Will you be able to depend on your Finance tech stack in an uncertain economic climate?

A modern tech stack that gives you the power to analyze your enterprise data in real time may no longer be something on the nice-to-have list.

Perhaps you’ve read our reports on the Fed possibly hiking the target interest rate above 5% or inaccurate job numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the economic picture fluctuates from day to day, it’s important to consider equipping your Finance team with tools and software that:

• optimize and automate back office processes, saving time and eliminating human error as much as possible
• provide visibility across the departments of your organization, driving proactive strategic insights, and
• securely provide connection to access and manage a rapidly growing pool of data.

It may take elevating the role of Finance from back office function to front-line analysts helping you and your leadership team navigate the company through whatever challenges come your way.

“I think it’s pretty clear we’re going to hit a recession. We can argue about the depth and whether or not it’s going to be a ‘V’ or a different shape coming out,” PwC Principal David Shebay said during the ResourcefulFinancePro webinar “Your Finance Tech Stack: Build to Scale.”

“More companies fail coming out of a recession than during the recession,” he continued. “And so when I’m looking at my company as an accountant, CFO, whatever level … I think about how do I make sure I’m not one of those companies, and that I’m growing well coming out of that? … How do I get my cash management tools in place now … so that I can make sure we’re set for growth?”

A big believer in digital transformation, Shebay’s seen a monthly financial close completed in just three hours, thanks to fintech. But even with all that upside, he said, “it’s easy to make mistakes if you don’t have a unified vision that you’re going for, and more importantly, unified goals. … Are we going for efficiency for scalability? Are we trying to get better cash management?”

Webinar panelist Tom Kelly, director of product marketing for NetSuite, continued the thought: “Should we start with travel and expense management … or should we go big-bang and try to do (digitally transform) everything at once? … I’ve seen both be very successful.”

Top tech stack considerations

Kevin Permenter, research director of IDC, noted during the webinar that whether it’s digitally transforming one point solution at a time or committing to a single, unified platform, the solution’s not going to be one-size-fits-all for all companies.

When doing your homework on a product, he said to pay attention to the application programming interfaces and microservices and how well they’re laid out and documented by the vendor.

Webinar panelist Mark Arrieta, Controller at sports media company FloSports, chimed in that it’s vital to keep in mind what your company’s future needs may be – so your solution has to be scalable. What features does it have that you may be able to leverage down the line?

“If I know, looking at our forecast for the next five years … we’re going to grow X percentage every year, I don’t want to choose what’s going to help me get through this year. I want to choose something that’s going to be something that scales with the rest of my team,” he said.

Kelly recommended asking your vendors about how their product can streamline your governance, risk management and compliance duties, especially if you’re eyeing an IPO.

In a separate webinar from insightsoftware, Sue Maloney, a senior solutions engineer with the company, identified these top considerations for building your tech stack:

• Compatability: Does the new software component “play nicely” with the existing pieces in your tech stack and provide direct, secure connection to all data sources? The goal is to work from a single source of truth, even though you may have disparate systems.
• Customization: Although many consider customization a “bad word” when it comes to software, it’s important to be able to configure any new solutions with your team’s specific needs, or else the employee buy-in and adoption may take much longer than expected.
• Implementation: Ideally, any new software solution you choose should be easy to learn, provide quick ROI and require minimal IT involvement. If it’s going to take months to get working properly, tell the vendor, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

And when you get to the nitty-gritty of implementation budgeting for that new tech stack component, Shebay said to avoid cutting training and testing costs if possible because of how important it is to get the initial configuration right.

Your tech stack as a recruiting, retention tool

Permenter said that investing in your Finance tech stack positions you as a champion of innovation and best in class employer because Millennial and Gen Z workers set their tech standards high and expect their employers to do the same.

“That’s what gets them energized,” said Shebay, revealing the average employee age at PwC is 27. When mundane, manual Finance functions become automated, “they can see and feel the value that they’re adding,” which boosts engagement and loyalty and builds stronger company culture.

Helen Yu, founder and CEO of Tigon Advisory Group, added that any fintech with a mobile app should be at the top of your list of finalists. “In today’s environment, you think about the remote workers. People want more information faster at scale,” she said.