Professional accountants
– the future
Social, mobile and cloud technologies (SoMoClo) offer great opportunities for businesses of all types. But for the finance function SoMoClo is not simply about ‘mobilising’ or ‘socialising’ existing processes and putting them in the cloud. It is about driving the evolution of the finance function.
SoMoClo provokes a revisiting and questioning of all processes, which may have evolved in response to constraints that no longer exist. SoMoClo will be a crucial driver to evolving the role of the finance professional.
Interconnecting technologies
The term SoMoClo encapsulates how these technologies not only interconnect but also enhance and build on each other.
The combination of cloud and mobile means that employees working remotely can have access to enterprise data and applications: mobile and social platforms connect remotely working employees, while cloud and social media facilitate effective collaboration.
Reducing bottlenecks
Underpinning all this are the constant increases in processing and storage power that are allowing users to share or stream ever-larger amounts of data in a variety of locations.
The convergence of the three technologies offers the promise of reduced costs, enhanced decision making and innovative ways of working.
SoMoClo increases the pace of workflows by reducing bottlenecks found in more rigid work location models.
New ways to collaborate
SoMoClo opens up new ways for finance professionals to share data and to collaborate – with each other, with business users, with clients, with suppliers.
Now is the time for finance to take the lead in SoMoClo as it breaks down corporate silos and enables the creation of a more flexible and agile finance function.
People, not technology, will be central to this process, and the roles and skills of finance professionals will change and evolve.
"In the long-term, SoMoClo may make working life easier but for CFOs the real long-term benefit is likely to lie in the greater levels of decision support it offers. It will bring financial data and financial expertise into the decision making of people right across the business."