I wanted to share what I've learnt from working for seven years in the London finance transformation space. Don't make my mistakes and make my successes be your successes!
All good TED talks are based on unnatural, gimmicky alliterations. So the 4 P's that are coming up are:
Plans: How are You Going to Achieve Your Objectives?
What is Finance Transformation?
Transition activity that improves the effectiveness (output) and efficiency (cost) of Finance from its current state.
Any finance transformation will cover these three key elements:
People
Process
Systems
For example, a system implementation isn't just about IT. There will also be an impact on the people using those systems and the processes around them. Finance transformation becomes a useful catch-all term for these three key elements.
Finance transformation activities are very broad and can cover:
strategic guidance
process design
organisation design
project management
change management
systems implementation
and whatever else is needed!
Charlie Wales (c) https://flic.kr/p/Dyi2WH
Part 1) Plans: How are You Going to Achieve Your Objectives?
The first part of a successful finance transformation is a robust plan. This is all about getting organised to achieve the goals of the transformation.
Strategic Vision
Why undertake this project? What are you trying to achieve?
The aim of a finance transformation project should fit in with the overall goals of the business. You may have employed some external professional consultants to define that strategic vision. The finance transformation professional is then tasked with making it happen.
Finance transformation projects can come in different flavours:
Cost reduction, which may lead to outsourcing
Integration of two businesses
New finance system
Better processes
Or all of the above!
Project Management
Having defined your project goal, implementation of project management methods is key for success. The larger the project the more critical this is. On the other hand, you don't need to project manage to death smaller projects.
The are many different project management qualifications methodologies and I'd classed in two broad categories:
Formal: Prince2, PMP (Project Management Professional) and AMP (Association for Project Management)
Agile: originated in IT projects and has become more widespread. More of a set of principles than a defined qualification. Can include: SCRUM and Kanban.
There are common, important threats running through whatever project management methodology you use. There will be robust planning and timelines, think Gantt charts. You'll always keep an eye on the financials, including tracking against a business case. There should be good project governance and oversight structures with escalation routes for issues. The Prince2 process diagram is an excellent summary:
The Right Tools
You need the right tools to manage a project and perform day-to-day work. The planning tool is the important one to track timelines and work allocations. At the premium end, there is Microsoft Projects and Adobe Workfront. Excel is OK as a project management tool in simple situations. Nowadays, there are plenty of cheaper, online tools such as Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp and Trello.
Day-to-day tools are diverse. I've used Microsoft Visio for process mapping and Miro for online white-boarding during workshops. Accountants have a love-hate relationship with Excel, but I haven't found anything better for setting up a project tracker.
What Can Go Wrong
Things go wrong without proper planning and project management. How many projects have you seen go over cost and over time? HS2, I'm looking at you. Scope creep is easy to do but causes pain down the line. Sub-standard transformations lead to expensive and prolonged remediation. You have been warned!
Summary
With so many things that can go wrong it will feel easier to do nothing. However, change is constant so the cost of carry on as before could be even higher. Approaching a finance transformation with a good plan will go a long way towards success.
What's Coming Up?
Plans: How are You Going to Achieve Your Objectives?
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