Cutting costs and maximizing profits is sometimes the best way to describe most finance professionals’ daily work. And one place you can easily make a difference between success and failure is with automation and, more importantly, system integrations. Why?

Strategic decisions are never better than the data we base them on. And as necessary as it is to be digital in 2022, it is equally essential to ensure your system integrations are thorough across your digital infrastructure. Today, almost every company draws data from CRM, e-commerce, and ERP systems. Every single one of these systems extracts unique data to improve the quality of strategic decisions. However, if those systems do not speak with each other, you risk getting incomplete and inaccurate data.

Why system integrations are so important in finance

Most of us in finance, if not everyone, know the critical role a sound ERP system plays in the organization. Not just as the single source of truth but also to connect all the vital data points needed in the operation and management reports. Otherwise, the idea of a single source of truth slowly disappears and is overshadowed by an overload of inconsistent and duplicated data you must sort manually. Reports and small everyday tasks, like invoicing, risks becoming incorrect due to a lack of uniformity across the systems. And if there is something we do not want in our reporting, it is:

• Out-dated data
• Data silos
• Slow manual processes
• No data mobility

As a result, you risk making decisions based on irrelevant and inaccurate data. But if integrated correctly, it automatically combines data from the entire customer cycle, including marketing, sales, customer service, and product development. Imagine the significant data quality change you can experience, as well as:

• Accuracy
• Efficiency
• Real-time data
• Data flow

Thus, these considerations should shape your future planning of digital processes to include the promises of the system and its integrations. You are creating an overview of your digital ecosystem.

The consolidation reporting process is one workflow where your chance of success increases significantly when basing your strategic decision-making on streamlined and integrated data. Suppose every company you own have their own systems and local integrations. How have you ensured that all these easily combine without manually spending too much time sharing, collecting, and sorting data? When we are talking about integrations, the data quality should continue up to the mother company in the Group. And this time-consuming process where you collect trial balances and dimensions from several ERP systems is not value-adding if you don’t have time or the insight needed to analyze and use it for strategic decisions.