SHARE

Here’s an all-too-common experience for business leaders: You just finished entering a bunch of data into one system only to turn around and enter the same data into another system.

This is an example of a manual business process, where tasks may be siloed or repeated, which leads to inefficiencies. For accounting or treasury teams, common examples would include manually entering transaction details into your accounting system or reconciling against a paper or electronic bank statement.

Not only do these manual processes take more time, they can also lead to greater organizational risk, as the chance for human error is higher. That’s why a growing number of businesses are aiming for increased digital integration, particularly when it comes to their finances.

What is digital integration?

Digital integration is the concept of connecting an organization’s tools, systems and data in a programmatic way with the goal of achieving increased security, reliability and scalability.

This is a concept that any business at any stage of maturity can adopt to improve day-to-day operations. You could take a first step that is fairly simple, such as analyzing, standardizing and documenting processes. This step is critical to ensure that you are addressing the right opportunities with your digital integration strategy. Once you have identified specific goals, such as reconciling transactions or logging payment information, you could take a more technical step such as connecting your accounting software with your bank’s back end. No matter the goal, this approach would improve data flow and expedite financial processes.

Your ultimate goal is to unlock efficiencies that help you do more with less. With many organizations facing tight margins and labor shortages in the current market, these enhancements can go a long way.

Where are we headed next?

It’s no secret that we are in a period of rapid change in technology, data and the speed of information. In the financial space, we’re seeing this play out as many accounting platforms move to the cloud, which helps facilitate digital integration efforts by making data easier to access and share, with additional layers of embedded security.

Companies are trying to keep pace. Cloud-based treasury solutions have become the most popular option for organizations, though overall adoption remains slightly below 50%, leaving plenty of room for future growth¹.

Other technological advancements, such as the emergence of artificial intelligence, are also beginning to impact how businesses function. While it’s impossible to know exactly what will come next, business leaders will want to keep an eye on new tools and think about how they can help streamline their operations.

As your company explores new technologies and works toward becoming more digitally integrated, consider these key questions:

• How will the business change over the next 3-10 years? What are your organization’s growth and evolution goals?

• What parts of your current processes need to be retooled? What’s working and what’s not working?

• What key strategic partners do you work with? How would you integrate with them?

• Is your leadership team aligned on what success looks like?

On the financial side, look for a partner who is willing to discuss these types of questions and help your business advance in its digital integration journey.