Artificial intelligence-enabled business applications have advanced considerably over the past year as software providers have added a steady stream of capabilities. This includes customer facing, financial, supply chain and workforce software. ISG Research asserts that by 2027, almost all providers of business applications will use some form of generative AI to enhance capabilities and functionality to remain competitive.
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Business Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
digital finance,
Revenue, Lease and Tax Accounting,
Purchasing/Sourcing/Payments,
Consolidate/Close/Report,
AI and Machine Learning
Sage Intacct recently held its annual user conference, and while there were plenty of product announcements and roadmap presentations, my focus here is on the artificial intelligence elements. AI–both predictive and generative–is the most important capability and differentiator in software aimed at finance and accounting departments. Ventana Research asserts that by 2027, almost all vendors of ERP software will incorporate AI to reduce workloads, speed processes and decrease errors.
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Business Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
digital finance,
Purchasing/Sourcing/Payments,
Consolidate/Close/Report
Since a majority of today’s workforce wasn’t around in the 1990s, it’s worth noting that “business process reengineering” was all the rage. The purpose was to review, restructure and redesign core business processes to achieve substantial improvements in market and customer responsiveness, productivity, cycle times and quality. One reason for its popularity (beyond being a money spinner for consultants) was the promised ability for the newly available enterprise resource planning systems to be...
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Topics:
Operations & Supply Chain,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
digital finance,
Purchasing/Sourcing/Payments,
Continuous Supply Chain & ERP
The recent launch of the AI Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 corporations and research institutions engaged in artificial intelligence (AI) development (including AMD, CERN, Cornell University, Dell Technologies, IBM, Intel, Linux Foundation, Meta, NASA, Oracle, ServiceNow and Sony Group), aims to achieve the following objectives:
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Business Planning,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
digital finance,
Revenue, Lease and Tax Accounting,
Purchasing/Sourcing/Payments,
Consolidate/Close/Report,
Continuous Supply Chain & ERP
Billtrust software manages the full accounts receivable (A/R) cycle, from invoicing to payments, to increase the productivity of the A/R staff while providing customers with a better experience and reducing frictions in their order-to-pay motions. The company’s unified A/R software supports credit application automation, invoice delivery, collections, cash application, payment management and a business payments network (BPN).
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
digital finance,
Purchasing/Sourcing/Payments
Because artificial intelligence is top-of-mind, Workday spent a great deal of time on the topic at its recent Workday Rising annual user group meeting in San Francisco. It was front and center in the general sessions, in the announcements made at the event and in the product roadmaps.
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Business Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
digital finance,
Purchasing/Sourcing/Payments,
AI and Machine Learning
In accounting terms, working capital includes current assets (short-term items such as cash, money due from customers and inventory) and current liabilities (typically payments due to suppliers and loan amounts that must be repaid within one year). Working capital management is a prime function of the finance organization, designed to balance often-conflicting objectives related to revenue, liquidity, risk and profitability. The basics of working capital management date back to ancient clay...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
CFO,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
digital finance,
Purchasing/Sourcing/Payments,
Accounts Payable,
Treasury,
Accounts Receivable,
Working Capital
We added purchasing, sourcing and payments to our core Office of Finance focus areas this year to reflect new and important opportunities to use technology to gain effectiveness through greater efficiency. Technology continues to lubricate the wheels of commerce, aided by a financial services sector that is constantly innovating, responding to market-driven opportunities to reduce costs, increase demand or lower risk. Ventana Research asserts that, in many cases, technology makes new forms or...
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Topics:
Operations & Supply Chain,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
digital finance,
Purchasing/Sourcing/Payments,
Continuous Supply Chain & ERP
I recently attended Sage Software’s Partner Summit. Implementation partners account for most of the sales and implementation of finance and accounting applications designed for small and midsize businesses, so they are important to the success of the software vendor. These events are designed to inform partners of product enhancements and the product and technology roadmap as well as provide a perspective on market conditions and trends.
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Business Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
digital finance,
AI & Machine Learning,
Purchasing/Sourcing/Payments,
Consolidate/Close/Report
The Office of Finance can be compared to a numbers factory where the main raw material, data, is transformed into financial statements, management accounting, analyses, forecasts, budgets, regulatory filings, tax returns and all kinds of reports. Data is the strategic raw material of the finance and accounting department. It is the key ingredient in every sale and purchase as well as every transaction of any description. Quality control is essential to achieving high standards of output in any...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
embedded analytics,
Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Data Management,
Business Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
data operations,
digital finance,
AI & Machine Learning,
operational data platforms,
Analytic Data Platforms,
Revenue, Lease and Tax Accounting,
Purchasing/Sourcing/Payments,
Consolidate/Close/Report