Digital Financial Reporting

In a prior blog post I mentioned Deloitte's Notion of The Finance Factory.  I studied Deloitte's vision and put my summary in this document, Exploring the Notion of The Finance Factory.

I found another document that Deloitte has published called Finance 2025 where they make 8 predictions.  Here is a summary of the predictions Deloitte is making with my commentary:

1. The finance factory

Transactions will be touchless as
automation and blockchain reach
deeper into finance operations.

[CSH: So this notion of "the finance factory" is a way Deloitte "packages" what others call automation of accounting, reporting, auditing, and analysis tasks.]

[CSH: Deloitte erroneously uses the term "blockchain" when they really should be using "digital distributed ledger".  There are lots of technologies which can be used to implement digital distributed ledgers, one is blockchain.  Another is hashgraph, another is a hyperledger, another is semantic blockchain, etc.]

2. The role of Finance

With operations largely
automated, Finance will double
down on business insights and
service. Success is not assured.
The skills required by finance
professionals will change, likely
dramatically, as new combinations
of technology and human
workforces permeate the
workplace.

[CSH: I completely agree that for like 70% of financial professionals, the skills they need will change. The best example of this is how humans partner with calculators such that the humans can do math faster and more accurately.]

3. Finance cycles

Finance goes real time. Periodic
reporting will no longer drive
operations and decisions-if it
ever did.

[CSH: So, current financial reporting processes tend to be "batch" type work processes.  You have monthly batches, quarterly batches, and yearly batches.  Like manufacturing which tries to get the batch size down to ONE (i.e. every batch is unique), accounting departments will do the same because of automation of many tasks.]

4. Self-service

Self-service will become the norm.
Finance will be uneasy about this.

[CSH: Seems like what they are saying is that because finance cycles are "real time" and things are automated, if you want information you just "click" and then get the information you need when you need it.]

5. Operating models

New service-delivery models
will emerge as robots and
algorithms join a more diverse
finance workforce-think about
the integration of freelancers, gig
workers, and crowds. Companies
will assess the benefits of
automation against onshore and
offshore operations.

[CSH: Basically, there is lots of competition/options as to how work can get done.]

6. Enterprise resource planning

Finance applications and
microservices challenge traditional
ERP. Big vendors will be prepared.

[CSH: So what they seem to be saying is that you can cobble together a bunch of subsystems together to get the sort of functionality you get from SAP and other ERP systems.]

7. Data

The proliferation of APIs will drive
data standardization, but it won't
be enough. Companies will still be
struggling to clean up their data
messes.

[CSH:  People tend to use the term "data" too much, and the term "information" too little.  There is a big difference between "data" and "information".  Most accountants barely understand "data", they really don't comprehend the very significant difference between "data" and "information".  Information is what will make all this automation magic happen.]

8. Workforce and workplace

Employees will be doing new
things in new ways, some of which
will make CFOs uncomfortable.

[CSH:  "Doing new things in new ways" is really hard to believe or understand if you don't understand the difference between "data" and "information".]

BOTTOM LINE:

So the bottom line is this.  If you read Computer Empathy, you can understand that a lot of the things Deloitte is talking about are very, very possible.  Deloitte's vision is probably the best articulated vision that I have run across.  Deloitte's articulation of their vision has helped me to tune my vision.

Clearly giant consulting firms like Deloitte want to sell you stuff.  I don't think Deloitte actually understands how to achieve a lot of this stuff at this point.  People are still experimenting.  I know that I have spent literally thousands of hours trying to figure all this stuff out.  These changes will not happen over night.  Many of these sorts of changes will happen.  Overstating the possibilities is not helpful.  Ignoring change or understanding the possibilities of change is also not helpful.

What I am going to do is take Deolitte's articulation of a vision and combine it with my vision and see what I come up with.