CFO blueprint for AR Automation

Focus on Digital Transformation of AR

• Credit management

• Invoicing and payments

• Collections management

• Deductions management

• Cash applications

Is now right time to undertake digital transformation in finance (poll)

Yes= 49%

No= 17%

Not sure= 34%

How automation helps finance create value

• End to end control and visibility on receivables
• Highly accurate cash forecasting
• Reallocation of resources to high-end impact tasks
• More strategic time, less clerical
• Tech plays larger role in elevating AR for CFO

Key Challenges for Business Leaders

• Risk management & tightening credit control/87%
• Managing DSO through effective collections/78%
• Automation enables AR to safeguard business in cash strapped economy

Why 85% of digital transformations end in failure

• Longer implementation timelines
• System integration failures
• High costs and budget overruns

Biggest challenge to successful automation project

• Poor user adoption/8%
• Friction & lack of customer acceptance/21%
• System integration issues/54%
• Cost & budget overrun problems/17%

Planning Priorities to drive automation

• Selecting the right technology
• Choosing the vendor
• Preparing a solid business case
• Getting stakeholder buy-in (objectives & expectations)

Benefits of Cloud vs On Premises

• No hardware
• Pay only for service
• No need for hardware support from internal IT group
• Cloud in online, easier to access

On Premise, higher costs due to…

• hardware
• software license
• system implementation
• training and testing

Evaluating vendors

• Are they able to understand your requirements?
• What value would they add to current operations?
• What is the pricing model?
• How do they rank in terms of customer service?
• Considered long-term partnership issues?

Evaluation project factors

Input

Investment & costs

Current/future investment for project implementation

Output

Value

Net cost reduction from projects compensated to current scenario

Horizon

Payback

The rate of return or the payback period in which project benefits are realized

Aligning different stakeholder expectations

• Project objectives should be in line with stakeholder expectations
• Have regular meetings to ensure the stakeholders are updated on any changes
• Stay on time and on budget for commercial stakeholders
• Ensure project to deliver promised benefit for functional stakeholders

Training your team

• Train the trainer
• Choose super users
• Day to day process training
• Training documentation

Going Live

• Incubation period
• Close monitoring
• Two week at least hyper care
• Collaborate with vendor to identify and resolve issues

Delivering promised ROI

• Periodic analysis of leading indicators
• Engage with customer value manager to ensure ROI is on track
• Stay on top of quarterly updates (new vendor capabilities)