As technology evolves and business requirements are shifting, pressure is mounting on yesterday’s finance systems. Gone are the days when the finance role was only to manage risk, complete transactions, and tally the books. Today’s CFOs are adapting and creating up-to-date digital business models to create more value, take advantage of new opportunities, and beat the competition.

Whilst cloud based finance systems are generally a cheaper and more efficient alternative, there are a number of additional reasons why small to medium organisations are moving their finances to the cloud.

• Less effort with upgrades – (no need for on premise upgrades). It often takes IT too long to implement new upgrades and capabilities in existing ERP systems.
• Younger CFO’s are more willing to migrate to the cloud as baby boomers retire. They have been brought up in a mobile world and expect their work tools to be mobile as well.
• Reduced effort and input for local IT support, therefore reduced people costs.
• Cloud systems have revolutionised reporting which has major benefits over batch reports from legacy ERP systems.
• Using spreadsheets to perform analysis is uncontrolled and error-prone.
• Fast growing companies need systems that are ready to answer questions quickly such as the ability to knock out a business model to take an organisation to the next level. They also require sustainable processes to support anticipated growth.
• Data is exploding – legacy finance systems are not equipped to handle this information overload and are often not integrated with the systems generating the data.
• Lower power costs – due to better hardware utilisation. No need for servers, back up servers and so on.
• Zero capital costs. Running your own servers means up front capital costs. Cloud based systems mean that is the vendor’s problem.
• Increased resilience, reduced redundancy. You won’t need extra hardware in case of failure. Cloud based providers often store your data in more than one place and mirror your data.
• Simplification of business processes. Complex processes often evolve over time and can result in a muddled mess. Moving to a cloud based ERP system can provide the opportunity to rethink current procedures.

Below are some triggers that could signal the need to future proof your business with a cloud based ERP system.

• Your existing legacy ERP system no longer caters to your business requirements and/or needs a major upgrade.
• Your business is facing a merger, acquisition or spin off.
• Reinventing your finance processes
• Standardisation and/or simplification of your business processes
• Start-up company that needs to rapidly deploy

Don’t get left behind. Start planning to move your finance to the cloud. If you’re not sure it’s time to move your business finance to the cloud call Tim at Momentum on 0422 318 474 for a no-obligation chat.