With Memorial Day on Monday 5th, September, there were perhaps fewer announcements out of the US than usual. Achievers Workforce Institute published a report entitled “The Tech-Enabled Employee Experience.” It looked at how organisations can increase the sense of belonging with the help of technology and changes to culture.
ADP
ADP published its National Employment Report for August. It found private sector employment increased by 132,000 jobs in August, and annual pay was up 7.6%.
Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP, commented: “Our data suggests a shift toward a more conservative pace of hiring, possibly as companies try to decipher the economy’s conflicting signals. We could be at an inflection point, from super-charged job gains to something more normal.”
Digital Workforce
An independent study from Digital Workforce and Forrester Consulting revealed that strategic automation’s potential remains untapped within Finance and Accounting (F&A). Key findings included:
- 69% use RPA to enhance data and analytics to improve the business’s ability to forecast and plan ahead.
- 65% recognize its power to improve employee satisfaction and help to retain talent.
- 63% support the digital business transformation to serve customers better.
However, whilst there is adoption, there are still challenges:
- 61% struggle to generate insights and forecasts.
- 54% face difficulties scaling automation throughout a finance value chain.
- 60% experience difficulties shifting employees’ focus from manual tasks and enabling them to develop new skills.
- 55% struggle to manage siloed applications.
- 51% struggle to integrate different systems to gain a holistic view across the entire F&A stack (51%).
Mika Vainio-Mattila, Co-founder and CEO of Digital Workforce, said: “Forrester’s study aligns with what we see when working with F&A clients. There is still much to do with RPA, but when combined with other technologies (Digital Process Automation, Conversational AI, process mining, etc.), the transformational value from automation increases exponentially. Strategic use of automation is a must-have for Finance leads who want to transform their F&A business processes and scale automation throughout a finance value chain.”
Malbek
In a report commissioned by Malbek, Aberdeen looked at how companies leverage CLM. Entitled “How Best-in-Class Companies Get Value from CLM”. The report looks at why companies are adopting CLM, how they are adopting the solutions and how they measure their success. The report highlights that the best-in-class organisations are seeing benefits such as:
- Renew 42% more of their revenue contracts and 32% more of their procurement contracts each year
- Renegotiate 60% more of their revenue contracts and 43% more of their procurement contracts each year
- Have 55% more compliant revenue transactions and 42% more compliant procurement transactions
Hemanth Puttaswamy, the CEO of Malbek, commented: “The research conducted by Aberdeen shows that CLM solutions are no longer a luxury, but a necessity for organizations that want to accelerate time to revenue, reduce manual tasks and workflows, and bring diverse teams together in an intuitive way throughout the contracting process. The power of AI in contracting drives efficiency and sheds light on areas missed by humans reducing friction and realizing revenue faster.”
MYOB
MYOB modelling has shown that nearly half a million Australian SMEs have little or no engagement with digital tools. The finding came as MYOB congratulated the Federal Government for announcing the progression to consultation of the Technology Investment Boost and the Skills and Training Boost for the substantial productivity benefit of Australia’s SMEs. Were this laggard group of one in five Australian to digitise their operations, it could see a return of AU$25 for every dollar spent.
Greg Ellis, CEO of MYOB, citing figures from a 2017 Deloitte study, commented: “Businesses with meaningful engagement with digital are 50% more likely to grow revenue. They are 8 times more likely to create jobs. They are 14 times more likely to come up with new products or services. Productivity is what Australia needs; making sure every business is a digital business needs to be one of our top priorities.”
Oracle NetSuite
90% of CFOs will use automation, AI and Fintech, according to a survey by Oracle NetSuite, The Future of Finance. Based on findings from a quarterly survey of 500 CFOs, the findings also include:
- 71% of C-level execs say company growth prospects are better now than they were six months ago.
- 36% of managers say inflation has prompted leadership to ask them to improve their teams’ efficiency.
- 41% of the C-suite is confident that their company will adopt technology as soon as it’s advantageous. Only 18% of VPs and directors say the same.
The report also looks at automation across AR/AP/GL within finance, back office automation and customer-facing automation. It also looks at the planned use of mobile devices. Finance is adopting a wide variety of new technology. The report also revealed that more than half of the respondents would adopt all ten technology listed (including cryptocurrency payment systems and AI for predictive analytics in demand planning) within six months.
Rimini Street
Rimini Street has published “Maximizing SAP Value with Rimini Street.” This is a follow-up report to one published in 2020. It provides an update on ERP implementation plans and drivers and acknowledges SAP’s continuous effort to improve S/4HANA.
Seth Ravin, CEO and chairman of the board at Rimini Street, commented: “Our customer relationships have become more strategic over time as enterprises strive to drive value from legacy assets while planning and executing thoughtfully for the future. Valoir confirmed this trend in both the 2020 and 2022 reports when it interviewed our customers. It also discovered some interesting SAP customer types who are approaching S/4HANA differently.”
Much has changed in the two years since the last report. SAP customers fall into four categories:
- Early adopters of S/4HANA use Rimini Street for its SAP expertise and service offerings, including managed and security services.
- Planners see the benefits of S/4HANA and are willing to adapt their functional requirements to what the platform offers.
- Evaluators believe there are benefits to S/4HANA but want to take the time to prove it’s the right cloud ERP solution.
- Skeptics don’t perceive the benefits of S/4HANA or believe that the cost, risk and disruption associated with a new ERP deployment outweigh any benefits.
Whichever stage SAP customers are at, Rimini Street seems to have deepened their relationship. Rebecca Wettemann, CEO and Principal Analyst at Valoir Research, commented: “In 2022, SAP-Rimini Street customers have some best practices in common. They have moved to third-party support to avoid upgrade costs, increase staff productivity and retention.
“They are also utilizing third-party support strategically so they can devote adequate time and effort to planning before the move. Many of them have decided to take advantage of additional Rimini Street services to simplify vendor management and reduce the time their staff spends on resolving issues that span multiple applications or go beyond the SAP footprint.”
Salesforce
Salesforce has published findings from five surveys of over 5,000 respondents 18 and older from North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions. The most recent, of 8,000 in June 2022. The survey looked at the desires of citizens for digital services from the government.
The results painted a depressing picture, with only 16% of constituents believing that the government has successfully used technology to improve their experience. There is a dichotomy, though, with a third reluctant to share personal information with their governments which might better enable that digital engagement. However, the move to digital is happening, with 1 in Gen Z’ers using social media as their primary source of information relating to government. 54% say it is easier to deal with the government online than in person.
The report identified the top three factors for rebuilding trust between citizens and government:
- Transparency – 53%
- Ease of engagement – 44%
- Accessibility – 44%
Nasi Jazayeri, executive vice president and general manager of Salesforce Public Sector, explained: “Without trust, institutions struggle to function effectively and meet the needs of constituents, address societal challenges, and promote economic prosperity.
“Taking a holistic, people-centered approach to digital transformation can transform the currently strained relationship between people and government organizations, strengthening institutions and delivering better results for the constituents they serve.
“The real-time delivery and broad-reaching impact of digital services like social media presents an opportunity for governments to leverage digital channels to share time-critical information during crises, get ahead of developing issues, and build trust with authentic and clear communication.”
If governments bring the right technology to bear, then citizens will engage. The survey found:
- 82% are open or indifferent to accessing government services online.
- 72% are open or indifferent to online electoral voting.
- 60% are open to using AI in government services.
UKG
The UKG Workforce Activity Report for August 2022 shows the total number of shifts worked by people at US businesses decreased by 0.8%, indicating modest signs of strength in the jobs market for the sixth month in a row.
However, the story is mixed across industries, with shift work manufacturing down 1.1% and services and distribution down 1.6%. Healthcare and hospitality only dropped 0.1%
Dave Gilbertson, vice president, UKG, commented: “The sought-after soft landing for the labor market appears to be intact for another month. Despite significant economic headwinds, August workforce activity showed signs of relative strength — especially when put into context of how August typically performs.
“It appears we largely avoided the late-season decline in workforce activity that comes this time every year as more people squeeze in vacations before the end of summer, which can be attributed to both more people being hired and people taking less time off during uncertain times. We’ve now seen six consecutive months of consistent, slight month-to-month weakening.”
