Have you ever tried getting workers in your organization to embrace new processes? It can be tougher than implementing new technology.
 |
| Real-time analytics, cloud and other technology have helped financial solutions reach new zeniths of performance, but many organizations’ processes haven’t kept pace. |
“We’re in a really fantastic time in finance,” elizabeth.milne, SAP product marketing minimalist, told me in the video below. “What I’ve heard time and time again ... from all these different people whom I’ve heard presenting is that they need to adjust their processes to keep up with the technology.”
Whether you’re implementing new technology or new processes, you’ve got to get people on board. And that means getting informed.
The presenters Milne mentioned included Cargill, Gazprom and other SAP customers who shared their tales of digital transformation. And they shared those tales at SAPinsider events for Finance and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) last year -- just as SAP users from around the world will do again in March at Financials 2016 and GRC 2016.
Click on the links above to view the full agendas and receive a registration discount.
Out with the Old
Comfort with the status quo -- and fear of the unknown -- drive a lot of the resistance to adopting new processes, Milne stated. And technological restrictions from a bygone era shaped the old processes, according to thack.brown, general manager and global head for SAP’s Line of Business Finance.
“They’re all very good platforms, but all of those platforms were designed in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Brown said at an SAPinsider event in Nice, France last year. “They’re based off of technology from the ‘70s and ‘80s; and they all work around the limitations that were built into those technologies in the ‘70s and the ‘80s.”
 |
| Technological limits are no longer holding back organizations -- it’s their people and processes. |
Helping customers achieve their digital transformations is a big part of the co-located SAPinsider events (@SAPinsider, #Financials2016 and #GRC2016), which are hosted by SAPinsider magazine producer WIS Publishing. Big draws for attendees are the opportunities to hear from their fellow users.
Get Excited for the Future!
“I am super excited to see the many customer presentations documenting the success of their finance transformation journey,” SAP VP and Head of Finance Audience Marketing henner.schliebs told me last week. “I love seeing the digitalization process coming to life in the keynote, where we’re talking about the live business that SAP is supporting.”
Keynotes can help attendees break people out of old mindsets, opening them up to what new technology can do. In Las Vegas, Brown shared SAP’s vision of the modern finance department, with finance leaders transforming their businesses via the real-time processes of SAP S/4HANA Finance -- formerly known as SAP Simple Finance. And in Nice, SAP’s Steve Lucas told attendees why paranoia is good for business -- and why they should be like a lemur, which stands upright, and constantly searches for threats.
“It doesn’t want to get eaten -- and a good, healthy sense of paranoia is exactly what organizations need,” Lucas told the international crowd. “You don’t want to get eaten ... but you can get eaten by something that shows up out of nowhere.”
Finance, Risk and Compliance Sessions
After the keynotes, educational sessions delve into the hottest topics for SAP users, sometimes with standing room only, as birgit.starmanns noted in her S/4HANA Finance blog post. Topics of this year’s sessions will include SAP’s evolving solutions landscape and myriad new ways to optimize your finance and GRC performance during your digital transformation.
“S/4HANA Finance is leading the way with more than 2,700 customers -- the most successful product launch in SAP’s history,” Schliebs said last week. “With Finance being the only cross-organizational department, the CFO is the driver of the digital enterprise.”
 |
| Organizations have a choice: Stride confidently into the future with cutting-edge processes -- or bog themselves down with outdated procedures. |
SAP has an extensive track record helping organizations mitigate risk, including two GRC solutions that SAP’s kevin.mccollom introduced at GRC 2015. SAP Fraud Management, an SAP HANA-native app that lets end users set their own fraud management thresholds. And Business Partner Screening gauges an organization’s risk when partnering with others -- and can even vet your potential partner’s partners.
In With the New
“There’s a lot of fear in people,” Elizabeth Milne said, noting organizations’ aversion to upgrade technology. “So [they say,] ‘if it ain’t broke, why fix it?’ Well ... it actually is broke.”
Many users feel comfortable with legacy technology because that’s what they’ve always used, but that ignores the fact that things change, according to Milne. She sees the problem in terms of people, processes and technology.
“We’ve got the technology bit pretty well figured out,” Milne said. “Now you’ve just got to get the people and the processes on board.”
Financials 2016 and GRC 2016 can help you get your people, processes and technology on board for your organization’s digital transformation. The co-located events will take place from March 15 to 18 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Click on the event links for a discount off of the onsite registration rate. And follow Derek on Twitter: @DKlobucher
More From SAP Business Trends:
VIDEO: How to Collaborate in Real Time with a BI Dashboard @SAPinsider 2015
How Real-Time Analytics Will Kill a Financial Tradition @SAPinsider 2015
- SAP Managed Tags:
