Company insight The digital frontier
Working in finance has never been more exciting. Or at least that’s what some people argue. Others might claim, instead, that it has never been more challenging, more perplexing and more dangerous to a company’s financial health. BlackLine’s Mike Polaha explains the reshaping of the finance and accounting function that we’re seeing currently – and how digitisation is driving it in some unexpected ways.
T
here’s a battle going on that threatens the future of businesses everywhere – especially those that
don’t recognise the challenge and respond quickly enough. Digital transformation – both within finance and across business – is something that is happening, like it or not. Even if finance teams and those that lead them are not yet on board, businesses are increasingly willing to buy a ticket and take a ride.
“When I talk to my peers there is very much an understanding that the mechanics of accounting need to occur compliantly,” says BlackLine’s recently appointed senior vice-president of finance solutions and technology, Mike Polaha. “But now, there’s a significant emphasis on treating financial data as an asset and making sure that it agilely informs business decisions.” Polaha’s company has a 20-year history in providing cloud software that automates and controls financial close and accounting processes. Today, it helps its global client base of 3,600 transition to modern accounting by unifying data and processes, automating repetitive work and driving accountability through visibility, as traditional manual accounting processes increasingly become unsustainable.
It’s in the interpretation Polaha has an extensive background in finance and technology, having started his career in the early 1990s. He’s seen a lot since then, and says that the speed at which data is changing the finance function is transforming the role of CFOs everywhere. “If you think about it contextually, if I want to inform on my business and understand through predictive and other types of algorithm what’s happening, I need actuals to do that,” he says. That is what data is, Polaha adds, if it can be organised in a way that provides insights.
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think that’s the foundation because it’s impossible to transform your planning if your data is not of the right composition,” Polaha warns.
Another complicating factor is that not all data is created equally. This means companies need to focus on what aspects of their data provide the valuable insight they need. To do this, of course, they have to understand what their own goals are. “What are the key predictive drivers that would allow finance leaders to understand how the business is moving forward?” asks Polaha. Naturally, this is very much an individualised question, unique to every business. Yet if the question isn’t answered, it’s unlikely the data will be used in the most effective way.
All change
Mike Polaha, senior vice-president of finance solutions and technology at BlackLine.
“I think that’s where the office of the CFO is really focusing: business partnering and the ability to be predictive and forward looking. Spotting trends so the business can respond much more in an agile way versus a reactive one,” the VP continues. Companies are already doing that through what Polaha labels the “data supply chain”. Rather than processing information on a weekly, monthly or even quarterly basis, some of the most innovative early adopters are doing it in real time, detecting anomalies, determining trends and acting quickly. This, Polaha says, has been a technological game changer for businesses everywhere.
Here, though, is the second front of that battle: how does a company make data work for it, and how does it spot those trends and exploit the insight it has? This is where data governance is critical – as is the technology that allows the CFO to interpret data in real time. “I
As part of the multidimensional battle happening right now, CFOs have to fundamentally change their own roles. The last decade has already seen a dramatic change in the role the CFO plays, of course, the skills required and their interactions with the wider business both shifting dramatically. Put simply, the role has become much more present within the day-to-day dynamics of a business, supporting organisation-wide decisions in a way it never did before. Today, Polaha says CFOs need to be able to connect the digital dots across their business, integrating functions and promoting the digital revolution – all of which will support tasks through automation and artificial intelligence. Done correctly, and the CFO can be the “tip of the spear” to create an enterprise strategy around digitisation,” he says. “As CFOs think about their respective digital transformation agenda, they need to ensure they educate their business partners on what they’re going to need to drive that change – because we’re not
Finance Director Europe /
www.ns-businesshub.com
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