ERP transformation: Unleashing the potential of digital finance

The finance departments of today's major corporations are engaged in a major digital transformation. To contribute to overall corporate objectives such as growth, operational excellence and digitalization, the accounting and finance department must reinforce its operational efficiency, gain agility, and improve the quality and use of its data. 

At the heart of this revolution is the financial and accounting information system, mainly built around the financial modules of the company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) framework. However, the monolithic model of existing ERP systems is now being called into question for a number of reasons:

• Over time, multiple ERPs based on different models or implementations have accumulated, creating a complex environment
• Existing ERP systems tend to become obsolete, prompting companies to consider the transition to cloud ERP systems such as SAP S/4 Hana, Oracle ERP Cloud, Microsoft Azure Dynamics and others
• Move-to-cloud initiatives are under way to increase agility and reduce infrastructure costs
• At the same time, an approach based on application components and a service portal, made available to finance teams, is emerging to increase their autonomy vis-à-vis IT

In this context, it is essential that any ERP transformation project serves the digital transformation of the finance function first and foremost, and meets the objectives of the CFO. This is an opportunity to select a new supplier and a better adapted solution, with functionalities in line with the finance department's vision.

However, it's crucial to understand that ERP transformation goes far beyond a simple technical migration. This approach creates substantial risks for meeting production launch dates and, more importantly, for achieving the ambitions initially set at the product launch.

To meet these objectives, ERP transformation cannot be reduced to a simple technical migration. The transformation project must also include integration and data migration aspects. In such projects, these two components generally account for over 40 percent of costs and timeframes, but they are unfortunately often underestimated and relegated to the end of the project. This phenomenon translates into substantial risks for meeting production launch dates and, more importantly, for achieving the ambitions initially set at the start of the project. 

The aim of this document is to propose an approach based on the use of a financial and accounting hub to reduce the costs, timescales and risks associated with data migration and integration during accounting and financial ERP transformation projects. 

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