information, and even supply chain and logistics information. Further down the line, too, there’s almost definitely a need to interface with suppliers’ and partners’ systems too: either using simple portals for small suppliers to interact with, or fully-fledged API integrations.

Basware’s platform architecture certainly delivers these integrations and provides plenty of smart processing as part of the offering. It’s capable of not only creating the unified data source that’s required to plan appropriately and see historical trends but it can also work intelligently with unfamiliar purchase order formats and “rogue” paperwork, for example.

Taking a highly competent procure-to-pay solution to the next level

Taking what was already a highly competent procure-to-pay solution to the next level, so that systems which are not strictly financial software platforms can be integrated into an overarching financial solution, is what enables that critically-important overview of the entire enterprise’s monetary movements.

But the concept of Visible Commerce goes much further. Basware’s Director of Global Analyst Relations, Jeff Meredith told Tech Wire Asia about the importance of creating a truly visible system of interconnected people: including all relevant members of the organisation, their customers and their suppliers. Unsurprisingly, the route to visibility starts with data. “We talk about the power of data”, says Meredith, “100 per cent of your users, 100 per cent of your suppliers, being able to process 100 per cent of your invoices: that’s the only way you get true visibility, by reaching all those key criteria.” Connecting tools, technology, companies and their information are key to this but it does require a large amount of relevant country-specific knowledge to make this possible, which is why Meredith also talked about maintaining compliance internationally — a must-have for any business that is looking beyond a purely domestic market. “Basware’s platform comes with e-invoice data compliance for over 60 countries as standard”, he said. In a time when adherence to local data governance is as important as fraud prevention, that’s a key differentiator.

On the horizon is an extension of another of Basware’s unique features. There’s already a reasonable degree of automated due diligence available to Basware users when, for instance, signing up a new supplier. Searches for bad debts and for disqualified company directors happens already “under the hood,” but the Visible Commerce paradigm takes that concept further.

In beta trials at the moment is a price-comparison feature which will be available initially in the US, but will spread to different geographies in time. Although not meant to be a significant price-finding mechanism, it will help procurement professionals get a grasp on standard market prices, drawing on data that’s freely available, but pulling it into the Basware platform. Like the naturalistic GUI mentioned above, that’s an ease-of-use feature designed to improve users’ quality of life as well as companies’ procurement oversight and policy compliance. With better supply chain visibility, organisations can create supply chain resilience and improve business continuity by decreasing risk.

Financial pros who are embracing the next-generation of business platforms are leveraging the power of their own data already. The next logical step is to leverage the power of anonymised data in an extended network of customers, partners and suppliers. With concepts like Visible Commerce, technology can be used to inform or even formulate strategy. By drawing meaning from the digital data deluge of crucial information, other people’s data (in anonymised formats) can help enterprises plan ahead.

To learn more about Visible Commerce and Basware’s multiple offerings, head over to https://r.basware.com/visiblecommerce.

The post Financial strategists need big data: Visible Commerce could be the answer, says Basware VP appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The spectre of the US-China trade war (21 percent) dominates the thoughts of many professionals, with raised concerns over the future of the free market system. One respondent even went as far as to state that his biggest economic fear is that “we will not have free markets any more in ten years”.

But as far as technology goes (the report concentrates on findings with regards to automation and digitisation), there’s a positive attitude shown by most.

The full report is here to download from Basware (who sponsored its publication), but a few figures have surfaced that make for interesting reading. Here are some key highlights as Tech Wire Asia sees them.

Automation

Placing the burden of troublesome, repetitive workloads onto silicon-based “robots” is not yet commonplace, but most survey respondents believe that automation of some sort, is the future. 47 percent expect payments to be automated and similar responses were indicated for the automation of procurement processes, supply chain management and internal finance processes. However, 34 percent of respondents expect automation to free up time to focus on strategic objectives.

In short, deploying automation software to do mundane tasks lets individual staff worry less about the boredom-inducing copying of information from system X to platform Y and shift their focus to more impactful roles and duties.

Among finance and procurement professionals, 43 percent cited the need for technology investment with regards to automation across other departments. That mirrors the centralised, more strategic role finance and procurement is playing in many companies.

Finance and procurement platforms need to interface with other systems (HR, operations and supply chain management platforms, to name a few) in order for this strategic positioning to be viable.

Clearly, the impact of technology is not without its side-effects: 51 percent stated that the automation of internal finance procedures would require a revision of financial processes. That’s undoubtedly down to the dismantling of data silo walls that is necessary if procurement and finance are to take a more central role in the business.

Digitisation

The trouble with a broad-sweep term like digitisation is that it means different things to different people. For some, it means fewer paper-based transactions and manual record-keeping, but for those further down the digital transformation road, digitisation may mean using cloud-based clusters of services in specific areas, like providing procurement partners and suppliers access to real-time data, for example.

One advantage that APAC has over other geographies is that businesses and organisations here are usually further along the road to digital transformation. The opportunity is apparent, therefore, for finance and procurement teams to help steer the way to beating global competition.

Interestingly, digitising financial processes will inevitably lead (it is felt by 45 percent of those surveyed) to a revision of procedures, but 42 percent (58 percent in financial services) believe the primary impact will be to reduce costs. That naturally assumes that staff will be quick to assimilate new, digital methodologies and existing technological infrastructure can adapt, be replaced, or share data efficiently. However, retraining and re-tasking staff is an expensive business. Despite the fact that next-generation finance platforms have come a long way in adopting graphical user interfaces and user experience practices that are familiar to finance professionals – and while many leaders are confident their teams can hit the ground running as new technologies emerge – the importance of engaging teams in adjusting to change cannot be underestimated.

Global trade

Concerns about the US-China trade war were front-of-mind for those surveyed and particularly for those in the manufacturing sector, 37 percent of whom cited this trend. But while it dominates the headlines, this trend was not the only trade-related concern for global businesses. Another source of concern is national barriers to digital trade, including censorship, localisation measures and privacy regulation, which was cited by 13 percent, as well as the importance of climate change. 12 percent of respondents identified “extreme weather events and other climate change-related disruptions” as their top concern.

Human resources

As is often the case with surveys such as the one reviewed here, the short-term implications are most apparent in the detail. It is notable that 31 percent of those surveyed stated that recruiting new staff with specialist digital skills will be critical to digital transformation. That’s interesting to note, as automation, digitisation, and technology in general are often seen as remote, powerful and autonomous systems that once in play, create free time for staff to pursue other, more worthy tasks.

However, the reality is that digitally fluent finance and procurement staff will need to be hands-on with digitised systems and processes. In other words, they will need to know the capabilities of software and digital services and be able to deploy those systems effectively. And, preferably, act as advocates-come-technology-evangelists for the whole division.

To download the full report, please visit the Basware website to request your copy.

The post Global trade, HR, and tech concerns for optimistic finance & procurement pros: EIU survey appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

That’s the issue faced by organisations’ procurement functions, where rogue spending (or maverick spend) can very quickly make a serious dent in the company’s figures. At best, the dent in the statistics will come as unexpected bad news; at worst, rogue spending can change fortunes.

In Q2 2018, The Hackett Group surveyed to see the strategic importance of maverick spend reduction and get a snapshot of industry opinions, compare attitudes and practices, and see how top-performing companies differentiate in approach to the issue.

The results make sobering reading, with 100 percent of procurement managers saying they believed maverick spend is critical, yet 78 percent of leaders said their staff thought that their purchases “were too small to make a difference.”

Tech Wire Asia spoke to Michael Pyliotis, from Basware, the company behind the report’s commission about the issue of rogue procurement. We asked Michael whether the problem stemmed from a series of single acts of desperation on the part of staff who were picking up the phone to place orders, rather than going through ‘approved channels’.

“Yes, it tends to be either acts of desperation, or for want of ease of use in procurement systems, or lack of any type of procurement structure,” he said.

Of course, simply dropping in a procurement framework and an overseeing piece of software to try and bring some order into the chaos isn’t necessarily the solution. After all, many software implementations fail because of poor staff take up and that’s usually down to either an inefficient interface that’s a pain to use or the deployment of a system that doesn’t work the way the organisation needs it to. (The latter situation stems, in our experience, from high-up management taking decisions about software choices without consulting ‘coal-face’ workers about day-to-day processes.)

In the report’s executive summary, over 75 percent of procurement officers said that if there were an effective tool for procurement in place, they would use it. Clearly, an effective platform has immediate advantages:

– use of only preferred suppliers means companies can negotiate bulk-based savings, early payment discounts, price guarantees, and similar financial perks

– companies get to see the difference between desired (or predicted) spend and the reality

– analytics and reports on procurement are based on empirical data, not hearsay, guesswork, after-the-fact data gathering (which as a process tends to be arduous)

With regards to Basware’s specific platform, user buy-in levels are very high: the interface is easy and simple to use. If a product or service needs sourcing, users can select a category and then be funnelled down into preferred (and pre-approved) suppliers, with the entire click-to-procure so simple it obviates the desire to “quickly pick up the phone and make a panicked order”, as Pyliotis paraphrases it.

Any company using Basware’s procurement solution may find out a few home truths; the high amount of retrospective PO creation, for example (where POs are created after an invoice is presented).

Of course, the Basware eProcurement solution handles this issue, and pairs off approved suppliers, expected invoices and accompanying PO creation. The difference between a disorganised scatter-gun approach to procurement and a controlled (yet entirely flexible & granular) system is notable. In Michael Pyliotis’s experience, the software pays for itself in short order with savings made from just one of the procurement categories that the software helps to define.

The overall effect is one of “moving procurement from a transaction-based series of unorganised transactions to one of data-based reporting.” With savings and staff happiness too, that’s a recipe that any procurement officer will enjoy. To learn more about maverick procurement in today’s organisation, download the report.

The post Maverick procurement challenges the balance sheet appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The irony is that the flow of goods & services and payments in and out of the business are its lifeblood. It’s nigh on impossible, in some cases, for finance functions in the organisation to respond at the speed, and with the high levels of accuracy, that the mass consumerisation of technology has created a demand for. Organisations are throttling their lifeblood by not adapting their Finance and Procurement practices to drive change throughout the affected Departments.

This situation exacerbated by a new generation of staff that are coming into workplaces as digital natives – with expectations of the speed and efficiency of the digital age. Your organisation both works alongside Generation Z, but also interacts with technologically talented people up- and down-stream of the supply chain. There’s an expectation all round, therefore, that your organisation can trade, procure and administrate its dealings digitally. Are you ready?

Whether you’re a Director of Finance or a Procurement Officer, or you work in an Accounts Payable Team, you’ll know that the nature of your organisation’s processes is unique. So it just wouldn’t be practical to blindly attempt to modernise and create meaningful, efficient, digital workflows by jumping at the first raft of technology to come along. Better to see solutions in practice, and talk to experts in the provision of procurement, finance, and treasury.

The Basware platform is truly end-to-end, addressing three major areas of digital empowerment. From creating a supplier selection policy to managing a strategic vision for the Finance and Procurement functions, come and meet Basware and see the future in action.

Enable digital transactions

By digitising all information (supplier information, catalogues, contracts) you are empowered with the ability to delegate data responsibility to the supply chain, and open new, collaborative channels with partners, peer organisations, suppliers and customers.

What were once complex, repetitive workplace processes become a simple matter of instructing software to undertake tasks without error, every time.

Create mind-machine partnerships

Identification of automatable roles means staff can be freed up to perform strategic, visionary roles that focus on real business impact, rather than fighting fires and undertaking gap analysis.

The structure of job roles can be reconfigured as a meshing of robotic processes and emancipated staff takes root, with the emphasis on what can be done, not what has to be done, just to survive. Basware can even help with the necessary changes in mindset required across the Finance function, for staff unused to robotic process automation.

Leverage technology for insight

Focus on predictive and prescriptive analytics, enhanced by AI and ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning) to discover where cost centers are performing poorly, and how business intelligence can be applied to remediate ailing processes and systems. Payments and financing data, properly addressed and mined, inform and open up possibilities, like capturing available early payment discounts – without manual intervention.

The totality of the human/robot technological infrastructure can transform processes digitally, but also instigate a sea-change in the way the Finance and Procurement Departments think, operate and are regarded in the larger enterprise. The significant resources available from the trusted change management partner, Basware, mean that you can transform both your human talent and the way you, they and your partners interact with technology.

To learn more, visit the Basware site for more information or contact a representative here.

The post A fraction of your data gives only fractional improvement: get it all with Basware appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Often regarded as the most conservative echelon of the modern enterprise, today’s CFOs and CPOs are embracing new technologies, deploying automation, deep analytics, and the forefront of machine learning techniques to take control of processing costs, spend and overall financial performance.

As technology advances into the workplace, the traditional roles of finance personnel are changing as more processes are automated and data “crunching” takes the heavy lifting out of the day-to-day routines.

That’s not to say that overall workloads are now lower. Technology has also created greater expectations, from management, suppliers, clients and customers alike.

This change, however positive, does not happen automatically. A major challenge for the modern CFO and CPO is to teach finance and procurement staff to take advantage of the new technologies. Failure to do so would leave the company hanging on to the old conventions while competition adopts automation and AI. The change challenges professionals too, whose once core competencies are now the primary remit of the AI algorithms.

At the heart of financial digital transformation is, of course, data. By consolidating information into next-gen cloud provisions like Basware’s, the power of machine learning can be deployed to create impactful results – from deriving powerful intelligence and reporting to creating finance departments which turn from a cost center to a revenue generator.

The cloud is at the heart of Basware’s offering. As well as being the platform which drives its users’ insights and efficiency, it provides the basis for the world’s biggest open financial network, which encompasses a million organizations in 100+ countries.

The network lets enterprise send and receive orders, invoices, and credit notes to newly-discovered or existing suppliers, while maintaining compliance standards wherever on the globe transactions take place.

Once onboarded (a simple and clear process), suppliers can self-manage, with online catalogs available to enterprise buyers.

Orphaned invoices and non-PO payments can be handled either by robotic processes or referred for human intervention. The mean effect is a massive lowering of human errors, typically caused by manual entry, repetitive tasks, and traditional paper-based financial processes.

“With its proven customer activation program, Basware helps companies to quickly set up a connection with as many trading partners as possible in a structured and qualitative way. It’s a win-win situation. The main advantages for us are the cost savings, the international legal compliance and the ease of outsourcing.” Arcelor Mittal, Flat Carbon Europe.

Clearly, a transforming financial division will need a full raft of advice and a coherent, stepwise roadmap, as befitting the department’s pivotal role in the organization.

But by partnering with Basware, the transition to the cloud of procurement and finance operations will not impact ongoing processes – Basware’s long financial experience ensures a business-focus at all times.

The change to becoming an insights-driven company is a desirable one for many. In order to finance and procurement to set up for future competitiveness and growth, technology and personnel will need to form new relationships. Basware calls this #SuperFinance – a mind-machine partnership.

As artificial intelligence becomes a new colleague to people, finance and procurement professionals will adopt new skills. Managing behavioural change in personnel doesn’t happen overnight, but by having staff learn to recognize biases and heuristics in their current ways of working and decision-making, they can begin to critically review the AI’s suggestions, and connect information from the real world to financial supply chain data. This enables them to adopt a new, more strategic role.

Transactions management on a daily basis will gradually stop, and epidemic problems can be clearly and objectively addressed as the collaboration with AI becomes the norm.

With Basware’s P2P cloud solution, your finance department can:

• Control your spend from a single PO to large-scale MRP-led procurement activities
• Improve visibility into data sets to make smarter decisions
• Deploy process automation, massively reducing costs and complexity
• Optimize payment terms and take advantage of early payment discounts
• Improve supplier relations going forward
• Automate 100 percent of orders and invoices
• Streamline supplier evaluation and onboarding processes with a collaborative, networked sourcing solution.

“We told Basware what we wanted, and were impressed by their proven technology and best practices. One of our requirements was that the solution had to integrate seamlessly into our existing financial back end. Basware’s solutions are easy to combine with existing standard AP modules. That’s one of the reasons we chose Basware. Over the years, SITA has switched from British accounting software Sage over to SAP, but Basware has stayed.” Serge Flantua, Director of Shared Services, SITA

To learn more about Forrester’s Report on the Total Economic Impact of Basware’s Purchase-To-Pay Cloud Solution please follow this link or alternatively, you can contact Basware directly.

The post #SuperFinance – Basware’s mind-machine partnership vision for Finance and Procurement appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.