For many businesses, automation pre-crisis was focused in the back-office to remove manual tasks and allow capability to be applied in more value-add areas. The Covid19 crisis has highlighted this as even more critical in the finance function to continue to keep the business afloat. However, ensuring the infrastructure is right to support a scalable data and analytics practice is key. In this session, Scott will share how the finance function at BAT have built out the infrastructure to support their data journey, which will be scaled across a GBS to create further agility across value streams.

·        Accelerating business process automation: across tax reporting, automated systems testing etc.

·        Building back office infrastructure to support extraction and analytics

·        Embedding design thinking approaches to improve service provision

·        Finance analytics to support post-crisis BCP and future business vision

·        Driving analytics though a GBS to create agile value streams in finance and beyond

Scott Henriksen

Area Head of Information & Digital Technology - Sth East Asia
British American Tobacco

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Not having a technology roadmap is dangerous, but how does a finance department take control in an area that is usually driven by IT & technologists? Hear about the path the UTS Finance Department took with a Gen Z design-thinking innovation intern to perform research on hype vs. reality of what enabling technologies can benefit finance right now and the group ideation process with finance stakeholders to prioritise opportunities within a customized finance technology roadmap.

·        What does the future of the finance department look like?

·        Why the finance department needs a technology roadmap

·        Research then refine RPA and move to predictive modelling

·        Technology as an enabler

Daniel Chew

Head of Finance Systems and Projects
University of Technology Sydney

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The role of finance is changing. Previously acting solely as a back office function, many businesses are now embracing an era of intelligence, while continuing to service the back-end. Process re-engineering is therefore a priority for many to automate the mundane work and free up resources to focus on supporting business intelligence. What’s more, in order to have a successful data analytics practice it is critical to have processes aligned and thus the importance of addressing process excellence in finance is magnified.

·        Drawing the roadmap and key objectives for progressing your finance function

·        Understanding process redesign for optimal practice

·      Introducing process automation into operations

·        Upskilling the team to focus on value-add, intelligence based work

·        The evolving role of finance leaders and the impact of crisis

·        Understanding the technology which will support the finance function of the future

·        Transitioning skills and mindsets to incorporate digital and data-driven strategies

·        Changing offshoring investments and the value of looking to home soil

·      The evolving role of finance leaders and the impact of crisis

·        Understanding the technology which will support the finance function of the future

·        Transitioning skills and mindsets to incorporate digital and data-driven strategies

·        Changing offshoring investments and the value of looking to home soil

Rohan Liyanage

CFO
Philips Lighting, APAC

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Karma Auden

Director, Finance and Business Services
University of Canberra

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Daniel Chew

Head of Finance Systems and Projects
University of Technology Sydney

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As businesses return to the office and begin to recover from the impact of the Covid19 crisis, it is becoming increasingly evident that the role of the finance function will never be quite the same again. Judo Bank have witnessed this shift in responsibility as the unction has evolved. As an enterprise with a data-first practice already embedded into operations, they are now looking ahead to how they will harness the evolving capability of finance to support all areas of the business, navigating the uncertainty of the environment they are working in.

·        Data first practice, process alignment and the development of AI capability

·        Understanding the impact of crisis on all moving parts of business

·        How the finance function will evolve:

-        Strategic planning in an uncertain environment: non-linear budgeting and stress testing 

-        Supporting leadership to embed a dynamic approach to marketing and the workforce

·        Setting up teams to address immediate challenges and the 5 year strategic horizon

The Virtual IDGs operate as an Invitation-only networking opportunity for senior end-user profiles

There will be 3 IDG topics running in parallel. Invited end-users will select 2 out of 3 IDGs to participate in. Each IDG session will run for 1 hour over two rotations. There will be 5 end-users in each rotation.

1.      Building the optimal operating model for finance to progress analytics and support business intelligence

2.    Process re-engineering and excellence to enable broad spectrum process automation in business services  

3.      Changing offshoring models, frameworks and relationships post-crisis