08 Jun
As Chief Financial Officer (CFO), you are responsible for ensuring the financial health of a company and keeping it on a stable growth path. However, with today’s ever-changing business environment of technological advances, changing market conditions and global events, CFOs face new challenges.
The ability to respond flexibly and proactively to change is crucial to ensuring the long-term success of a company. CFOs play a central role in understanding the financial impact of change, identifying opportunities and making the right strategic decisions.
In our first blog, “How has the role of the CFO changed?”, we focused on showing you how the work and responsibilities of CFOs have changed as a result of digital transformation. And, what difficulties and obstacles finance departments face as a result of the digital transformation.
In our further blog, we would like to dive a little deeper into the topic of SAP S/4HANA Finance.
With SAP S/4HANA Finance, we have a solution at hand that covers the existing but also the new needs and supports modern CFOs and their teams in their daily work.
“SAP S/4HANA Finance covers the entire day-to-day business of CFOs. From financial planning and accounting, to margin analysis and treasury.”
The real benefit of transforming finance lies in connecting with other business areas (for example, HR, sales, operations, marketing): A networked platform enables finance to run scenarios and see their impact on other areas. Cooperation between departments is ensured, especially in areas such as strategic and operational planning. Furthermore, the onboarding of new employees is simplified by a redesign and acquisitions of purchases (M&A) can be easily integrated into the existing system landscape.
The changes brought about by CFOs as “Chief Future Officers” and sparring partners of CEOs simultaneously result in completely different requirements for an ERP system. Strategic fields of action must be developed and presented, and concrete options for action derived from them. Ideally, the ERP system simply allows the options for action to be simulated so that the prospects for success and, in particular, the effects on other areas can be identified at an early stage.
Despite a slowdown in the second half of 2022, M&A activity among Swiss SMEs remains at a high level. ERP systems must allow easy incorporation of the purchased entities. Either by means of a (two-tier) approach or direct incorporation.
To make efficient use of the synergies, transparent, automated intercompany processes are also part of the solution: Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation (ICMR), a solution integrated in SAP S/4HANA, accelerates the intercompany reconciliation process, from company financial statements to consolidated financial statements. Transactions and financial data are reconciled in real time. The flexible matching and reconciliation rules enable a high degree of automation and end-to-end accounting.
With S/4HANA Finance, CFOs of the future are therefore perfectly equipped for their challenge as sparring partners of CEOs and can take up the new challenge.
Are you planning activities in the field of M&A and looking for ways to efficiently manage the changed group of companies?
We will be happy to support you in your project.
