Where a finance and accounting (F&A) department sits in terms of digital maturity often reflects where an organization sits as a whole. That’s because the modern-day Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is less often a bookkeeper and instead a strategic changemaker driving innovation and automation initiatives.
As part of this broad mandate, CFOs are increasingly exploring intelligent automation in order to boost productivity and improve executive decision-making. Intelligent automation fuses machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities with process automation software, and, as such, represents the natural successor to robotic process automation (RPA), which is limited to rule-based functions.
F&A processes are the perfect use case for intelligent automation because they are often complex, labor-intensive, and detail-oriented. While RPA struggled to make an impact given the high variability in F&A functions and use of unstructured data, intelligent automation handles such complexity with ease. Intelligent automation (IA) is where AI and more conventional automation meet. And because F&A interacts with all parts of an organization, the successful deployment of IA across finance and accounting processes encourages awareness and implementation throughout an organization, improving overall operations as a result.
If inefficiencies in your F&A function are standing in the way of growth at your business, intelligent automation can help. Let’s take a look at the three key benefits of intelligent automation that together drive better business outcomes.
1. The Need for Speed
Intelligent automation solutions interface with existing systems and data just like a human would, but without the need for downtime. Unlike humans, these platforms operate 24/7 and can therefore complete tasks that would otherwise take human employees weeks to finish, or would remain altogether out of reach. For example, F&A departments in healthcare use intelligent automation to consolidate patient payment data from a wide variety of sources. The platform then provides a comprehensive risk analysis of patients and payers to reduce delinquent debt and total days outstanding. Similar risk analysis is common throughout F&A departments but requires access to usable data. With intelligent automation, that access is granted, enabling data-driven decision-making at scale and on-demand.
2. The Importance of Accuracy
Today, large organizations often use sophisticated risk modeling to guide decisions, but these models are only as accurate as the data that guides them. And with humans making an estimated 10 errors per 100 steps, the data driving these models often contain mistakes. Even a single data entry error can skew output dramatically. As the amount of data analyzed by F&A departments increases, the probability of a data entry error rises as well. Mistakes in data entry also extend beyond decision-making models to simple accounting errors, sometimes with multi-billion dollar effects. In 2014, for example, Bank of America suspended its $4 billion stock buyback program due to an incorrect adjustment related to the bank’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
As the saying goes, “To err is human.” But with intelligent automation, to err is simply a failure to deploy the right technology. By implementing the right intelligent automation software, F&A departments can automate basic processes and build effective models, resulting in accurate analysis and informed decisions.
3. The Impact on Employee Morale
Though its impact on speed and accuracy is significant, intelligent automation’s most important influence lies in improving the employee experience.
F&A employees confront a variety of tasks each day that are low-skill but also high-stress. For example, these employees pull invoices to respond to audits — a process that's critically important for businesses. But no tax professional eagerly anticipates such a task. Instead, they’d rather serve as more strategic consultants who proactively (and more creatively) provide their organization with insights that drive business. That’s clearly a more valuable use of F&A professionals’ time.
By automating data pulls and responses to basic inquiries from internal stakeholders, intelligent automation enables employees to spend their time and mental energy on more difficult, higher-value tasks. When routine and mundane tasks are left to “digital workers”— that is, automated team members trained to carry out a business process like any other, they’re faster and without mistakes.
Digital tools, like intelligent automation, allow for the possibility of top-line revenue growth that exceeds any corresponding rise in expenses. The digital transformation of your F&A efforts let’s you get investment out of your support functions and into places better able to grow your business.
To learn more about intelligent automation, visit our page on Business Process Transformation or get in touch today.
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