Talking Tech: Top 6 considerations for modernizing your financial systems

Article October 26, 2021

Let’s Talk Tech.

Accordion’s “Talking Tech” series explores how different CFO Technology solutions can empower finance functions to support organizational strategic initiatives – by implementing business process recommendations, optimizing operations, and capitalizing on value creation opportunities.

Now, let’s take a look at six considerations to take before selecting a new software system.

In today’s fast paced environment, businesses must quickly adapt to market conditions, interpret new data, and project a plan forward. Agile planning and reporting needs to extend beyond stagnant financial spreadsheets and rigid legacy systems to a more connected exercise across the entire business. Get started modernizing your systems and processes with a scorecard assessment.

Gaining a New Level of Sophistication and Agility Requires a Modern, Next Generation Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) System

EPM systems provide many benefits, the more popular of which include:

Increased visibility and “actionability” based on real data (both financial and non-financial)
Agile “what if” planning, scenario modeling, and reporting that can maximize opportunities or mitigate risks
Reduction of errors in planning and reporting due to improvements that are inherent through systematic automation
The ability to integrate multiple external data sources in order to aggregate all relevant data in one place

Accordion has partnered with many companies to help guide them through the software evaluation and selection process. There are many attributes to consider when looking for an EPM solution that fits your company’s needs.

BELOW ARE OUR CUSTOMERS TOP 6 CONSIDERATION AREAS WHEN SELECTING A NEW SYSTEM

While this is not intended to be a comprehensive list, it’s a great starting point to establish your teams’ most important requirements which will lay the groundwork for a successful software selection.

Top 6 Considerations

Software Platform Deployment & Licensing Model

While there are many pros and cons to both cloud and on-premise solutions, your organization may have requirements that will drive your decision in a clearly defined direction based on internal policy. You may also want to consider the ROI of a user based licensing vs. “module” based licensing.

Functional Coverage

Next generation systems can cover more than just the FP&A or corporate finance team ‚Äì but who can and will leverage it in your organization (Finance, Sales, HR, Supply Chain, Accounting, etc.)?

Scalability

Is the solution able to grow with your business? While many companies may not think their business will change, it happens more often than not in some capacity. It’s imperative when choosing a solution that you understand the scalability of the software and if possible, have the vendor thoroughly explain or even demonstrate how the software can adapt to real-world change. Scalability can also mean different things ‚Äì do you need to dive deep into SKU level forecasting (vertical scaling) or cover a number of different business unit specific processes (horizontal scaling)?

Flexibility

Is the solution agile enough to change quickly if necessary? We‚Äôve seen numerous instances where a business drastically changes its dimensional structure or implements new processes and needs their planning & reporting tools to do the same. It can be difficult and slow to implement major foundational changes in short order, which makes vetting the flexibility of the software a critical component in your selection process.

Cost of Ownership

Identifying the true cost of ownership is more than just the cost of your subscription/licensing fees. We must take the full scope of everything that goes into owning a solution into consideration when we determine the true cost of ownership. Some of these costs may be obvious, such as hardware expense for an on-premise solution, but there are other, not so obvious costs. We cannot forget maintenance (hardware and software), internal training expenses, and who will handle future modifications, either internal or third party.

Support

Support is frequently put on the back burner as a top priority. But what happens when the implementation is complete, and the team is no longer dedicated to your project? Understanding the software vendor‚Äôs support model, response times and what they actually consider support items must be clearly defined.

The selection process can be a bit daunting at first, but there are many ways to simplify the selection process. We have the expertise and experience to assist your company with an unbiased software selection process.

Need help with your software selection process? Let's talk.

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