How finance leaders can benefit from graduating to the cloud

In a very short space of time businesses globally have had to deal with a number of significant events which have changed the way the workplace operates and have each presented their own unique challenges.

One notable change is the forced shift to home working which began as a seemingly temporary measure during the height of the pandemic. This has now been permanently adopted by many employers and based on several studies, a hybrid working model is an expectation from a large percentage of employees.

More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents to the Advanced Annual Trends Survey said one of the legacies of the pandemic will be for organisations to shift to a digital first mindset, with this figure increasing to 90% for digital natives (18-24 year olds).

With that in mind, 70% of finance professionals asked have limitations in their current tech which holds them back when working remotely – with 59% of finance professionals also saying they believe the most important attributes for a business leader today, is ensuring staff have the tools to be productive.

There is still a place for on-premise solutions but businesses, SME’s through to Enterprise level, are becoming more aware of the major benefits cloud solutions presents.

Google says, “the promise of cloud computing represents more than just a faster, more efficient version of everything we did before – it’s an entirely new way of thinking and working across any environment”.

As well as overcoming technical limitations for efficient remote working, finance leaders are placing more emphasis on areas such as better reporting with timely and comprehensive data provided as a single view of the truth – using this real time data to aid with strategic decision making, better collaboration with non-finance people, security and are also expected to monitor multiple entities across a range of currencies and regulatory frameworks.

A cloud finance system can provide a single source solution to all of this (and more) and although 32% of business leaders say the cloud is their biggest spending priority over the next 12 months*, the fear of perceived cost and disruption of change prevents business leaders from embarking on the change. This fear has been created by technology vendors who put together complex pricing models, lengthy implementation processes and disruption to the current ways of working.

Advanced Housing recently made the move from the on-premise system they had been using for decades as it had become “unfit for purpose”, becoming reliant on bolting add-ons to try and combat this but coupled with insufficient reporting, it became difficult to get a “single view of the truth” and lacked the added functionalities required for this stage in their growth.

MRI’s senior solutions principal Ivan Blythe recently commented:

Cloud projects can be a financial shock, but clients are seeing that the level of security assurance in the cloud, plus the provision of ongoing technical support and system stability makes a big difference.

Whilst a move to the cloud can alleviate access, technical and IT frustrations, finance leaders also need greater levels of reporting that are accurate and can be delivered at speed. A big frustration is inconsistencies in reporting, which can damage strategic decision making and conviction in numbers. Finance Management Systems that have all reports in one place allows for easier reporting to boards, providing a single view of the truth.

MRI Social Housing in partnership with Advanced already offer MRI Finance Enterprise (otherwise known as Open Accounts) to the sector, with over 60 social housing clients successfully using the solution. And more recently, we have welcomed additional clients to the MRI family thanks to our leading support provisions and user-group community, allowing finance teams across the sector to get together and share best practise.

MRI Cloud Financials is the latest solution added to the comprehensive suite of finance solutions at MRI. So whether you are an existing user of the solution on premise, or are thinking of upgrading your finance systems into a cloud environment, MRI Software together with Advanced can provide the right options at your pace.

For more information on Cloud Financials or Open Account, please contact us to arrange an initial discussion or a demo

*Advanced Annual Trends Survey