When preparing their upcoming annual budget, the tech in which Chief Financial Officers consider investing have long-term implications for their organizations. The more intentional the investment in technology is, the better the chance the organization sees far-reaching benefits.
The technology sector accounted for 10.5% of the US GDP in 2022. This percentage is only second to the healthcare industry and demonstrates just how vital it is for modern organizations to be investing in technology and their own digital transformation.
CFOs have a lot of responsibility as they hold the top financial position in an organization. CFOs need to be advocates for technology since they understand the long-term rewards that stem from a digital transformation.
Read on to learn more about the tech that CFOs should plan to fold into their budgets when planning for the upcoming year.
An important aspect in digital transformation is being able to identify the right solutions for your unique situation, learn more about pinpointing potential solutions in Impact’s webinar, How to Identify High-Value Opportunities for Innovation.
4 Pieces of Tech CFOs Need in Next Year’s Budget
With so many different tech solutions floating around the market, it can be difficult to filter out what’s truly effective compared to what’s just noise. That said, finding the right technology to implement into your organization can greatly improve efficiency, among other benefits.
To help you better plan your digital transformation and tech investment initiatives, we’ve put together a list of technologies that are well worth exploring. These solutions lead to growing financial returns, better employee satisfaction, and improved customer relationships.
1. Enterprise Applications
Enterprise applications include a suite of various large-scale software programs that are designed specifically for big businesses. Some examples include a customer relationship management system (CRM), supply chain management systems, knowledge management systems, and most famously, enterprise resource planning systems.
These large-scale programs are developed to facilitate different business processes and activities throughout an organization. For example, a customer relationship management system allows organizations to properly manage their entire catalogue of current, potential, and past customers with full profiles, real-time updates, and much more.
An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, on the other hand, is used to manage daily business activities and operations and come with many benefits including more unified company data, increased productivity, and visibility across organizational processes and workflows.
An ERP system can reduce operational costs by 23% and administrative costs by 22%. Processes that can be automated with an effective ERP system include financial reporting, inventory management, and customer management. By streamlining these processes with automation, organizations can improve important metrics like productivity and efficiency.
Visibility, one of the major benefits stemming from an ERP, allows CFOs to look deeper into the processes and operations of different departments and informs decisions on pivots or adjustments moving forward. By looking at the data, CFOs can create a better-informed, data-backed, and more strategic budget for the upcoming year.
2. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
RPA, or robotic process automation, is a software that makes use of rudimentary artificial intelligence (AI) in concert with machine learning algorithms to perform repetitive, high-volume, low-value tasks.
One of the best use cases for RPA software is in data transferring and data entry. In these use cases, RPA software massively reduces the risk of error, improves the employee experience by eliminating tedious tasks, and boosts customer satisfaction rates with its speed.
Accounts payable is a popular area of application for RPA solutions. RPA bots process invoices by recognizing each submission, extracting relevant data, and disseminating that information wherever necessary. The low error rate and expedient processing power makes RPA software a no-brainer in these high-volume and repetitive tasks.
RPA software allows employees more time to perform highly specialized and more value-based tasks that require creative and critical thinking in addition to decision making.
All-in-all, the stats around RPA speak for themselves. In a survey conducted by Deloitte, 86% of respondents indicated their expectations of productivity improvement from RPA were met or exceeded. Similarly 61% of respondents saw a cost reduction that met or exceeded expectations.
With a comprehensive series of RPA solutions, businesses can reduce costs and see major efficiency boosts.
3. Document Management Software
Document management software allows users to digitize and organize all company documents so that fewer resources are spent storing, searching for, and sharing these documents. Documents can be accessed simultaneously by multiple employees, while giving company leaders visibility over who has access to what.
Since high-quality document management software can be integrated with existing applications, it passively promotes collaboration throughout your organization. Different versions of documents will be stored, cataloging the changes and edits as a document evolves. That way, if someone wants to revisit an old version of something, they can do it with ease.
According to a report by McKinsey employees spend nearly 2 hours (1.8) every day searching for information they need to do their job. With a proper document management system in place, this figure can be whittled down significantly, giving your staff valuable time back into their daily schedule.
4. Project Management Software
Organizations that use proven project management practices waste 28 times less money than those that don’t. Therefore, a reliable project management solution not only helps an organization deliver services and accomplish goals on time; it also increases savings.
Project management software is used to plan project timelines, allocate resources, designate tasks, facilitate collaboration, and much more. It allows teams in an organization to reach goals without confusion while making the most of their time and resources.
“Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.”
– Peter Drucker
Imagine, for instance, managing a project with sticky notes, numerous phone calls, or loose documents. It will soon become too complicated to keep track of which team member is doing what and where the project is in whole.
With a project management software, everything is in one platform that can be integrated with others in the organization. Visibility increases for the whole team and leaders. Schedules and tasks can be easily changed or moved. Employees will have more time to complete their tasks and not worry about each piece of the puzzle.
Project management solutions are specifically helpful when working with remote staff. Employees can log in and jump into their tasks right away. Plus, management has visibility over project progress and less time will be used for meetings, clarifications, and other tasks.
A quality project management software will also allow for easy collaboration with clear project timelines, key players and their roles on the project, and regular status updates.
Bottom Line
On the advent of the budgeting season for the next year, CFOs should consider additional investments in technology due to its many benefits.
Although these solutions require money and time, the long-term ROI for organizations is not only financial as companies that invest in tech are often innovators and disruptors in their industries.
Well used technology creates organizational advantages such as visibility, better data, informed decision-making, more efficient workflows, and better collaboration. With this in mind, it’s vital for CFOs to prioritize tech and digital transformation within their organization.
If you want to learn more about the benefits of investing in technology for your organization and how to choose digital transformation initiatives for your organization, watch Impact’s webinar, How to Identify High-Value Opportunities for Innovation.
