{"id":1586,"date":"2019-09-19T15:10:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T05:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/?p=1586"},"modified":"2026-02-05T20:12:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T09:12:28","slug":"forces-driving-change-in-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/forces-driving-change-in-finance\/","title":{"rendered":"How to take advantage of the three unstoppable forces driving change in finance"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/category\/strategy-legal-operations\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Strategy, Legal &amp; Operations<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow to take advantage of the three unstoppable forces driving change in finance\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2019-09-19T15:10:22+10:00\">September 19, 2019<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"How to take advantage of the three unstoppable forces driving change in finance\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/forces-driving-change-in-finance\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author has-dark-background-color alignfull\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/author\/bruceminty\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/06\/Bruce-Minty-1-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/06\/Bruce-Minty-1-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/06\/Bruce-Minty-1.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 40px) 100vw, 40px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Bruce Minty<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As a CFO or senior finance professional, you might recognise that your world is changing \u2013 driven by a perfect storm, where technological and social forces are changing the rules of business in this digital era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So how do you survive and&nbsp;thrive in this&nbsp;new world?&nbsp;A&nbsp;first step&nbsp;you can take&nbsp;is to understand the forces that are driving&nbsp;your&nbsp;finance&nbsp;work&nbsp;today. These are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The digitalisation of the\u00a0finance\u00a0industry<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>More demand for strategic decision-making<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A younger workforce with new priorities<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s&nbsp;explore&nbsp;these three areas&nbsp;in&nbsp;greater&nbsp;detail,&nbsp;with practical&nbsp;advice&nbsp;to help you&nbsp;take advantage of these trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-1-the-digitalisation-of-the-finance-industry\">1. The digitalisation of the finance industry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><mark class=\"highlight-and-share\">According to&nbsp;our recent research with&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;senior finance&nbsp;decision makers, 93% of finance&nbsp;professionals&nbsp;surveyed&nbsp;state that the role of the CFO has changed in the last five years, and 56%&nbsp;attribute this change to the digitalisation of the industry.&nbsp;<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of&nbsp;the&nbsp;biggest challenges&nbsp;faced by CFOs and senior finance professionals&nbsp;is to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/cfos-driving-digital-transformation\/\">improve business processes&nbsp;in the finance department&nbsp;in order&nbsp;to keep&nbsp;pace&nbsp;with these changes.<\/a>&nbsp;It\u2019s possible to&nbsp;do this&nbsp;by taking&nbsp;advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalisation, to meet customer expectations and&nbsp;to&nbsp;keep relevant in an&nbsp;era where everything is moving rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a CFO or senior finance professional, you\u2019re always looking for ways to improve your department\u2019s efficiency; data-driven insights and automation are fantastic ways to achieve this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Automation is a reliable way of improving the&nbsp;quality of financial data, which can increase the productivity of your&nbsp;financial\/accounting staff. The benefits of automation include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The minimisation of\u00a0manual intervention in financial operations and other accounting related tasks, such as ledger entry and reconciliations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Auto-population,\u00a0using data from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/glossary\/erp-enterprise-resource-planning\/\">ERP<\/a>\u00a0and other systems<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reducing the potential for human error<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Faster turnaround times<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The improvement in use of staff time, thanks to a reduction in manual processes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>With automation, it is now possible&nbsp;to aggregate&nbsp;a vast amount of data to unlock insights.&nbsp; With&nbsp;data-driven insights,&nbsp;CFOs and senior finance professionals are better equipped&nbsp;to&nbsp;be a strategic advisor for their business,&nbsp;focusing&nbsp;on generating value for their organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s also a good idea to identify which metrics you could track in real time, as this improves the data quality and gives greater visibility into the business.&nbsp;Inputs uploaded in real time, rather than in batch processes, reduces the turnaround time in completing reporting, and avoids potential gaps in the&nbsp;financial data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Building a culture of automation can increase your productivity thanks to fewer manual processes, fewer errors and faster processing times. Automation encourages quicker enterprise-wide decision making, whilst improving regulatory compliance and ensuring accurate financial statements<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-2-more-demand-for-strategic-decision-making\">2. More demand for strategic decision-making<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Growing businesses often invest first in professionalising its processes and gaining efficiency in the areas of financial management by building out the technology that ensures the success of its finance function. This has inadvertently thrust the Finance function into the limelight, with CFOs now in the hotseat of leading digital transformation for their organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to our research, 67% of finance decision-makers believe that their role is transforming from number cruncher to business strategist. As a&nbsp;finance&nbsp;leader,&nbsp;you now have&nbsp;a&nbsp;new mandate \u2013&nbsp;to&nbsp;move&nbsp;beyond&nbsp;the&nbsp;traditional role where you\u2019re measuring past performance&nbsp;to&nbsp;leading your business&nbsp;as a gatekeeper of data and analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Handling and analysing huge amounts of data&nbsp;requires&nbsp;the right&nbsp;technology, and our research says that 72% of finance professionals already use cloud-based financial technology&nbsp;to drive operational efficiency.&nbsp;If you haven\u2019t already,&nbsp;now\u2019s&nbsp;a good time&nbsp;to unify the business around a single platform,&nbsp;ensuring the accuracy of data and&nbsp;avoiding silos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The insights this provides will help create a vision for the future of the business, which you can then start to forecast for. The CEO may expect you to guide the business through an uncertain future, to provide strategic direction on digital spending, managing risk, imposing governance and responding to regulatory change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is your opportunity to&nbsp;take the lead in&nbsp;digital transformation, redefining the finance function to play a bigger role in data governance, data flow, cyber security and other business priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-3-a-younger-workforce-with-new-priorities\">3. A younger workforce with new priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There is now a divide between senior accountants and new breed accountants who use technology to automate basic number crunching and admin tasks. 54% of new breed accountants will have implemented cloud-based technology three to four years ago, while the same percentage of more senior finance professionals will have only acquired cloud-based systems in the past two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finance is becoming&nbsp;increasingly&nbsp;technical and&nbsp;strategic. To strengthen your position as a&nbsp;strategic&nbsp;business leader,&nbsp;take a look at a few&nbsp;ways to make sure your&nbsp;organisation&nbsp;manages and analyses&nbsp;data well, optimising information flow to ensure KPIs are being hit.&nbsp;You could do this by harnessing the value of a young tech-savvy workforce, that will naturally accept what you\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your team may well start to take on responsibilities around IT and regulations, and learn to be masters of actionable business intelligence. Harness this wave of millennial creativity and embrace innovation across the business, but it&#8217;s sensible to have seasoned finance professionals on the team whose experience will be invaluable, especially in a function which carries so much influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-future-of-finance-is-still-in-its-infancy\">The future of finance is still in its infancy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Embracing&nbsp;digitalisation&nbsp;gives you the power to&nbsp;harness data at your fingertips, and&nbsp;to&nbsp;empower your team to do the same.&nbsp;To make the most of it, it\u2019s important to champion&nbsp;the adoption of new technologies&nbsp;like data analytics.&nbsp;This will&nbsp;cut down administrative time, and completely change&nbsp;how&nbsp;people see the finance team\u2019s role in the&nbsp;business.&nbsp;&nbsp;Harness digitalisation to this end, and you could&nbsp;be seen as&nbsp;a visionary&nbsp;by your colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To implement this change&nbsp;effectively, creating a diverse team&nbsp;with a mix of backgrounds and experience is&nbsp;essential.&nbsp;Alongside newer technological and analytical skillsets, financial fundamentals, and corporate stewardship are still relevant, and experienced people are well-equipped to take a long-term view when it comes to the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-download-our-free-whitepaper-cfo-3-0-digital-transformation-beyond-financial-management\">Download our free whitepaper: <em>CFO 3.0 \u2013 Digital Transformation beyond Financial Management<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Citing the latest finance industry data and research, our whitepaper details the key trends and challenges faced by CFOs as they grapple with this new digital reality \u2013 driving digital transformation beyond the finance function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta gated-content\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">CFO 3.0 \u2013 Digital Transformation beyond Financial Management<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Download our whitepaper to learn:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The key trends driving the digitalisation of the finance industry<\/li>\n<li>How and why the role of the CFO is changing<\/li>\n<li>Why the CFO is key to driving digital transformation<\/li>\n<li>How Millennials are influencing adoption of new technology<\/li>\n<li>What keeps CFOs up at night \u2013 the 5 roadblocks to digital transformation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-9705cb3b-5312-41c8-881a-67c05a42aecc\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Download Whitepaper<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1064\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/07\/resize-1675x1275-109-1064x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/07\/resize-1675x1275-109-1064x810.jpg 1064w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a CFO or senior finance professional, you might recognise that your world is changing \u2013 driven by a perfect storm, where technological and social forces are changing the rules of business in this digital era. So how do you survive and&nbsp;thrive in this&nbsp;new world?&nbsp;A&nbsp;first step&nbsp;you can take&nbsp;is to understand the forces that are driving&nbsp;your&nbsp;finance&nbsp;work&nbsp;today. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":832,"featured_media":1308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,82,75],"tags":[248,253,249,166],"business_type":[9],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[104,105,101],"imagine_tag":[59,69,252,42,40,43],"coauthors":[278],"class_list":["post-1586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-planning","category-business-process","category-strategy-legal-operations","tag-cfo","tag-cfo-3-0","tag-digital-transformation","tag-making-financial-decisions","business_type-medium-sized-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-au","author_name":"Bruce Minty","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/07\/resize-1675x1275-75.jpg","imagine_tags":{"59":"Business intelligence","69":"Business management","252":"CFO 3.0","42":"Enterprise business","40":"Mid-sized business","43":"Technology and Innovation"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Australia","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/832"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/1308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}