The focus of the IT budget spend on expensive infrastructure, on-premise licenses, ongoing maintenance, and year-long, risky IT projects that divert money, people, and focus away from your core business, are long gone.
Cloud has changed all of that — it costs less, provides innovation faster, reduces maintenance through streamlined configurations, and is more secure. Customers don’t have to worry about setting up and maintaining infrastructure, which means that they can spend more time focusing on their business.
Within finance, moving to cloud applications means less time spent on rudimentary manual tasks. Businesses get access to the latest technology and innovations faster, with cloud deployments incorporating new features like artificial intelligence to streamlined workflow and augmenting existing processes. These advancements will allow for better reporting, minimized human error, and automated compliance.
So, are you ready to look at the more powerful world of agile finance?
Well, we are ready to help you at every step of your journey. We have put together a guide highlighting the key steps to success.
Step 1: Prepare
You don’t need to be on your own during this first step. Attend our Workshop “Chart Your Risk-Free Path to the Cloud” and we will help you identify what’s best for your business. You don’t have to commit to anything, we are just here to help you prepare if you decide to make the move to the Cloud.
Assess your business:
What are my top 3 challenges today?
How many users will the solution need to support?
Is that number likely to grow significantly in the future? And if so, can the solution scale alongside it?
What data needs to be where for security or regulation perspective?
What devices do the chosen apps (or suite) need to run on for everyone in your business to get the most from them?
Write your business assessment to us at sales@kayimpex.com and we will provide you with the solutions
Map your existing Applications and check customisations:
Check your current apps and choose the right path:
- Full system move from On-Premise to SaaS Applications
- Hybrid — move select processes to the Cloud and integrate with existing on-premises applications
- Lift and shift — move on-premises applications out of data centre onto the Cloud (Apps stay the same but the infrastructure move to the Cloud
Build a Business Case:
- Identify key areas of improvement for issues currently faced by the business that your project could help solve.
- Speak in broad terms about business benefits Including both tangible and intangible benefits; not just on the impact for people with entirely ERP-focused jobs.
- Look for areas where your project could save the business money, and define benchmarks for key KPIs that your new solution will help improve.
- Create a compelling ROI forecast that demonstrates what your proposed acquisition will do for the bottom line.
Step 2: Plan
Step 3: Embark
Configure: Since Cloud Applications are focused on configuration rather than customization tasks, it is important early in a project to configure users and their titles, organisations, roles and responsibilities. Couple with required standard business processes and their workflow, core business activities can quickly be implemented.
Integrate: Few solutions, especially at large enterprises, embrace all business systems. Integrating third-party solutions or legacy systems into Cloud applications preserves prior investments and unique capabilities. A lot of Integrated Cloud Services supports software integration requirements.
Access Data and Reports: You will need to move your data to the Cloud. Once the quantity of data and its definition are defined (refer to Step 1: Project Design stage) you will need to extract, transform and load data involving data quality and normalization tasks. If you wish we can do that for you using various Enterprise Data Management Cloud, which simplifies data environments. Once the data is moved you will also need to think about reporting requirements: identify which previous reports you want to be replaced with real-time information and determine the configuration of assembled reports that can be generated and distributed.
Step 4: Verify
Check Configuration: Since Cloud Applications are focused on configuration rather than customisation, It is a non-complex testing approach that doesn’t require a daunting functionality check as the old on promises system would require. If planned properly everything should be ready to go and you will need to check the accuracy and completeness of the work against the project requirements such as:
- The data quality
- The workflow
- The security
- The roles and responsibilities
Get User Acceptance: When the project was defined key stakeholders across the business unit and executives were identified. They also were key to prepare the project’s definitions. Return to these individuals and get their sign off confirming the implemented project matches their requirements.
Ensure Alignment Across the Business: Provision users with their user’s names, password and related information. Let the user know how they can get assistance when the solution goes live. Communicate around change management (what will change and how beneficial it will be) and organise core training across the business so everyone feels involve, inform and ready.
Step 5: Go Live
Document: Since Cloud Applications are focused on configuration rather Take time with the core project team to document lessons learned and identify what worked well and area to improve in a future project. Pay attention to company culture aspects and user acceptance. Consider presenting comprehensive project debriefs to the steering committee and executive sponsor.
Monitor & Measure: Regularly measure and report on performance, value and usage. Consider setting up programs that reward compliance, identify interventions and recommend process improvements.
We hope you find this guide useful and we cannot wait to help you on your journey to the Cloud. With this move, you will access the latest technology and innovations faster, with new features like artificial intelligence to streamline workflow and augment existing processes. These advancements will allow for better reporting, minimize human error, and automate compliance — a dream becoming a reality for Finance leaders!
To find out more contact us at sales@kayimpex.com