Many finance professionals have recently undergone partial digital transformation yet the industry in itself is lagging behind.
Indeed, a study by Esker revealed that 83% of companies had to digitize some of their paper-based processes as a result of the pandemic and several lockdowns. However, the majority of finance professionals still reported a lack of process automation within their enterprises. It can thus negatively impact their work, including having slow client service times, lacking oversight, employee frustration, and poor retention of department employees.
Not automating digital processes can be a heavy burden for employees who are more prone to make mistakes, such as losing documents, compliance breaches, and reduction in employee productivity. Besides, 76% of respondents don’t feel confident that their business has the technology required to maintain performance standards if another lockdown happens.
By fully automating their processes, finance professionals believe that it makes their businesses more efficient and successful. Despite this, the study reported low rates of automation adoption across all processes, as only 20-30% of respondents had automated their core systems. Moreover, only 17-24% intend to automate business processes in the next two years. This is mainly due to budgetary restraints as well as goal post changes during the project and a lack of clear objectives.
