This Is How We Transform Finance!

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It is 2 PM on a Friday afternoon and Ben is getting ready for the monthly sprint review. He is the PMO of a large-scale finance transformation project at a global retail company. He jumps on the call with the product owners of the main domains in the company’s finance function. 

The call is buzzing with excitement as the product owners are eager to tell about and showcase the progress, they have made this month. In Accounting they released a new RPA robot that will increase the First Time Right with 3%-points, in Treasury, they revamped the process for creating new bank accounts saving 500 working hours annually, and in FP&A they released a new self-service tool making all standard reporting readily available to all users. And this is just the result of the latest 4-week sprint! 

Ben is filled with enthusiasm as this is a transformation program like no other, he has been a part of before. This one has traction across all of Finance and constantly releases improvements into the organization. 

Ben attributes this traction to three things.

The benefits of an Agile finance transformation 

We have probably all experienced the pain of large scale yet slow-moving finance transformation programs. Agile Finance Transformation is different and there are tangible benefits by following this approach.

An important driver of these benefits is that the Agile Finance Transformation involves a much broader part of the organization – not just a selected few. In each sprint, the team is evaluated for fit to the tasks at hand. In case other subject matter experts are needed these will be pulled in and become full-time members of the team. This is made possible because of the short sprint cycles meaning that an individual only needs to be away from their day job for a maximum duration of four weeks. That is no different from a long holiday. 

Because the whole organization is involved everyone also takes ownership and wants to make a difference for the transformation project. Moreover, each team is also running its own small-scale efficiency program driving further benefits. 

What capabilities do we need to run an Agile Finance Transformation? 

To succeed with an Agile finance transformation, however, it requires very different capabilities than the traditional finance transformation project. Here are some of the steps you should take to run an Agile Finance Transformation. 

It is no small effort to make your finance function ready for an Agile Finance Transformation, however, the benefits are also tangible as we have shown. In addition, everyone will learn as they go meaning that you can start the transformation before everyone has been trained in full. 

Do you see this kind of transformation approach work in your company? If not, how come? Is yes, what do you think it would take to change your approach? History is not littered with Agile Finance Transformations but if your company has taken an approach like this, we would love to learn about it and feature it in an upcoming article! We believe an Agile Finance Transformation will drive great value across the finance function and urge companies to get started now. What are you waiting for?

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This was the fifth article in our new series about Finance in an Agile world and how to transform Finance using an Agile approach. You can read previous articles in the series and others about megatrends impacting Finance below.

Why Do We Need An Agile Finance Transformation?

The Agile Finance Business Partner

The Finance Operating Model In An Enterprise Agile Organization

The Role Of Finance In An Agile World

How Humans Must Re-Invent Their Role In Finance

The Rise Of The Remote Finance Worker, Or Not?

Will Finance Become 100% Digitalized?

The Future Of Finance Is Agile In Every Possible Way

If you want to become a better business partner you should consider taking our online course "Business Partnering Explained - Value Creation Unlocked" to get a better handle on the role. It's accredited for 5.5 CPD hours.

You can read a lot more articles about FP&A, Business Partnering, and Finance Transformation below. It all start's with “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” where you set the ambition for your transformation. You should join the Finance Business Partner Forum which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community where we will continue to discuss this topic and you can click here to follow me on Twitter.

Should We Keep Talking About Business Partnering? (part of a 17-article series where we deep-dive on our business partnering framework "BP on a Formula".

Your Journey To Successful Business Partnering Explained

How To Create Value Through Business Partnering

Everyone Can Adopt A Business Partnering Mindset (part of a six-article series about FP&A Business Partnering)

From Business Partner To Working Within The Business (part of an article series where I interview finance professionals about their careers in FP&A and Business Partnering)

Is Your Product Optimized For Value Creation? (part of a toolbox series where we look at what tools FP&A professionals should leverage to drive value creation)

How Business Partners Turn Analysis To Insight (part of case study series where I interview business partners about how they drive value creation using real cases)

The Future Of FP&A: Two Ways To Take The Reins

What Is The Accounting Profession Paradox?

What Defines A Finance Master?

The New Career Path For Finance Professionals

How Finance People Can Be More Successful

The CFOs Roadmap To Transforming Finance

How To Become A Finance Business Partner

Financial Analyst vs. Finance Business Partner

Finance Business Partner Is A Bullshit Job

How Business Partners Keep A Plan On Track

Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder, COO (Chief Operating Officer), and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with close to 9,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company Maersk. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger on LinkedIn with 48.000+ followers.