Enhancing Your Agility with a Best-in-Class Cloud Strategy

Agility has become increasingly important in today’s business environment. The ability to pivot with rapidly-changing conditions—such as economic influences, customer needs, workplace requirements, and advances in technology—empowers your organization to sustain operations  when faced with uncertainty and provides a competitive advantage  when you’re faced with opportunity. 

Cloud computing is a rising hero of business agility, providing the infrastructure and flexibility to support your organization’s operations. With the cloud, organizations can recognize many benefits, from lower technology costs and accessible risk mitigation measures to anytime and anywhere access. These advantages are strengthened when organizations decide to adopt an agile, best-in-class approach rather than being tied to a rigid, suite software approach. 

Designed to focus and excel 

Best-in-class software is designed to focus on and excel within a single functional area of business. It offers features specific to the functional area it serves, such as the financial management team. In contrast, suite software endeavors to fulfill the needs of a broad range of functional areas, such as accounting, human resources, and payroll. With a suite offering, the array of software products may differ in quality, usefulness, and long-term return on investment. 

Best-in-class software is well known for its in-depth functionality and ability to integrate with other software. With a focus on serving a specific area of a business really well, best-in-class software can offer robust capabilities and features to address the needs of that area. It’s also designed to connect with systems that serve other areas of the business, helping to provide a unified experience comprised of more than one market-leading solution. 

Making the most of your software 

Organizations that choose a best-in-class cloud software approach can leverage the inherent benefits of the cloud. In connecting multiple best-in-class applications, you can make the most of software decisions by allowing each functional area or department to choose the system that is right for them. When implemented and integrated properly, the end product delivers new levels of automation, visibility, and collaboration instead of isolated, manual processes forced through clunky and antiquated interfaces. Best of all, best-in-class systems won’t tie your organization down to a one-size-fits-all tool. 

Best-in-class cloud financial management 

Given these advantages, it’s not surprising to see a growing number of organizations opting for best-in-class cloud solutions to meet the escalating business and technology needs of their teams. When it comes to selecting the right cloud financial management software, it is important to evaluate how the software will help to better position your organization now and in the future. Finance professionals are under increasing pressure to serve the business strategically and operationally, so the following questions should be asked when selecting a best-in-class cloud financial management system: 

• Can internal and external stakeholders gain access to real-time data? 
• Does the solution provide flexible reporting and role-based dashboards? 
• Can processes be automated, controlled, and streamlined through user-defined workflows? 
• Does the solution provide scalability for an evolving business? 

 With a best-in-class approach, the right financial management system can become the hub of an organization with other products comprising the spokes—each one addressing specific functional areas—such as customer relationship management (CRM), human resources, and payroll. Best-in-class cloud financial management systems open the door to building a unified accounting and operations ecosystem that effectively supports an organization as it pivots in response to ever-changing business conditions. 

Building your finance tech stack 

So, how do you go about selecting the systems that are right for your organization? This process is often called building a tech stack. When building a finance tech stack, there are many options to choose from. With an investment of time and money, and the organization’s ability to pivot and scale on the line, you can’t afford to make uninformed decisions. 

 Start with documenting your business requirements and evaluating all options against them to gain an understanding of which solutions will best address your needs. Next, take the software options you believe will work best and map them out so you know how data will flow between the systems. Finally, put together a timeline that shows your goals for when each solution should be implemented and what resources will be needed at different points along the way. Consider the timing of quick-win projects that will drive immediate benefits and motivate the team to continue moving forward. 

 Working integrations are key to creating a seamless data flow between the various best-in-class systems you have selected for your tech stack. An integrated finance tech stack can reduce the costs and risks associated with manually rekeying data from one system to another. It also enables you to relay real-time information about your business through tools such as dashboards and reports. 

A critical shift in perspective 

When the software selection question shifts from “Which solution can do it all?” to “Which solution will work best for each team?” your organization can truly capitalize on an end product that provides enhanced experience, agility, and longevity. EisnerAmper professionals have over two decades of experience helping clients implement accounting and ERP software solutions. Contact us below to discuss how your organization could increase agility by implementing a best-in-class tech stack.