Why More South African Companies are Choosing Cloud Financial Management Solutions
Companies of all sizes are facing an evolving marketplace with greater globalisation, competition, employee dispersion, and a growing acceptance of web-based, on-demand services. It brings new market opportunities and more affordable resources to businesses, but it also brings a flood of new competitors and products to the marketplace.
In order for businesses to stay relevant, innovation has taken centre stage of most corporate strategies.
The cloud is pivotal to digital innovation in business, and the financial sector continues to lead the way in digital innovation. So much so that a recent UK study showed that 23% of adults consider the banking sector to be the leaders of digital innovation, and 67% of users expect to increase their use of cloud services within the next year.
It is implicit then that slower-moving organisations that fail to equip themselves with cloud financial solutions may lose business to their more forward-thinking competitors.
The Rise of Cloud Financial Management Solutions
Starting with the adoption of cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions that catered to customer relationship management (CRM), and payroll and HR, more organisations of all sizes began to adopt cloud SaaS to satisfy their financial management software needs.
As demand and scope widen, SaaS vendors are designing solutions to scale and meet the needs of small and large companies alike. Applications with complex capabilities previously limited to large corporations are now available to smaller organisations that have outgrown the basic functionality of their free or off-the-shelf accounting applications. They also serve larger organisations that want greater flexibility and velocity than their existing legacy, on-premise financial software solutions can provide.
Additionally, as products and services evolve, so too revenue management and invoicing requirements and compliance regulations become more complex. Most standard accounting packages are ill-equipped to handle these complexities, and many organisations resort to using spreadsheets to manipulate and calculate financial reports.
As companies scale to multiple business units, multiple locations, and possibly even multiple countries, their need to track revenues, expenses, and profitability across these entities in an integrated, end-to-end financial solution, lead to the rise in powerful, integrated cloud financial management solutions, like Sage Intacct.
The Benefits of Cloud Financial Management Solutions
Lower costs
Cloud financial management solutions means organisations no longer need to invest heavily in dedicated hardware and software with a limited shelf life, nor the IT resources to maintain it. Instead, companies can plug into the infrastructure of a secure, dedicated cloud service provider, potentially reducing IT costs by 75%.
Greater accessibility, flexibility and scalability
The cloud makes it possible for organisations to rapidly scale up or down, depending on the demands of the market, cloud technology is a highly effective way to scale at pace. 65% of organisations have noted scalability as their key reason for adopting cloud services.
Additionally, cloud solutions store information in one central database and can be accessed anywhere, at any time, by the authorised people, through their internet browser. This accessibility empowers greater work flexibility, as innovation and creative problem solving do not always keep to office hours. It also supports the needs of an ever-growing remote workforce.
Choosing the Best Cloud Financial Management Delivery Model for You
CFOs and financial leaders are tasked to balance ever-increasing business complexities with a rising need for greater velocity. Monitoring multiple entities with multiple regulatory frameworks and multiple currencies while managing frequent business changes requires financial software that streamlines and automates transactions across entities, as well as integrating with other best-of-breed applications, in order to provide business leaders with real-time insights and control, and to future-proof the business.
If you are considering a new cloud financial management solution, here is a quick guide to help you select the best delivery model for you.
Option 1: On-premise (your local server)
Typically, you would licence your software and run it on your local servers. Capital and operating expenses need to be considered for this model.
Option 2: Hosted (your software, hosted externally)
In an hosted environment, the application sits on a server in an off-site data centre operated by an expert third-party hosting provider. The software would be accessed by your team on their internet browser with the use of a ‘bridging’ product in order to see the screens which are generated at the hosting provider.
This model removes the responsibility of maintaining hardware infrastructure, and the need for a large initial capital spend. It is, however, a mirror image of the licenced application, which means customisation, support, and development are still for your own expense.
Option 3: Cloud (your data, shared innovation)
Cloud-based financial management solutions (or SaaS) were built for the Internet.
These solutions provide direct, always-on access to the solution, typically paid for on a per-user/per-month subscription basis. They are a multi-tenant solution, which means you have access to your own data only, while working from a shared set of best-of-breed resources and application infrastructure.
Cloud-based solutions remove the need for any upfront capital investments or long-term commitments, because the solution cannot be bought or owned by users. However, personalisation/configurability is high and these changes are carried through to each upgrade, which takes place at no extra cost to you.
Which Cloud Financial Management Solution is Best for You?
Sage Intacct is the consistent innovation and customer-satisfaction leader in cloud financial management solutions.
Gartner’s Cloud Financial Management Systems Critical Capabilities Ranking
And has been for decades.
Winning multiple awards, year after year, Sage Intacct provides outstanding core financial management capabilities that empower CFOs with real-time data, anywhere access, and powerful project and contracts capabilities.
Good news! T3T is a Premium Sage Intacct partner.
Experts in Sage solutions, we can help you implement Sage Intacct and leverage it – quickly – to unleash the benefits of optimal financial management in your business.