In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the need for effective financial management has never been more critical. Implementing a new finance system is a significant undertaking that can transform your organisation’s financial operations and overall success. However, it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. To ensure a successful transition and maximise the benefits, there are several key considerations to keep in mind.
Making the right decision
Before starting your journey of optimising your financial systems, ensuring you know what your team’s priorities and needs are is a vital first step. It is also just as important to find out what your team likes and dislikes about the current system. This information will help you create a ‘must haves’ and ‘would like’ list that you can compare to the different software you look at.
This can also help you build a strong case for spending time and resources on overhauling such an integral part of your business. It can also support your plans for operation during the operation so it runs as smoothly as possible. When new systems are implemented in a hectic and unorganised way, your team is going to be less receptive to using it. Some of the things that could be include are:
- The new system would be more efficient, meaning employees could spend their time on business growth and development.
- It would give the business – and in turn clients and customers – more insight with enhanced data analysis capabilities
- Greater automation would result in reduced occurrences of human error, ultimately enhancing efficiency.
The importance of people & communication
New financial systems impact all parts of your business, so creating an implementation plan that involves every member of your team and prioritises communication is particularly important. The first step of this is identifying who your stakeholders are – from your team members, to customers and clients, to company directors. Once that has been established, it is highly advisable to appoint a head of communications for the project, to give stakeholders regular and clear updates.
Once the goal has been communicated to shareholders, it is time to bring people into the project. Again, setting up strong communication between everybody involved is imperative – so set up regular team meetings on a shared calendar and create a directory of everybody’s contact details.
With your team created and your shareholders notified, it is time to begin planning the project out and allocating tasks. Find a suitable project management system and begin to gradually allocate work to each member of your team. Create moments for ‘quick wins’ in big and tedious tasks to keep your team motivated and moving forward during the implementation process.
Data cleansing
Clearing out your current system and deciding what you want to bring with you into the next system will make sure that you can hit the ground running once it is implemented instead of having to wade through irrelevant client profiles and data. The prime contenders for this are the following areas:
- Client lists
- Supplier lists
- Product lists
If the data in these categories hasn’t been touched for a while and is irrelevant to your company moving forward it might be time to let it go. However, this can change based on the industry you work in, so just use this information as a general guide.
Build something better, don’t just replicate
The point of a new system is to evolve, whether that means preparing for future growth or solving current problems. Keep those objectives at the forefront of your operation, otherwise you could end up wasting time and resources replicating your current system.
This would be a good time to reflect on the research you conducted at the beginning of the process and whether you are keeping to those goals. Frequent check-ins with your team mean you can move forward with confidence and can avoid time-wasting mistakes and u-turns.
Shop around
Researching and comparing different financial systems might seem like a daunting task, but here at Phase 3, we’ve compiled a database of our approved software vendors and their features in our A-Z Vendor Directory. Along with our finance system selection services, this makes it easier than ever to thoroughly research the software marketplace without having to compile key information yourself.
Continuous testing & improvement
To ensure your new systems work, and to avoid finding errors further down the line, set aside adequate time to test your software. If the subsequent research and discovery stages were thorough, this shouldn’t bring up too many faults, but it’s better to weed these out early on.
Once your software is up and running, it can be tempting to think of the phrase “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”, but without regular assessments, health testing and improvements, the next time you have to upgrade your software there could be a lot to fix. To mitigate and prevent problems, schedule meetings with those using the software to find out how they are getting on. This is especially important in the early stages of a new system. Software updates can also mean enhanced features that suit your business needs, so keep track of these and don’t be afraid to make changes and updates as you go.
How Phase 3 can help
Here at Phase 3, we have a variety of consultancy services to support your business as you research, implement and settle into a new financial system. And it doesn’t end there – we’ll conduct regular health checks on your software, ensuring that it continues to meet your requirements.
For a fresh, objective perspective on your finance system requirements, don’t hesitate to contact our team of experts.
