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

The 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.

PLATFORM SELECTIONS

As you are probably aware, there are many technology platforms and vendors that compete for your dollars, ready to help you better process, store, secure, control and report on your financial transactions. It is not uncommon for technology departments to lead in the evaluation and selection of these new platforms. As part of this selection process, financial managers should participate in product demonstrations; help develop business use cases; and provide feedback to technology staffers so that the right option can be jointly selected.

At times, depending on in-house skills and knowledge, a professional service provider can be helpful in navigating through a potentially confusing plethora of technology choices. When evaluating a platform, it can be useful to ask for referrals from clients that are similar in size and nature. Representatives from both finance and technology should participate in these client-referral discussions.

TRANSFORMATION PROCESS

Communication channels should stay open after technology platforms have been selected. This is critical, whether you are participating in your first finance technology transformation project or are a battle-hardened veteran. When communicating your detailed business 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.

Technology departments need your thoughtful input in order to make well-informed, optimal decisions that improve your workday. That will help you become more efficient and grow in your career.

FUTURE STAGES

After a finance technology implementation project “goes live,” there are opportunities for further improvements in planned future phases and subsequent technology product enhancements. Technology managers will be at the frontline of managing future stages and reviewing as well as testing product enhancements. But financial managers should continue to talk with them about pain points in current processes as targets for improvement and keep abreast of new features released as part of technology upgrades.

Doing so can either help avoid unpleasant surprises after an upgrade or a missed opportunity to take advantage of a new feature sooner rather than later.

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 time. If you are in a post go-live posture, financial managers should communicate exTechnology departments need your cessive access and process-control issues thoughtful input in order to make well-informed, optimal decisions that to the technology department for rectification so that fraud and financial misstatement risk can be reduced. A security improve your workday. access and process control monitoring technology can help automate reviews and enable timely communication of such issues before they proliferate and result in financial loss or misstatement. No matter what initiatives between tech and finance staff are underway, open communication should be embraced by leaders on both sides and should not be limited to managers. Staff members who process transactions daily can and should be encouraged to surface ideas to improve processes. Establish project steering committees and periodic process-improvement meetings that include relevant finance and technology stakeholders to discuss pain points and identify future improvements. Ivan W. Ng is the application security audit manager, finance operations, at Hearst. He can be reached at 212-649-7303 or ivan.ng@hearst.com.

Recovering less money is not the same as recovering MORE.

A lot has changed in the media collections industry over the years. As the very first media collections company, we ought to know. Lately, we’ve noticed a disturbing trend. There are a lot of collection companies promising quick receivable recoveries. The problem is they are getting quick recoveries of a lot less money than what was owed. Pennies on the dollar. What kind of a deal is that? At Szabo, we follow one simple rule when collecting accounts receivable. Collect MORE. So we make it our business to give you MORE — MORE experience, MORE resources, MORE expertise, and almost always, MORE collections. We’re not after a quick fix of a few dollars. We know how to work with your clients to collect the maximum amount possible, yet without damaging your valuable client relationships with heavy-handed tactics. Don’t settle for less. It’s your money, and we think you deserve MORE of it back. You may have heard people say, “less is more”. People that say that don’t work at Szabo.

Szabo Associates, Inc. 404-266-2464 www.szabo.com info@szabo.com