Finance digital transformation in Singapore is seeing various challenges, said Workday recently when releasing results of a survey.
A majority of Singapore companies are still lagging in finance digital transformation, with only 3% of Singapore finance and IT leaders reporting that they currently have a robust digital finance transformation strategy, according to Workday’s latest survey: The CFO and CIO Indicator Study.
The survey of 1,060 finance and IT leaders globally including those in Singapore examined the state of digital finance transformation and how these efforts are impacted by finance and IT, reveals that an alignment between the CFO and CIO is central to transformation success, Workday said.
The biggest barrier to finance digital transformation in Singapore is the lack of adaptable technology or digital architecture, Workday pointed out.
Other barriers include the lack of financial literacy skills in IT teams, and cybersecurity challenges in an evolving threat landscape, the firm added.
Survey highlights: What hinders finance digital transformation in Singapore
- Only four in ten of those surveyed in Singapore are confident about the agility of their finance technologies in supporting organisational pivots during a crisis.
- Almost two-thirds of Singapore finance leaders (64%) also said they are forced to make decisions based on gut instincts despite having the data they need, because it is siloed, not in the right format, or not readily available.
- A lack of alignment makes finance transformation difficult. 43% of Singapore business leaders admit that their CIO does not have a seat at the table during critical finance meetings, even when technology is essential to solving a challenge.
- More than half (53%) of Singapore IT leaders believe their aim to eliminate IT complexity is directly at odds with the expanding scope of the finance function.
- There is a disconnect between the technology that CIOs and CFOs know they need and what they currently have.
- More than half of the survey respondents (57%) believe their legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are not flexible enough for today's business requirements.
- While technology transformation needs to balance IT's goals of simplicity and agility with finance's expanding scope and complexity, the survey reveals finance and IT agree change is required to meet their evolving needs.
- Only a small percentage of Singapore business leaders (7%) indicated that investments to upskill and hire IT talent with financial literacy skills is a top priority.
- This is despite half (50%) of Singapore IT leaders saying that they are under pressure to innovate finance technology despite limited financial literacy. This reveals an opportunity for greater cross-functional training and partnership between IT and finance.
“As the finance function evolves to take on an increasingly strategic role that propels the organisation forward, it is key that IT and finance leaders work closely together, to deliver on a finance transformation strategy that leverages analytics and actionable insights for smarter business decisions in a fast-evolving environment,” advised Lee Thong Tan, CFO practice lead Asia, Workday.
