LAST WORD
A Bridge of Friendship
Creating great relationships with technology staffers involves an investment in strategic planning and open communication. BY IVAN W. NG
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SECURITY & COMPLIANCE If your company is in the process of implementing a new finance system, ask questions about how security role design is being approached and how it will be monitored after the system goes live. Many times, security doesn’t get adequate focus during the pre-implementation phase. Early communication and testing are vital to avoid high-risk exposures and an inability to access the system post-implementation. Be vocal about areas of access that you see as unacceptable during security role design and testing. Internal audit and compliance departments should also be hyper-aware and communicate control considerations at this PLATFORM SELECTIONS time. As you are probably aware, there are many If you are in a post go-live posture, finantechnology platforms and vendors that cial managers should communicate excompete for your dollars, ready to help Technology departments need your cessive access and process-control issues you better process, store, secure, control to the technology department for rectithoughtful input in order to make and report on your financial transacfication so that fraud and financial mistions. It is not uncommon for technology well-informed, optimal decisions that statement risk can be reduced. A security departments to lead in the evaluation and improve your workday. access and process control monitoring selection of these new platforms. As part technology can help automate reviews of this selection process, financial managers Technolog y departments need your and enable timely communication of such should participate in product demonstrations; thoughtful input in order to make well-in- issues before they proliferate and result in help develop business use cases; and provide formed, optimal decisions that improve your financial loss or misstatement. feedback to technology staffers so that the workday. That will help you become more No matter what initiatives between tech right option can be jointly selected. efficient and grow in your career. and finance staff are underway, open comAt times, depending on in-house skills munication should be embraced by leaders and knowledge, a professional service pro- FUTURE STAGES on both sides and should not be limited to vider can be helpful in navigating through a After a finance technology implementation managers. Staff members who process transpotentially confusing plethora of technology project “goes live,” there are opportunities actions daily can and should be encouraged choices. When evaluating a platform, it can for further improvements in planned future to surface ideas to improve processes. Esbe useful to ask for referrals from clients phases and subsequent technology product tablish project steering committees and that are similar in size and nature. Repre- enhancements. Technology managers will be periodic process-imsentatives from both finance and technolo- at the frontline of managing future stages and provement meetings gy should participate in these client-referral reviewing as well as testing product enhance- that include relevant ments. But financial managers should contin- finance and technoldiscussions. ue to talk with them about pain points in ogy stakeholders to TRANSFORMATION PROCESS current processes as targets for improvement discuss pain points Communication channels should stay open and keep abreast of new features released as and identify future after technology platforms have been selected. part of technology upgrades. improvements. This is critical, whether you are participating Doing so can either help avoid unpleasant in your first finance technology transforma- surprises after an upgrade or a missed opIvan W. Ng is the application security audit tion project or are a battle-hardened veteran. portunity to take advantage of a new feature manager, finance operations, at Hearst. He can be reached at 212-649-7303 or ivan.ng@hearst.com. When communicating your detailed business sooner rather than later.
he relationship between finance and technology departments can vary between dysfunctional friction or harmonious collaboration, kind of like a marriage. In order to enjoy the positive end of that spectrum, and receive optimal business benefits, it’s important to consider the ways that financial managers and staff can help to foster better communication with technology personnel. The common piece of advice running through all of my suggestions below can be summed up as: “Don’t let the technology tail wag the finance dog!” But let’s get down to some specifics.
requirements for your assigned financial process, rather than describe what you currently do as part of your current processes, embrace the opportunity to describe your vision of the future state. Modern finance technologies now have robust automation features such as machine-learning-enabled invoice-coding algorithms; configurable approval workflows for financial transactions; and reporting analytics – to name but a few. By educating yourself about these options, you can become a proactive process-improvement driver. You can do this by reading documentation about key technology product features. As you begin to understand them and test out the features, you’ll be able to participate in discussions that influence key design decisions.
30 The Financial Manager • November/December 2020
