Every Finance department is under pressure to reduce its own costs and continuously enhance the service it delivers to the business.The agenda is driven, as ever, by competitive pressures but also by the fact that the potential for making efficiency gains so clearly exists in the Finance function.

The future shape of the Finance function
With IT-based financial processes advancing, and geographical constraints dissolving, the Finance function of the future will be characterised by:

1. fewer, more highly qualified staff taking on business advisory roles
2. increased automation of routine transaction processing
3. Service Level Agreement’s between Finance and its customers, with clear, transaction-based pricing
4. a greater focus on financial control and risk management
5. a virtual Finance organisation using outsourcing to provide total flexibility of resource

It is a model that enables key Finance officers to focus on higher value activities – a revival of the ‘stewardship’ role – whilst increasing the efficiency, flexibility and scalability of the supporting processes and administration.

With Sarbanes-Oxley, EU and International Accounting Standards, regulatory compliance is a further significant demand on the intellectual resource of senior Finance officers. However, the changing role of Finance is driven more by the real opportunities that exist to improve processes, than by the need to do so.