Finance's transformation imperative

Food for Thought: Finance transformation

The digital transformation of finance is not just an option—it is an imperative.

As industries pivot towards digital solutions, financial leaders must be at the forefront, harnessing the power of AI, data analytics and cloud services to drive improved efficiency and strategic decision-making. And yet, all too often, finance leaders are time-poor and only able to drive transformation when asked to do so.

In this Food for Thought lunch, hosted at the Royal Albert Hall in central London, HotTopics and Soldo invited C-level finance and digital executives to explore how the continued transformation efforts of finance is evolving the function and driving efficiency, and what hurdles remain when building a more productive and trusted workforce.

Finance transformation:

Overview

• The changing role of finance transformation in business growth
• Technology: A double-edged sword
• The critical role of implementation
• Empowering the finance workforce
• The rise of AI and automation
• Balancing finance transformation with human capital
• Closing thoughts on finance’s transformation imperative

The changing role of finance transformation in business growth

The session opened with a candid discussion on the evolving responsibilities of the finance function. One leader framed the conversation by highlighting the tension between traditional financial control and the need for agility. “We are a spend management solution,” they explained, “helping organisations bring order to the chaos of the extended tail of their spend.” They emphasised the importance of governance over discretionary expenditures, such as travel and expenses, and web advertising, areas that often slip through the cracks in traditional financial oversight.

Beyond controlling spend, finance leaders should be tasked with enabling growth. Leaders around the table agreed that if executives wish to avoid finance eroding margins, CFOs have to embrace finance transformation and technology. This sentiment resonated throughout the discussions, with many leaders acknowledging that finance must balance cost control with proactive investment in growth-enabling technologies. Yet the story is not as simple as technology delivering unequivocal value.

Technology: A double-edged sword

The integration of technology into finance operations emerged as both an opportunity and a challenge. While tools like Microsoft 365 and NetSuite promise efficiency gains, their implementation often comes with hidden costs and complexities, the group heard.

One quote captured this dilemma succinctly: “It’s £400,000 just to move to [them]. The question is, how do you get £400,000 of value out of it?”

Many finance leaders echoed this concern, pointing to the increasing difficulty in justifying IT expenditures amidst rising costs—and vendor lock-in. The conversation highlighted a growing dependency on major software providers; as the industry moves towards subscription models, the responsibility of partner value once again falls onto the CFO. For this reason amongst many, value becomes a central tenet to the modern day CFO.

Yet, the potential benefits of technology are undeniable. One leader shared her experience leveraging remote monitoring technology to optimise operations. “We moved from having staff on the ground at power plants to remote monitoring,” she explained. “It saved costs and improved work-life balance for our technicians.” When deployed appropriately, technology really can pay.

The critical role of implementation

While the promise of technology is clear, its successful implementation remains a significant hurdle. Several leaders shared cautionary tales of failed or suboptimal software rollouts due to inadequate planning and resource allocation. One finance director recounted a failed cloud-platform implementation: “They thought they could do it really cheap and fast. Six months later, they couldn’t bill a single customer.” Reviewing the entire journey of an investment is necessary to reduce these oversights, he continued.

This highlights a critical lesson for finance leaders: investing in technology is only part of the equation. Equally important is dedicating sufficient resources to change management and training. In other words, you cannot just buy the software and expect it to work. The CFO needs to step in as a leader to ensure the organisation embraces the technology fully.

Empowering the finance workforce

This narrative provided a neat segue to the next key theme: an empowered workforce.

As technology automates routine tasks, the role of finance professionals is shifting towards more strategic, value-added activities. However, this transition is not without its challenges. Namely: inertia. Many of those around the table empathised with the internal battle between perceived transformation and the actual work needed to evolve individual workloads. “We automated the time sheet processing for our recruitment business, but the team was comfortable with their old roles. They didn’t necessarily want to shift to more value-added tasks,” was one such comment.

This underscores the importance of reskilling and empowering finance teams to adapt to new responsibilities. One creative solution put forward was through a structured reskilling program. “We have something called 60-40, where employees spend two months working in different departments,” one leader explained. “It helps them embrace new technologies and reduces resistance to change.”

Moreover, fostering a culture of continuous learning and development is crucial for retaining talent. “People are our assets," he continued. “You need to empower them with the right tools and training, not just replace them.” 

This is not an option for a sizable part of the market. One honest conclusion is that it also falls to the CFO to have tough conversations on the future of the workforce, especially in an AI era. 

The rise of AI and automation

No discussion on the future of finance would be complete without addressing the rise of artificial intelligence and automation. While many finance leaders remain cautious, there is growing recognition of AI’s potential to transform finance operations—to a limit.

Monzo is leveraging AI to enhance reporting. “We used to spend half a day summarising our training meetings. Now, co-pilots generate the first draft in minutes, freeing up our team to focus on higher-value tasks.”

The application of AI in finance can extend beyond efficiency gains. Some organisations are using AI to gain strategic insights. HotTopics Editor Peter Stojanovic described a pilot project where generative AI monitored an organisation’s competitors’ investor calls to curate potential questions for their own investor relations team. “It’s about staying ahead of the curve and using AI to inform strategic decisions,” he noted.

Despite these individual use cases, some leaders remain unconvinced of the wholesale application of AI to precipitate a functional transformation. It is very much in its early stages of experimentation; the potential is there to see. Reporting will likely be the first area to see significant disruption, was the conclusion from the Food for Thought.

Balancing finance transformation with human capital

Throughout the discussion, a recurring theme was the need to balance technological transformation with human capital management. While automation can drive efficiency, it also poses risks to employee morale and job security. Linked to the concern of team inertia, one leader put it this way: “Every time we implement new software, there’s an unconscious sabotage from employees fearing job loss.”

To mitigate these risks, finance leaders must foster a culture of transparency and inclusivity, as Soldo understands is vital for a productive finance team. The importance of executive sponsorship and cross-functional collaboration in driving successful finance transformation should also be noted.

Closing thoughts on finance’s transformation imperative

The Food for Thought underscored that the finance function is at, once again, a pivotal juncture. As technology reshapes the business landscape, finance leaders must evolve from guardians of the bottom line to strategic partners in growth and innovation. This transformation requires not only embracing new technologies—as is expected in this AI-driven market—but also investing in people, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and navigating the complexities of change management.

As Rory Choudhuri of Soldo aptly concluded, “Our vision is progressive finance. It is important to help organisations go along that path of finance transformation. It’s about bringing order to chaos—not just in spend management, but in how finance drives the future of business.”

In this new era, the CFO is not just a financial steward but a catalyst for change, guiding organisations through the complexities of the digital age with a steady hand and a visionary outlook. That means they are best placed to nurture finance’s transformation imperative.

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