9SEPTEMBER 2023Your IT team may need to be involved if Onesource is set up to access the general ledger. Reach out to determine cross-functional impacts early and invite key stakeholders in the decision and implementation process. 4.Select a vendor who will partner with you. Any good consultant can sell you something, but the best vendor is one that will partner with you throughout your transformation journey. Seek a vendor who values relationship building and adding value at every point in the process. Questions to determine the vendor's ability to add value are:·Is there a free trial period that allows you use of the technology without a commitment?·Does the vendor offer support in building a business case by solving a specific problem?·If yes to the above, do they have a high-level understanding of accounting or tax so they can relate to your organization's SME's issues and roadblocks?·Are they willing to share stories from clients who have solved similar issues?·Do they continue to stay in contact and add value even without an investment?·Once the sale is made, do they stay involved or have a customer success team?·Are they proactive in contacting their clients and solving product issues?5.Know your current state to get to future state. A basic tenant of problem solving is understanding where you are to arrive at where you desire to be. Organizations choose finance transformation because their current technology does not meet their present and future needs. Knowing your processes inside and out and understanding who does what in your organization is key to articulating what needs to change to get to future state. Transformation efforts also provide the opportunity to bolster documentation on existing processes and knowledge base of people within your organization.6.Perform fit-gap analyses. Once the desired future state is known, you need to chart the path to get there. Performing fit-gap analyses do just that. From a talent perspective, complete a fit-gap analysis to determine what skills and tasks are required vs. the capacity of your existing employees. This aids in deciding whether your organization has the capacity to fully insource the transformation initiative, co-source, or outsource. From technology perspective, a fit-gap analysis can determine to what extent the canned or default setup is sufficient, or if customizations are required to meet your organization's needs. 7.Change management is key. Change management or the lack thereof can make or break transformation efforts. A reason to involve others is to grow change advocates. This is imperative for global efforts such as implementing Oracle Cloud. It may be 2023 but people are still hesitant to change. Have empathy for other's concerns such as the learning curve that comes with new technology, time needed for implementation and testing, and the potential job insecurity. What operational training is available for onboarding employees, both new and existing? The more you have employees on board, the greater chance you have for success. 8.Technology can't transform by itself. If you remember one thing, I hope it's this: technology is only as good as the data put into it and the people who build it, use it, and partner with you. Considering the above will enable your organization to get the most "bang for your buck" and increase the likelihood of a successful finance transformation journey. Transformation efforts provide the opportunity to bolster documentation on existing processes and knowledge base of people within your organization
< Page 8 | Page 10 >