April 22, 2025
Many of you will instinctively recognise the Tuscan Landscape from the image above and be transported to endless Summer days but what has that got to do with your Finance Systems Strategy, I hear you say? Well, interestingly enough all conversations with Clients focus on the Finance ERP initially before the long list of 'ancillary' Finance Systems are wheeled out.
Many a CFO has sat in front of me almost sheepishly and admitted yes we have another System that does that, and that and that. It is far more common than you think.
Almost like a surprise whilst driving your open top Ferrari around the sweeping bends of the majestic Tuscany countryside, there is always another Finance System. As the conversation unfolds from "we are on Navision at present but think Business Central should do us going forward." to oh sorry we use System XYZ for Purchase Orders and oh we also Bill from System ABC, which by the way is bespoke...
The Bespoke System, 'creator' of more long term IT Careers then I care to mention. 'Bob' built it in 1998 and we keep Bob as a Contractor because only Bob knows how it works. We dare not change anything in case it breaks and yes of course we are keeping 'IT' and Bob, just integrate them will you?
At Finance Transformation Consulting the Transformation will invariably involve both the Finance Process and the Finance Systems. We therefore insist that both are Baselined. We like to refer to the latter as the Finance Systems Landscape and by the time we are finished every Finance System you possess has been mapped to it. It will be headlined by a One Page view across your Finance Systems Landscape every bit as appealing as Tuscany.
I remind you from a previous article that we strongly recommend that no CFO books a Finance Systems Demo until this Baseline exercise is complete. Ignore this pearl of negotiating experience at your own peril.
Read more about our Finance Transformation, Finance Shared Services and Finance Systems Strategy services.
Best Regards,