By Kristie Reid, Partner, Business Applications and Microsoft Alliance, Ernst & Young LLP
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations are transforming their operations with cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications powered by artificial intelligence (AI), signaling a pivotal shift in the importance of how data is managed so that it can be effectively utilized. This is especially true for the finance and tax departments. Finance and tax leaders must assess their current cloud adoption status, evaluate their data needs and plan their next steps toward achieving the business outcomes that they are being challenged to execute.
Overcoming post-acquisition challenges with cloud and AI
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are common growth strategies, but many organizations struggle after an acquisition to integrate organizations. Studies indicate that up to 70 percent of M&As fail to achieve their intended synergies. The M&A process requires thorough due diligence and planning, but consolidating finance and tax systems can take years, burdening teams with manual tasks to accomplish data-driven business decisions.
Workforce retention is another significant challenge during integration, often resulting in decreased morale and productivity. To ensure a smooth transition, finance leaders must create an empowering environment, providing teams with tools to work efficiently, focus on strategic initiatives and make quick decisions. Real-time decision-making relies on easy access to essential, trusted information.
Finance teams must also navigate a complex compliance and regulatory landscape, including the intricacies of environmental, social and governance reporting. These challenges require finance executives to accelerate enterprise resource planning (ERP) cloud transformations. And, with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud ERP solutions now feature intelligent chatbots and assistants that enhance various functions. These innovations can help teams quickly consolidate data, improve the monitoring and tracking of trends, and realize better insights, thereby improving processes and efficiencies while reducing costs if they’re used effectively.
Transforming finance operations with AI-driven cloud solutions
AI-integrated cloud solutions are further revolutionizing finance operations by providing real-time analytics that enable agile decision-making. For instance, AI significantly enhances forecasting and scenario planning, which were traditionally manual processes. With AI-based cloud solutions, finance professionals can now forecast scenarios in real time, whether they are related to customer behavior, market trends or tracking inaccuracies. Teams can extract information from other sources within the organization and gain insights to make better strategic decisions.
Additionally, companies can leverage AI for their budgeting and planning objectives. Instead of conducting budgeting annually or quarterly, AI-driven models can swiftly process adjustments and inconsistencies, facilitating more frequent forecasting and planning. This flexibility is crucial in today’s volatile market and represents a significant advancement for many organizations.
Revolutionizing agile methodologies with AI and automation
Agile methodologies have long been essential for modern technology development projects, but they can also be applied to enable continuous automated insights to meet the demand for real-time decision-making and rapid service delivery.
AI and automation are transforming agile practices by providing accurate, real-time data that supports quick iterations and informed decisions. Instead of relying on manual, error-prone processes, AI models can learn from iteration patterns, speeding up cycle times and enhancing feedback loops.
For instance, Microsoft’s tools like Copilot and Power Platform are revolutionizing finance functions by embedding AI directly into workflows. Copilot can perform specific tasks, such as summarizing emails, catching up on missed meetings and alerting users to model changes. With Power Apps, finance teams can create low-code or no-code applications, enabling more automation and insights into financial data. Similarly, Power BI allows users to apply pretrained machine learning models to their data, enhancing their analytics capabilities.
For finance teams, adopting agile methodologies is vital. AI-powered cloud ERP systems provide the real-time data and insights necessary for flexible financial planning and analysis. AI is driving true transformation in agile methodologies and collaboration, enabling faster and more efficient data-driven decisions.
To achieve this transformation, finance leaders must first ensure their data is cloud and AI ready.
Leading practices for streamlining data consolidation and reporting
To effectively adopt artificial intelligence and cloud solutions, standardization is crucial. While the meaning of your data is important, consistency in processes and assessments is equally vital. Data consolidation and governance are essential, requiring consideration of all aspects of your tech stack, including integrations and systems of record.
Security is another key factor when adopting cloud applications and artificial intelligence. Determine who should have access to specific data, where they should have that access and how to manage it. Additionally, ensure that your team understands the new compliance and regulatory requirements associated with these tools.
Establishing a common reporting toolset is also important. Whether using Power BI or other applications, consider how users view data across different platforms and the associated differences. Without this consideration, you may face high maintenance and operating costs.
Leading practices in consolidation and reporting involve ensuring data accuracy and trustworthiness. Cloud ERP systems facilitate consolidation and reporting through automation and standardization, providing instantaneous insights and ensuring data accuracy. This is crucial for confident financial decision-making and improving business performance.
Leveraging AI and cloud technology for finance efficiency
Artificial intelligence and cloud technology offer numerous benefits for finance teams, from improving agility to business demands to enhancing forecasting, budgeting, consolidation and reporting. AI-powered cloud ERP systems provide real-time insights and automated processes, enabling finance teams to respond swiftly to market changes and internal demands. These benefits ensure a smooth journey toward greater efficiency, insight and agility within your organization.
However, navigating this journey alone can be challenging due to the multitude of available solutions. Finding the right implementation advisor and collaborator is crucial. For instance, Ernst & Young LLP (EY US), in close alignment with Microsoft, provides industry-specific guidance and transformative solutions. They support organizations to harness the strategic advantages of AI-augmented cloud ERP systems for heightened efficiency, insight and agility. EY Rapid Foundation and EY Tax solutions for Microsoft Dynamics, built on Dynamics 365 Finance, help streamline processes, mitigate risk and fuel financial synergies through a templated approach. These accelerators facilitate compliant systems, maintain adequate governance controls, and help finance teams seamlessly adapt to an evolving business and tax environment. Working with an organization like EY US can help companies address their unique challenges and achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency, insight and agility.
Given the value of time, it is essential to explore options that can help finance leaders accelerate implementation, reduce costs, empower employees, and focus on strategic initiatives and processes that truly matter.
The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.
