Common months for ‘closing the books’ (year-end) are December and March — which means many companies have just completed or are working on making sure their company’s finances are in order
As anyone who has ever been involved in this knows it is a stressful time with many finance teams finding themselves overworked especially when tracking down and matching invoices, payments, employee expenses — not to mention having to chase debts and ensure they are complying to the latest regulations while continuing to support the everyday running of a business.
For some businesses, the technology they have invested in means their finance teams can concentrate on the more complex issues and make better decisions (by analysing their data in near real-time) as they have automated many of the functions. But this isn’t the case for far too many.
DEI – Diversity, Equality, and Inclusivity
Promoting DEI is important to all at Sysynkt — and we don’t just mean concerning people! One way we do this is using our affordable software to enable digital inclusivity — which we see as making sure companies of all shapes and sizes have access to being able to transform and automate their finance operations and gain competitive advantages by doing so.
Software implementation costs and the scarcity of skilled resources plus the ‘user licence model’ have long been barriers to many businesses including NGOs, smaller companies, and startups being able to invest and benefit from software solutions that will make them more efficient and give them an opportunity to cut their overall operational costs.
In the challenging landscape of 2024, where many businesses are facing a tough start, it becomes increasingly crucial to create an environment that levels the playing field. Ensuring that every business has the best opportunity not just to survive but to thrive is of paramount importance. By reorganising and revamping finance functions using technology, companies can restructure their processes and procedures without having to completely replace their existing systems.
Advantages of Digital Finance Transformation
The advantages of automating your finance function are wide reaching including:
- Increasing efficiencies: automate the everyday, repetitive tasks so your team has more time to work on more complex or rewarding tasks (for them and the business) such as debt collecting, more 121 time with key clients and suppliers.
- Joining the Open Banking revolution: reach new customers, reduce late payments, manage real-time cashflow, access cost-effective finance, and streamline business administration.
- Accessing your valuable and relevant data so you can make better and more timely decisions.
- Making life easier for your team and suppliers. Your people can upload and ultimately get paid for expenses from anywhere in the world—gone are the days of returning from business trips with a stack of receipts to sort through. With a supplier portal your suppliers can onboard themselves, open their invoices, orders and update or validate their details.
- Improving your carbon footprint.
Save money. Save the planet!
For too long companies have been tied into user licenses for complete product suites where underutilisation is rife. This not only wastes money but is contributing to climate change as everything needed to power emerging technology, for memory systems and data centres takes up masses of electricity the generation of which produces vast amounts of GHG (Green House Gas) emissions.
53% of SaaS licenses go unused while companies use over 300 SaaS apps on average
(Ref: Productive, June 2023)
As Sysynkt was designed and built by consultants who wanted to stop such waste it was important to be able to offer unlimited users, the ability to select one or more modules—from banking to procurement to expenses—and to be able to give access to as many people as you need to, for as long as you want, and only pay for usage.
Technology Can Be Great, But People Still Matter
Even the best SaaS solutions won’t be effective if you don’t have the right team in place to help manage your business. No matter what the size and stage of your company is, you need to take a long hard look at recruiting the right people to ensure the financial health of your company.
There’s an increasing trend (and demand) for chief revenue officers (CROs). To some extent they carry out the role of the more traditional VP of Sales but, according to Gartner®, “A chief revenue officer (CRO) is a corporate executive responsible for all revenue generation processes in an organization. CROs are accountable for driving better integration and alignment between all revenue-related functions, including marketing, sales, customer support, pricing and revenue management. They are also responsible for overseeing the strategy for profitable revenue generation over the organisation's long term.”
When recruiting be mindful, as with filling all roles, that you employ a CFO or CRO that is the right fit for your business—if you are a startup or small company in the tech space going after a previous CRO/CFO of Google, Slack, or Stripe is probably not the best idea. The cost of such talent will of course be prohibitive but their skillset and mindset more than likely not what you need! You may also be better placed to recruit a CRO to help boost revenue alongside the CEO who can work with a strong accountant than invest in a CFO in the early days.
Four Key Takeaways
- Becoming part of the digital revolution doesn’t mean throwing out your existing ERP or other finance systems. However, if you haven’t been able to invest in any finance technology you can leap ahead at a fraction of the cost and hassle with systems such as Sysynkt!
- Save money and the planet by stopping paying for individual user licenses. Ensure you are only implementing (and paying for) the modules you need – if you only have a few suppliers, you may not need to invest in a purchasing module until you grow.
- Like all things in life, all SaaS systems are not created equally. Do your research and don’t be fooled by ‘shoehorned cloud solutions’. Look for those specifically designed and built for the cloud with embedded AI that has a purpose. Then get comparative demos and costs...
- Integration should not mean huge consultation costs, disruptive amounts of downtime, or a 12, 18 or 24-month project. Seamless integration should work smoothly with the existing system without inconsistencies whether on-cloud or on-premise.
It’s time to level the playing field. We’d of course like to help you! For more info www.sysynkt.com