Anna Tan, Head of Applications, Oracle Philippines
Iron Man has his powered armored suit, Captain America his shield, and Wonder Woman her bracelets of submission. When we’re young, its tools like these we think will make us ‘super’ people. But as we become adults and come to grips with reality, our definition of what it takes to be ‘super’ changes completely.
Especially in business, we’ve taken the term ‘super’ to describe leaders who have managed to find the right balance between work and life. The modern superhero we see lauded in the media is someone who is successful in their field while also making enough time for family and hobbies outside of work. That might mean getting home in time to put the kids to bed, finding time to train for a marathon, or just putting in the hours to learn how to play an instrument.
We are in awe of these individuals not because of a tremendous feat of strength or heroic act, but because achieving a perfect work/life balance while running a successful business is one of the hardest things to do as an adult.
The job is doubly difficult for CFOs, who are being challenged to navigate a complex economic landscape and be the CEO’s right-hand. It takes more than just superhero thinking and experience to achieve this, it takes super-powered technologies capable of supporting decision-making at the highest level quickly and accurately.
Today, it is their ERP cloud application that delivers the real power CFOs need. ERP may stand for “Enterprise Resource Planning”, but it delivers so much more when done right. Here’s why ERP today should stand for “Earn, Rest and Play”, taking the headache of administration out of running a finance organization for CFOs so they can find the right work/life balance and prove their true worth as modern superheroes.
Equipped with cloud-based ERP applications that add automation to the equation, CFOs can speed up manual tasks as well as eliminating time-consuming and costly upgrades from their routines. Time, instead, can be dedicated to focusing on the more strategic part of their jobs. Given recent Accenture research showed finance staff spends an average of 60% and 70% of their time on tasks such as processing transactions, accounting, controlling, compliance and reporting, that’s a lot more time back in their day. This is important as, for CFOs, being ‘super’ at work has, for a while now, meant more than being good with numbers. In fact, it means ‘getting ahead’ of any uncertainty and equipping themselves with the power of future-gazing, being able to look ahead and have reliable insight over any future scenarios. Nearly half of businesses have changed their models to become more agile and the CFO is expected to be the driving force behind that.
A regional example, ride-hailing app Grab is using Oracle Financials & Procurement Cloud for its business growth. As Grab expands rapidly into new markets and products, they need to handle the highest transaction volumes with speed and eliminate intercompany, handle payment complexity with process automation and auditable system of records. The tool empowers Grab’s business and finance as they grow.
As businesses become more and more reliant on data, CFOs need to keep being more than number-crunchers in the workplace if they’re to maximize their earning potential and add value in the right places. ERP can help them to achieve this, making them more productive and successful at work, but while freeing up the time to ‘do it all’. After all, it’s having enough time to dedicate to family, friends, hobbies and the general wellbeing that will make them the ‘super’ business people we read about. ERP with automation capabilities is the tool that’s helping the CFOs who are our modern day business superheroes.
