The ‘New Normal’ of Finance - Closing the Books Remotely
Adrian Johnston, Senior Vice President of Cloud Applications (SaaS), Japan and Asia Pacific, Oracle Corporation
As companies find new ways of operating in today’s business environment, finance leaders are taking steps to minimise disruption. Finance teams in Asia Pacific have had to shift to remote work and have had to manage the process of closing the books remotely for the first time.
To cope effectively and adapt to this change, companies are encouraged to explore many ways to work effectively remotely - from listerning to what challenges their employees may be facing to being more flexible and in tune with their needs. This in turn, creates a more transparent and supportive environment where employees are willing to trut the process and be more collaborative.
How are companies in Asia Pacific dealing with the current climate?
The air of change looms large across the region and some are doing better than others. Companies are adopting new practices to achieve business continuity and smooth transitions to remote working since finance remains central to the survival of businesses.
Furthermore, rising concerns around having a secure virtual private network (VPN) capacity and access licenses are making companies re-think their IT infrastructure and incorporate connectivity and remote management tools to cope with this change
Working remotely – a boon or bane?
Flexibility, transparency and autonomy have to come into play since employees do not have the luxury of sitting beside colleagues who can help answer their questions, instantly. Furthermore, companies that are currently utilizing cloud software for their processes are seen to have an inherent advantage – not only can the teams access the system remotely and work via their mobile devices but also have access to one set of shared data, integrated workflows, and always up to date technology. This ensures minimized disruption for employees while allowing them to maintain operational excellence.
One such example is Asia Commercial Bank, one of the largest retail banks in Vietnam, which deployed Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Cloud to streamline all its finance, procurement and project expense management processes. With this cloud solution in place, the bank has been able to accelerate its month-end close and reporting cycles by 50 percent. Moving to the cloud also meant it no longer had to manage these applications in its own data centre, which minimised the need for any staff to be on premise. This enabled employees to continue working from the comfort of their home without any operational disruption.
Why are some companies adapting better to remote working than others?
Finance teams in companies that rely heavily on cloud-computing technology to automate accruals, adjustments and internal transactions could be in for a smoother close than those who use on-premise technology on virtual private networks or enter data into spreadsheets manually. This is because companies that have not adopted cloud technology are finding that virtual private networks are not optimized and build for speed, thus causing spreadsheets to incur errors more often than not. While, companies with cloud-computing technology are able to view all activities on a single dashboard, that provides a real-time view of the status of all important aspects such as - completion metrics, aged open items, ensuring finance teams are kept up to date with accurate information.
Hindalco Industries Ltd., a flagship aluminium and copper manufacturing company, used to face multiple challenges when it came to seamless collection of data from various locations and then filing financial reports on a real-time basis. The ability to close books quickly - with quality, accuracy and in full compliance with regulatory standards is a critical challenge that can impact a company negatively, if standards are not met. To simplify their processes, Hindalco adopted Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Cloud and streamlined their financial management and regulatory reports by utilizing the power of data and smart automation in a cost effective manner.
Another example is Inland Revenue Authority in New Zealand which adopted Oracle EPM Cloud to run all the projects smoothly and save time. Previously its budgets were managed in spreadsheets that required a lot of manual work to fill in or update data. With this new cloud solution, all the information is captured in one platform which is now a single source of truth. For instance, one management accountant who would normally set aside five days to work with their business group in the new system, completed the work in half the time.
The way forward
As companies strive to ensure business continuity and close their financial quarters remotely, some are seen to be doing better than others. While companies are putting their technological capabilities to the test and identifying gaps that may exist, it is crucial for them to review and strengthen their processes in order to build a more resilient future.
