Transformation creates business value precisely by changing processes and structures, moving them towards leading practice. When customizing a platform, businesses can be left with a compromise that only perpetuates old ways of working, causing enough discontinuity to frustrate users yet failing to change the practices that are most important for ongoing value.
The result?
- Business benefits are not realized
- Projects are time-consuming, high risk, and high cost
- Every part of the business works differently
- Bigger visions or strategies never come to life
- Structure and governance issues are overlooked
- The whole process needs to be repeated a few years later
Customization also compromises the potential benefits of new cloud platforms. Every time these platforms are upgraded and improved, businesses need to adjust and test a customized solution. This leads to increased maintenance costs and makes the quality of outputs uncertain.
Unlocking value with a new approach
Agility is the new currency of business. With market forces moving faster than ever, you need to bring people, processes, technology, service delivery models, performance insights and governance together. Since a change in any one of these areas affects every other, optimizing across the interdependent layers is the key to getting the most from investments
To unlock that value, new platforms alone aren’t enough. Instead, these platforms need to support and enable transformation in both culture and the way finance functions operate. That means minimizing customization and using technology to enable new ways of working by building leading practice into every layer of your finance function.
The excerpt was taken from KPMG Thought Leadership, Follow the proven path to finance transformation: Take six steps to success.