Hackett

The Finance 2020 Agenda - Go All-In with Digital Transformation to Reduce Cost While Driving Enterprise Growth

For the first time in 10 years, finance executives predict an uptick in technology spending in 2020, according to new Finance Key Issues research from The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT). By accelerating cloud migration and the adoption of RPA, data visualization and advanced analytics solutions, finance is seeking to optimize cost efficiency while driving enterprise growth. Most finance executives expect to see an increase of 5-10% in the share of the finance operating budget dedicated to technology in 2020, the research found, despite a projected 3.4% decline in the overall budget.

Technology spend as a percentage of the finance budget has been flat or declining since 2009, but finance is prepared to make incremental investment to advance its digital transformation agenda. Our research shows that executives are setting aggressive year-over-year targets for digital technology adoption. At the end of 2019, our study respondents projected that in 2020 they would see a rise of 26% in the adoption of data visualization tools, 24% in RPA implementations, 20% in migration to next-gen cloud-based core finance applications, and an 18% increase in the adoption of advanced analytics solutions.

The research recommended that finance must go digital, faster, in order to support companies’ two biggest objectives for this year: Optimize the cost structure to become more agile in preparation for economic volatility and continue to invest in product and services innovation to maintain competitive advantage. For finance functions, that also means addressing internal cost inefficiencies and working with the business to identify and execute on revenue growth opportunities.

This research is available on a complimentary basis, with registration, at this link: http://go.poweredbyhackett.com/20keyfin1912sm. Note – The full research piece includes 10 charts containing nearly 60 complete metrics.

According to Jim O’Connor, North American Practice Leader, The Hackett Group, “Finance has an aggressive agenda for 2020, with analytics and technological advancement as the top two transformation priorities. Finance executives realize that in the intensely competitive digital economy companies cannot arbitrarily cut cost at the expense of sustainability. It is finance’s job to ensure intelligent cost reduction through smart automation and the use of analytics to help management decide where to cut and where to invest."