Feedback report about roundtable discussion
IS FINANCE FUNCTION TECHNOLOGY DELIVERING ON ITS PROMISE?
2015 04 21
Senior lecturer Dr. Lina Kloviene
The discussion was organized during the lecture of the “Strategic Management Accounting” course. It was conducted for
full time students together with the visiting exchange ERASMUS programme students on the 21st of April.
Students were asked to read the whole topic at home and during the discussion they were asked to convey their opinion
about:
 Relevance of the issue in their local market;
 Future development in provided area under their country economic conditions.
Feedback from the students:
“I want to give examples from developing countries like Azerbaijan. Financial function depends on big
(production, industry, manufacturing and etc.) and small (markets, real estate and etc.) companies. 72% leaders of
Azerbaijan companies think that financial function process is not business process, so that is why the leader does not
invest this process.
As you know company has major and minor process. İn a big manufacturing companies leaders invest only major
(production, marketing, sale and etc.) process and new technologies was implemented on this process. But without minor
process the business cycle is not working.
On strategic planning the company's leader make a strategic decisions they use rational information like financial
reports (revenue, expenses and etc.), staff turnover, sales reports, production defection and etc. So as you see first of all
financial a function report is important key factor on this cycle.
I want to give example from the big Azerbaijan company (confection) where I worked as a quality manager: the
company's Marketing department's Brand managers prepare strategies for confection products selling and that is why
they take input information about sale from Financial and Sales department. So at this company all financial functions
were realized in Microsoft Excel. Brand managers couldn't take correct information in time and they couldn't do good
job. They wrote many proposals about program software problems and they explained that the big problem of planning
Marketing is incorrect and not timely information from Financial and Sales department.
When the head staff of a company makes strategic decisions they couldn't get correct and timely information from
Financial and Sales department manager.
I think all financial functions needs new technology implementations. So with this method big companies can
manage their time, resources, etc. Of course, these new technologies influence customer satisfaction.
After this problem the company's Business development manager was provided new program software and all
departments which needed financial function information can get all correct and timely information.
To my opinion, new technologies on financial function influence planning of business process and strategic goals.
In Azerbaijan many companies’ financial leaders can implement SMAC pack. But they think that SMAC will
probably be adopted unevenly in finance operations over the next few years, with a focus on analytics and the cloud, if
finance leaders can understand the benefits and risks. Many finance leaders admit they do not focus on – or perhaps
understand – the application of social and mobile technologies beyond efficient communication with their teams. But they
know that these technologies could eventually affect finance processes themselves – once they can work out how to use
them.
In developing countries, implementing process of new technologies in financial function is going slowly. But the
big auditing companies like Ernst and Young, Deloitte, KPMG (in Azerbaijan) recommend that companies that use old
financial system must implement new technologies.”
Nigar Mirzazada, Azerbaijan
“Slovakia does not belong to the leaders in technological development in Europe so of course we have especially
small business which does not have enough resources for using the newest innovations. But considering relevant
companies on our market, the survey shows that recently companies tend to be going hand in hand with implementation
of IT solutions.
According the survey in 2013 we can see that....
Virtualization
Data backup
Cloud
Virtualization – creating virtual computer so basically instead of 30 computers we can have 10 which will reduce
cost of maintenance, number of employees, less space, less use of energy, reducing cost. “
Jana Saksová, Slovakia
„Finance-Technology Issues in Turkey:
1. Banking Technology Solutions: Digital Banking; Mobile Payment; Internet Banking Security; Mobile
Banking Security; ATM Machines.
2. IT Technology Solutions for Financial Institutions: Enterprise Network; Cloud Computing Security;
Mobile Application; IT Security.
3. Management Solutions For Financial Institutions: ERP; CRM; e-Invoicing.
Future Development in Turkey’s Economic Conditions (2041):
A number of industries have the potential to become centres of excellence by 2041 including:
• Food and beverage processing;
• Agricultural R&D and services;
• Alternative energy;
• Automobile production and
• Tourism.”
BATUHAN ÇAKAR, Turkey
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"... Link between finance and technology:
India, large source of IT companies and lots of people are working in IT field.
Presently India has good financial profit from this field.
But using of modern technology is very low in most of the fields.
We are 10 years back in using technology compared to other countries.
Basic technology like using of mobile phones was very low.
 Past five years using of internet was very low.
In India, finance sectors recognize the value of digital technologies and cloud technology, for the finance purposes.
Educational and skills spheres also use digital technologies and cloud technology in a limited manner compared to
finance sector. Other sectors are using it less often. They use this for financial process and educational purposes. India
is presently adopting new technologies especially in the field of banking and education. Financial crisis has not affected
Indian banks because of using good technology systems. Modern technologies are helpful for the company and make it
easier to reach the goals. But in India, government and people are not promoting new technologies if it is harmful for
their lives. Most of the companies use traditional systems.
…In the future:
Government will be taking initiatives to make changes in all the field, mostly in the fields of finance, education and skills,
energy sector. In India, more that 40% of the people do not have bank account. There are no proper electricity facilities
in houses. Using of mobile internet is expected to grow from 100 - 130 million people to 700 - 900 million people in 2025.
Using of cloud technology – from 2 million people to 20 million people in 2025. Using of digital payment – from 0.6
million people to 6 million people in 2025. It is planned to take digital technology to 100 crores Indians in 2020.
Universal electronic bank accounts, mobile money, advanced credit underwriting, digital government transfers and
payments in 2025.
…Is Finance function Technology delivering on its promises?
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Lack of technology in different sectors. Need to improve educational field, improvement in basic facilities
Using of most advanced technology is also a big threat to country of losing jobs and it will affect the whole
country badly.
So the country needs to go in a medium level of technology basically in the fields of health care, education,
communication, etc.“
Dijohn Vadakkumpadan Davis, India
“ ...Development of technology is linked to finance performance, and finance performance is linked to technology. Money
affects improved technology, which in turn results in lower the finance unit cost, improve controls, etc. Finance leaders
must be familiar with technology. Technologies allow provision of cost control and quality in financial transactions and
reducing manual transaction processing.
Efficiency is essential for all companies. Leaders want to aim efficiency by the cost, the environment control, the quality
of information, etc. Today, the goal of finance technology is to develop the business more profitably. The Finance, more
than other services, adopts and uses more and more technologies to increase the added value of their results.
In France, financial staff recognizes the value of digital technologies and cloud mechanism, for the finance function, and
for the rest of the company. They integrate more and more these technologies in the financial process. During past few
years, companies didn't want to take risks because of the crisis. But today, more and more technological poles are born
and companies call them.
For the French companies, cloud allows to:
• give to the finance function advanced analysis with a high added value
• give to the finance function a service more qualified through new tools
• give to the finance function a better efficiency through the automatisation and the digitalisation of the financial
processes
Before, finance was about analysing of data and reporting. Today, modern finance analyses deeper data to understand it
and advise the company about the action and the strategy to adopt in order to reach the goals. But French companies are
quite shy about new technologies. According to a survey of the agency EY, in 2014, 84% of the companies collected the
client data by the traditional systems, and a few by the digital system. But instead of coping with the delay, the half of the
French companies studied this phenomenon. This delay is not effective for all sectors: some sectors are the leaders in the
digital systems to improve their financial situation: supermarkets, telecommunications, media, etc. Marketing sector is
one of the services that use the most the new technologies.
...In the future:
 For more than 2/3 of the companies, new technologies (cloud, social, mobile) will change the Finance in an
effective way.
 This strategy is more effective for the international groups that want to have more efficient level of finance
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The area of big data is one of the areas that will improve the most (for the moment, only 10% of the companies
use it)
In 2016, the Big Data area could generate 2.8 billion euros of turnover and the creation of more than 100 000
jobs (according to a survey from AFDEL)
Customers take care more and more about the environment. To satisfy them, companies have to use the
technologies according to their policy of environmental protection
With the globalisation and the exchange of the information, competition became rough. To lower the prices,
companies have to use new technology, for example in product manufacturing
Actually, companies, in order to gain a competitive advantage for the product, often have to use technologies
At the beginning of the crisis, banks didn't want to lend money to companies because of the risks
Without money, companies cannot invest in new technologies, that is why small companies in France have a
delay in that area
2007 was the year of creation of iPhone. Now and in the future, mobile apps will influence business activity.
Jérémy LE NY, France
List of participants
1 Le Ny Jeremy Jean-Francois Daniel
2 Saksova Jana
3 Ganeshan Karthika
4 Jantishvili Tinatini
5 Mirzazada Nigar
6 Vadakkumpadan Davis Dijohn
7 Cakar Muhammet Batuhan
8 Valaikumari Gurusamy Arun Maharajan
9 Bakanidze Nugzari
10 Daodu Olugbenga Jamiu
11 Ginaev Adam
12 Idowu Benjamin Opeyemi
13 Ighodaro Osahon Osazee
14 Taghi-Zada Tamerlan
15 Philipp Sossony