Mapping out the Future of Finance Mapping out the Future of Finance Mapping out the Future of Finance

In times of digitalisation of many areas of business life, increasing globalisation and constant demographic change, new demands are being placed on the financial function of banks and insurance companies.

The development of the finance function into an integrated and advisory area for the overall organisation of banks, insurance companies and asset managers is accompanied and accelerated by complex industry-specific regulatory requirements. In particular, the mandatory requirements from the government have increased enormously in the last few years in terms of short-termism and depth of detail. They now go far beyond pure financial data. For this reason alone, process automation and complete integration of the requirements in all areas of financial service providers where relevant data is generated would be necessary.

The use of digital solutions is of central importance here. Repetitive activities will be almost completely automatable in the future. Through digitalisation, financial data can be made available quickly, comprehensively and in a form that can be easily analysed in order to support important corporate decisions. As a result, the role of the finance function is growing and changing. It is becoming a true business partner for the entire company with a clear focus on value-adding activities.

The transformation of the finance function is therefore not only aimed at providing reporting to the outside. Corporate planning and control also benefit from the networking with all areas and disciplines of internal processes and thus also directly the decision-makers at financial service providers. Good decisions require a solid knowledge base, which a realigned finance function can provide.

The strategic realignment of the finance function is not a classic IT transformation. In order to take advantage of the opportunities that arise, comprehensive competence is needed in the companies so that new professional requirements can be interpreted correctly and implemented in the sense of increased efficiency (value-added and practicable solutions for regulatory issues).

Suitable organisational structures, the targeted use of digital technology solutions, the realignment of competences in the teams and the consideration of new roles and forms of cooperation are required.

With the conversion to SAP S/4HANA, banks, insurance companies and asset managers are facing extensive transformation projects. The opportunities for the companies are manifold: from the optimisation of the end-to-end process view to the integration of future technologies, the conversion offers numerous possibilities. In the future, the use of standard functionalities and their centralisation will replace the individual solutions that are currently still frequently used by many financial service providers, which are located in a multitude of different systems. As a result, the introduction of an S/4HANA-based platform is not a mere release change, but requires the close dovetailing of business and IT areas in the project as well as a holistic change management programme.

Your finance function can also do more - and our experts know how you can achieve this "more" and use the opportunities of digitalisation for the processes in your company. In doing so, we rely on a close interlocking of specialist, IT and process know-how. We think through issues from start to finish and provide you with future-proof technical solutions. We are happy to advise you on the development of an efficient and integrated financial architecture and support you in the practical implementation.

If your finance function needs an update, feel free to contact us.