{"id":6868,"date":"2020-03-02T19:29:18","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T00:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/?p=6868"},"modified":"2026-01-16T05:37:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T10:37:44","slug":"forces-driving-change-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/forces-driving-change-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-ca\/blog\/category\/money-matters\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Money Matters<\/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=\"2020-03-02T19:29:18-05:00\">March 2, 2020<\/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-ca\/blog\/forces-driving-change-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-ca\/blog\/author\/asavinwattanajantra\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/03\/Asavin-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"Asavin\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/03\/Asavin-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/03\/Asavin-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/03\/Asavin-810x810.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/03\/Asavin.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 40px) 100vw, 40px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Asavin Wattanajantra<\/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\n\n<p>As a CFO or senior finance professional, you might recognize that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/cfo-changes-the-game-finance\/\">your world is changing<\/a> \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<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The digitalization 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<\/ul>\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<ol start=\"1\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong> The digitalization of the finance industry<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>According to recent research we conducted with more than 300 Canadian-based CFOs, 98% of finance professionals surveyed state that the role of the CFO has changed in the last five years, with around three quarters (76%) believing CFOs drive digital transformation in the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"# gate-7c33cfe3-2375-46b1-a67a-e7970d026992\">Download your free copy of CFO 3.0: Digital transformation beyond financial management<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\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-ca\/blog\/a-guide-to-cfo-3-0-and-digital-transformation-beyond-financial-management\/\">improve business processes&nbsp;in the finance department&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 digitalization, to meet customer expectations and&nbsp;to&nbsp;stay 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 minimization 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\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/erp\/\">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 the 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 can be strategic advisors,&nbsp;focusing&nbsp;on generating value for their organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s 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, reduce 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 while improving regulatory compliance and ensuring accurate financial statements<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"2\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong> More demand for strategic decision-making<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Growing businesses often invest first in professionalizing their 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 hot seat of leading digital transformation for their organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to our research 46% of financial decision makers say they are facing increased demand to provide overall business counsel. 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 measure past performance&nbsp;to&nbsp;leading your business&nbsp;as a gatekeeper of data and analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Virtually all (98%) of financial decision makers say financial management tools can benefit your business.&nbsp;If you haven\u2019t already,&nbsp;now\u2019s&nbsp;an excellent 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. The CEO may expect you to guide the company 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>You have the opportunity to&nbsp;take the lead in&nbsp;digital transformation, redefining the finance function to play a more significant role in data governance, data flow, cybersecurity and other business priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"3\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong> A younger workforce with new priorities<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\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. 93% of financial decision makers are happy for technology to carry the weight of daily accounting tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to succeed, finance teams will have to go through a period of transition \u2013 either retraining or upskilling those who lack core competencies or relying on \u2018gig\u2019 or contract workers to fill gaps where needed. Companies will need a degree of flexibility and versatility to meet the changing needs of the finance function<\/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;organization&nbsp;manages and analyses&nbsp;data thoroughly, optimizing information flow to ensure you hit KPIs.&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\u2019s sensible to have seasoned finance professionals on the team whose experience will be invaluable, especially in a function that carries so much influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The future of finance is still in its infancy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Embracing&nbsp;digitalization&nbsp;gives you the power to&nbsp;harness data at your fingertips, and&nbsp;to&nbsp;empower your team to do the same.&nbsp;It\u2019s important to champion&nbsp;the adoption of new technologies&nbsp;like data analytics.&nbsp;It 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 digitalization to this end, and you will become visionary.<\/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<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\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\">Subscribe to the Sage Advice Newsletter<\/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 class=\"cta-content__title\">Get a roundup of our best business advice in your inbox every month.<\/p>\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-8949a954-88b2-43bb-8b8a-77c53eb34350\"\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>Subscribe<\/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=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" 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 recognize 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":356,"featured_media":244,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,7,11,25],"tags":[221],"business_type":[99],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[75],"imagine_tag":[54],"coauthors":[312],"class_list":["post-6868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compliance","category-money-matters","category-strategy-legal-operations","category-technology-innovation","tag-cfo-3-0","business_type-medium-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-ca","author_name":"Asavin Wattanajantra","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2019\/01\/GettyImages-515444656.jpg","imagine_tags":{"54":"Medium Businesses"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Canada English","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}