24 ¡ MONE Y
ISSUE 58
FINTECH
Theo is a manager at EY providing strategy consultancy and transaction advisory services.
IS YOUR BUSINESS FUTURE-PROOF? If you want your business to have the best possible chance to survive, you need to future-proof it. But how? Theo Dix puts businesses to the test. When organisations are busy focusing on their business, it can be difficult for them to keep up with the changing world. Today’s fast-moving and increasingly disruptive technologies, and the business models they enable, are adding to the pressure, resulting in competitive advantage for those companies that are quickest to adapt, but leaving many scratching their heads and uncertain of where to focus. The world was a very different place 10 years ago. In 2009 Shell, Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart, BP and Chevron were the five largest public companies in the world. In 2019 the five largest are all technology companies - Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon and Facebook, with Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent also in the top 10. Digital transformation was once all about the customer. Websites that provide information on a business, product and service; e-commerce capabilities; digital marketing and social media activity. Now many companies are realising that digital innovation can be infused across all areas of their organisation and have a transformative effect on both their business operations and processes. The big challenge that many
CEO and CFOs face is to determine where best to focus their often-limited energy and resources, and what business value such an investment can bring.
Inputting invoices, tracking receivables and logging payment transactions are high cost, low return, and not of high interest to employees.
Possibly, what is holding companies back is a lack of understanding of the basics, particularly by decision-makers. Perhaps no part of the enterprise has as many repetitive, routine tasks as the finance department.
This is a great space for Robotic Process Automation (RPA), the most traditional and simple of automation tools. RPA is the use of software that mimics human interaction with core systems, web and desktop applications
