According to Gartner, 66% of leaders want to transform their business digitally. Yet, only about 11% are actually delivering "Digital Business". During the recent World Economic Forum, it has been suggested that by 2025 more than half of all workplace tasks will be performed by machines. Our question to you, is where are you on this journey towards automation?

1. WHERE ARE YOU ON YOUR AUTOMATION JOURNEY?
John Stovold – UK Marketing Manager
October 2018 1

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According to Gartner, 66% of leaders want to transform their business digitally.
Yet, only about 11% are actually delivering “digital business”

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 Yes, we have just started exploring.
 Yes, and have recently purchased solutions.
 Yes, we have but more than 18 months ago.
 No, we keep talking about looking...
 No, and I haven’t heard anyone discuss this unfortunately.
Our first question for you… Have you, or are you
currently exploring automation for AP or Finance?

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Consultancy.uk recently reported that in organisations with a Digital Transformation
project, 8 in 10 CFO’s are the spearhead.

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 Yes, any project would be led by a department Manager
 Yes, any project would be led by IT.
 Yes, but this would be led by our parent.
 Yes, our board, or C suite would lead this.
 No, there is no obvious candidate.
Do you know who is, should or would spearhead any
project to digitalise or automate your back office
functions?

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At ITESOFT, we believe that communication and understanding are the keys to successful
Digital Transformation.
This starts with us…

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 Set up a multi-disciplined team from various
departments.
 Ran the project as an isolated department.
For those of you with a project, or who recently
completed a project, did you:

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FUTURE OR CURRENT
TECHNOLOGY?

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 Yes, it would be integral to our planning process.
 Yes, I would look, but I am not sure my company would.
 We would look, but it wouldn't be integral.
 No, we are unlikely to use the likes of Gartner for research.
Have you, or would you include information from bodies
such as Gartner during the research phases of a project?
And if so, what level of impact would this research have?

10. FUTURETECH OR CURRENT TECH?
10
IoT Communication
Broader Connectivity
AI Processes
Smarter Optimisation
Big Data Insights
Greater Visibility
RPA Time Savings
Insightful Workforces
Gen X & Gen Z
Agile Organisations

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WHAT CAN TECHNOLOGY DO
FOR US NOW?

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• Faster receipt of incoming data
• Cleaner audit trails from moment of receipt to
point of payment
• Higher quality data captured and processed
• Improved metrics & analytics for business
insights
• Managed process flows ensuring speed of
approvals
• Increased connectivity offering greater
flexibility to you and your suppliers.
HOW DOES TECH SAVE TIME IN
FINANCE?

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 We have invested and seen a significant improvement.
 We invested but have not seen a significant improvement.
 If we were to invest this would be a vital element.
 We do not believe that we can improve our current
processes.
Our clients have been able to reduce their receipt to
authorisation cycle to as little as 1.2 days. How does this
compare to your processes?

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• Reduce internal IT impacts
• Increase speed of go-live with systems
• Lower running costs & departmental down-time
• Improve staff moral and subsequent output
• Free employees from low value, repetitive tasks to
focus on business benefit and high value tasks.
• Ensure compliance for ease of audit
• Significantly Reduce the risk of fraudulent or
duplicate payments
HOW DO WE INCREASE RoI

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• Traditional Business Intelligence (BI) tools built
for a purpose.
• AI can digest and evaluate more data than a
human, with greater degrees of accuracy.
• Obtain a “Top Down” view of all financial data
• Delve into data points following your own
intuition, not restricted by the data presented.
• Highlight areas of interest / risk with visibility of
root causes
• Be proactive, not reactive
UNDERSTAND YOUR DATA

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 We gather and mine our data to ensure best practices.
 We collect large amounts of data, but rarely make use of it.
 Our data is of dubious quality.
 What is Big Data?
How familiar is your business with the concept of Big
Data? And is the information you collect in back office
used to make strategic decisions?

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• Ensure that information being processed is
valid.
• Check for patterns or anomalies in data
captured & processed.
• Be warned before payments are made, not
after the fact.
• Build internal processes for creation of core
data to ensure security.
• Remove manual steps from the capture /
creation of data.
ENSURE AGAINST FRAUD

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 Yes, and we have seen real savings.
 Yes, although this was a long time ago now and is rarely
used.
 No, we have never looked at this.
 No, we looked but found that our manual checks sufficed.
 No, but we wish we had done.
Has your organisation invested in technology explicitly
designed to combat fraud within your AP and Finance
function?

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ENSURE SUCCESS IN DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION

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 Yes, we have done this in the recent past.
 Yes, although we have not done this recently.
 No, we would struggle to assign a cost to the
function.
Do you know, or could you easily calculate the current
running costs of your AP or Finance departments?

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• What is your business pain? Or pains?
• How are these impacting or hindering your
business?
• What does the current process truly look like?
• What would you like this process to look like?
• Who is likely to be impacted by the project?
• Again, who is likely to be impacted?
• What are your timescales?
• What is your budget?
• What internal restrictions can you foresee?
PLAN

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• Understand that Digital Transformation is not isolated to
a process.
• Engage the whole department that this is designed for.
• Include all contacts from departments that this could
also impact.
• Build a team of business experts from multiple
disciplines and departments.
• Create a communication plan, including specific points
or times within the project for wider communication.
• Create space for concerns to be raised, and address
these in a timely manner.
• Do not try and control all elements of a project, allow
your dedicated team freedom.
ENGAGE – BREAK DOWN SILOS

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• Digital Transformation can impact the whole
business.
• Try and avoid looking at it in this way, look for
specific processes or pains that can be addressed.
• Detail your targets carefully, keep these small and
focused to the project, avoid broader benefits.
• Measure these targets before you start,
understand what they will look like when you have
implemented digitalisation.
• Ensure that at each key stage of the project you
refer back to your targets and goals to keep
focus.
FOCUS – SMALL STEPS – SPECIFIC
TARGETS

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• Do not be afraid of failure.
• If something is not working, accept this, re-
evaluate.
• Avoid throwing more money after bad money.
• Re-define your objectives & re-evaluate your
market.
• Make swift decisions during the project if things
are not working, do not wait until the end.
• Do not give up, just because it didn’t work the
first time it doesn’t mean that Digital
Transformation isn’t for your business.
FAIL FAST

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THANK YOU