As businesses embrace digitalisation, CFOs and their finance teams can use cloud technology to effectively interpret business data and solve challenges.
Cloud technology is playing a key role for businesses, with teams realising the numerous benefits it brings. And the finance team is no exception. But why is cloud technology so important for CFOs and their finance teams to adopt? Data is one such reason.
Taking on the competition
Data is playing a big part in decision making for businesses and it’s something that CFOs need to use as they bid to increase the profitability of their companies. Cloud technology can help them use accurate, real-time data to make sure their businesses can compete against – and even stay ahead of – the competition.
The cloud technologies that offer predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation can help CFOs on their data-driven journeys, allowing them to not only make better decisions but also ensure the finance team can work more effectively.
Take the challenge of improving productivity, for example. Cloud technology opens the door to automation – and that in turn means finance teams can spend less time focusing on repetitive, low-value tasks. Working on those tasks can cost businesses thousands of pounds each year. And that’s money that could be invested in more fruitful ways, such as winning new business and supporting existing customers.
By using cloud financial software, such as Sage Intacct, finance teams can automate dull, time-consuming tasks, work using real-time data, and quickly produce actionable reports when required.
Data patterns and trends
The cloud offers CFOs and their teams access to a lot of data. It can be used to not only look at past performance but make future predictions, too. Finance teams, for example, can model future scenarios with artificial learning and machine learning to find data patterns and trends.
And with that real-time data in tow, teams can move quickly with projects because there’s evidence to support the fact that those predictions have a good chance of coming to fruition.
By then shaping (or reworking) the business strategy to achieve the best outcomes and improving day-to-day tasks with the support of real-time data, teams can make the right decisions that help companies achieve their goals.
Solving the cybersecurity challenge
Cybersecurity was cited as the biggest challenge to digitalisation, according to a 2019 Sage report. However, now, those worries have been replaced by positivity. In fact, 49% of finance professionals who saw their businesses as cloud ready admitted that cybersecurity was the key benefit of new technology implementations, according to a recent Sage survey of 500 UK finance professionals.
When it comes to cloud tech and cybersecurity, cloud solutions that are correctly configured can be more secure than their on-premise counterparts. An added benefit here is that cloud providers will generally offer a guarantee of safety and security for their platforms, with encryption, password protection and access limitations based on user profiles just some of the safety measures provided.
Time to invest in cloud tech
Cloud technology is playing an important role for businesses and their finance teams. CFOs in particular have a key role to play at a time where businesses are relying on generating value from the huge amounts of data that’s being generated.
By developing their knowledge and understanding of data and the cloud, CFOs will have the tools to invest in the best cloud technologies to move their businesses forward. And with the right tech in place, finance teams can analyse, interpret and turn data into actionable insights that allows their businesses to thrive.
And with dedicated 24/7 monitoring and cybersecurity teams in place to identify and respond to potential threats, businesses can be confident that their data is secure.
With Sage Intacct, the industry leading cloud finance management software built for growing businesses, you can gain real-time visibility and automate time consuming processes with easy-to-use cloud software that grows with you.