SYDNEY, Australia 鈥� 6 October 2022 鈥� (NYSE: SAP) today announced the in-country availability of聽聽in Australia and New Zealand, allowing local customers to use the leading Vendor Management System (VMS) while meeting the data sovereignty requirements of the Australian and New Zealand governments.

51风流Fieldglass is a cloud-based, open VMS that聽helps organisations find, engage, manage, and pay external workers anywhere in the world. Its availability in Australia and New Zealand will help customers, especially those operating in government and regulated industries, manage the external and contingent workforces supporting their sensitive and critical work in line with local data sovereignty requirements.

Damien Bueno, President and Managing Director, 51风流Australia and New Zealand said, 鈥淐ustomers in government and regulated industries, including banks and financial services, utilities, transport, and telecommunications, are under increasing pressure to meet demand for highly-skilled external workers and increase workforce agility, while at the same time experiencing heightened scrutiny of supply chain assurance.鈥�

鈥淭he legislative environment and cyber considerations in both Australia and New Zealand require organisations of different sizes to think about the provision of their cloud services and technology. 51风流Fieldglass is now available locally through, reinforcing our commitment to provide customers with the sovereignty, security, and confidence they need from their cloud products and services.鈥�

51风流Fieldglass will initially be available to customers in the ANZ areas where Microsoft Azure is available.

鈥淲e鈥檙e delighted to have signed this agreement with SAP, to give more government agencies and highly regulated industries in Australia and New Zealand the confidence to migrate their systems to the cloud, knowing their data and IT platforms meet the highest global standards for governance and security. Accelerating cloud adoption also enables such organisations to innovate with more services that improve the experiences of their teams, customers and stakeholders,鈥� said Microsoft ANZ Chief Partner Officer, Vanessa Sorenson.

As the world of work rapidly evolves, 51风流Fieldglass has been at the forefront of helping hundreds of the world鈥檚 largest companies transform and optimise how they find, engage, and manage external talent and contingent workforces.

51风流Fieldglass solutions help automate the end-to-end process of procuring and managing external talent, allowing customers to better manage costs by using preferred suppliers and adhering to market rates. The transparency into worker and supplier performance enables higher quality of work, enhanced supplier collaboration and improved talent decision-making overall.

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A recent EY found that nine out of ten respondents worldwide, including workers from ANZ, wanted flexibility in their working hours and location. Fifty-four percent of employees were prepared to quit if they weren鈥檛 offered some form of flexibility. According to Thomas Barlow, head of 51风流Fieldglass Centre of Excellence, Australia and New Zealand, the talent challenge is acute when it comes to tech employees.

鈥淭echnology permeates every part of an organisation, requiring people with new skills in areas like data science, AI, machine learning, blockchain, robotics, and IoT. Organisations need to build a global workforce that meets digitalised business demands,鈥� said Barlow. 鈥淲orkers with specialised expertise typically operate in a highly flexible, agile way. They鈥檙e likelier to be more mobile, in charge of managing their own learning experiences and careers. They also may not be located nearby.鈥�

Complete talent pool data creates business resilience

The latest data from the revealed how pandemic lockdowns have accelerated the skills shortage. reported one in four Australian businesses were struggling to find suitable staff to fill job vacancies. In a recent Covid Resilience Ranking from , Australia dropped 21 points compared to over 50 other major economies worldwide. To meet this workforce challenge, leaders are turning to connected data.

鈥淎s companies build more flexible, cross-border workforces, they need full transparency of all employees, including permanent and external workers,鈥� said Barlow. 鈥淲ith complete workforce data, companies are better prepared to identify and deploy the right people with the right skills to support growth forecasts, or pivot quickly in case of unexpected disruptions like the pandemic.鈥�

AI-based talent pools like have emerged to help organizations quickly match open positions with pre-qualified candidates from the global external labor pool. Integrated with and available on the , WillHire curates emerging talent who have the niche skills that support digital transformation.

Global people strategy is core to business execution

Historical talent strategies distinguished between permanent full-time employees and external workers who were typically hired to pitch in as a short-term business fix. With the advent of global marketplaces, talent strategies have transformed to flex with changing business demands.

鈥淐ompanies need to embrace fluidity, looking at talent from the perspective of business results, as opposed to permanent versus contract workers,鈥� said Marc Havercroft, global chief customer officer at . 鈥淔or example, organizations using 51风流SuccessFactors and 51风流Fieldglass can easily see how many people work for the company irrespective of an end date on their contract. Data reveals where people are, what skills they have, and their work quality over time. Organisations can quickly identify gaps and find the additional specialists with the latest skills anywhere in the world.鈥�

One 51风流customer, an established ANZ-based financial services organization, needed to digitally transform to attract the next generation of customers. Using both 51风流SuccessFactors and 51风流Fieldglass, leaders sourced external tech experts to build digital services, pairing them with existing employees who shared their business knowledge while gaining new skills.

At the other end of the spectrum, a native digital banking start-up in ANZ relied on both 51风流solutions to guide talent investments in business specialists with go-to-market and customer upselling and engagement capabilities. These experts rounded out the existing team鈥檚 tech-centric skills.

Employee experience attracts global talent pool

The same EY study found that worldwide, 72 percent of respondents believed remotely working would likely have a negative impact on their career opportunities. That percentage was higher (82 percent) among employees in Asia-Pacific. With greater visibility across the entire workforce, companies can create a strong employee experience in a hybrid 鈥榳ork from anywhere鈥� world.

鈥淔ull transparency into an organisation鈥檚 workforce capabilities and recruitment needs allows leaders to adopt a continuous learning culture with benefits to the business and employees,鈥� said Havercroft. 鈥淧eople want to learn, making their work enjoyable and career secure. They want to be valued globally for their skills and knowledge, which is probably the biggest benefit of a global talent marketplace.鈥�

Business resiliency demands new talent management strategies to match recruitment programs with forecasted growth opportunities, factoring in skills and roles that might not exist yet, but are surely on the horizon. For example, SAP鈥檚 recent acquisition of SwoopTalent鈥檚 IP, an AI-based talent data platform, will allow companies to explore 鈥榳hat if鈥� scenarios, combining real-world total workforce data to improve ROI on talent investments and other decisions as businesses evolve. Massive growth from digitalisation is all well and good. Just make sure you have the business and tech experts on hand to power it.

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The demand for labour in Australia continues to outstrip talent supply, especially in sectors like resources and mining, construction and engineering, manufacturing, and trades. In a recent study between , 45 per cent of procurement executives reported frequent digital security breaches with their contingent workforce. Thirty-five per cent of respondents experienced unauthorised spend, and 34 percent experienced compliance issues.

Intelligent tech creates connected talent ecosystem

As the complexity and digitalisation of workforces increased during the pandemic, the ability to manage remote workforces throughout the employee lifecycle has become critical. Compounded by the restrictions Australian businesses face with offshore talent during the global pandemic, organisations must devote the same attention, rigor, and focus on talent supply chains as any other supply chain or asset-driven commodity.

Intelligent technology solutions are offering businesses new avenues to reconsider talent acquisition and management, creating an interconnected ecosystem for managing adaptive talent supply chains.

Benefits of talent supply chain digitalisation

In the not too distance past, companies could manage talent supply chain as complex, disconnected, and lengthy processes with numerous teams working in silos across the business without real visibility or centralisation. Now companies that rely on contingent workers and service providers in substantial numbers are turning to vendor management systems (VMS) that streamline and centralise talent sourcing, procurement, and oversight.

An intelligent VMS can consolidate operations, acquisitions, and management, on a unified platform, reducing the cost of staffing while increasing process efficiency and workforce quality. Providing a single source of truth and control is critical for compliance and efficiency.

For example, runs a global value realisation assessment program for all of our key customers, and in the last analysis of customer outcomes we saw an annualised 60 per cent improvement in worker quality since implementation, and an average of three per cent savings through improved compliance alone. This was only possible with increased visibility and access across each organisation鈥檚 talent supply chain processes.

External workforce success metrics

To manage an external workforce program successfully, leaders need to look at how they manage full-time employees today, putting equal weight and importance on how teams measure success through processes across four value drivers: cost control, compliance, quality, and efficiency.

Each value driver is directly impacted by the provision of visibility across the external workforce. To measure success, it is important to understand these drivers and how they fit into the overall strategy and direction for the organisation.

An external workforce program can mature over time. Initially, it makes the most business sense to focus on organizational and team priorities and quick wins for the quickest return-on-investment while preventing change fatigue. Consider cost control which can translate to a variety of strategies and tactics, quickly becoming overwhelming from a change management perspective, and potentially no longer obtainable. Leaders need to break this value driver down into smaller, more easily achievable goals.

For example, one organisation set a goal to streamline invoicing processes and reduced FTE (full-time equivalent) talent costs. After implementing 51风流Fieldglass, the business completely automated invoice reconciliation, saving $22M AUD in the first year. By simplifying, standardising, and automating processes, the organisation also reduce headcount in its accounts payable team by three FTE.

In setting small reachable goals and KPIs, businesses can quickly see improvements. However, as organisations constantly change, it鈥檚 important to regularly refresh goals and ensure alignment to the overarching business strategy. This needs active and continuous management, whether manually or through intelligent technology solutions.

As organisations innovate how they manage and connect with employees, technology will continue to play a significant role in how businesses adapt to and anticipate change. The 鈥榥ew normal鈥� that continues to evolve in response to the global pandemic has highlighted the importance of operating safely yet with flexibility. Organisations need the right technology in place to support these robust and ever-shifting work arrangements.

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鈥淲e鈥檙e responsible for managing critical energy infrastructure nationwide, and need flexible technology in order to operate and respond to crises. As we expand and innovate through acquisitions and partnerships, we needed an integrated system with standardised technology and processes,鈥� said Shaun Code, general manager of enterprise technology at AGL Energy. 鈥淲ith a rich API layer, the 51风流S/4HANA ERP platform provides a core ecosystem with the ability to adapt and extend operations, directly supporting our business growth and differentiating innovation.鈥�

Tech boosts health and safety innovation

replaced over 50 disparate legacy ERP applications with , dramatically simplifying systems with consistent processes throughout the organisation. Teams are taking advantage of the integrated core platform to build extensions on top of critical business processes, such as health and safety requirements.

鈥淲e conduct walks to identify potential hazards in facilities or the field,鈥� said Code. 鈥淏uilding on top of the , we鈥檝e developed a mobile app that allows our people to capture and share incidents and hazardous conditions immediately. We can conduct more walks over a shorter time period, increasing our ability to meet health and safety commitments.鈥�

AGL Energy recently won an for its AGL One iOS app. Built on 51风流S/4 HANA with 51风流Integration Suite and 51风流Extension Suite, the mobile app provides employees with one seamless digital experience, allowing them to access the right tool at the right time from anywhere.

Digital platform minimizes plant downtime

As the largest electricity generator in Australia, plant maintenance for AGL Energy is not just about scheduling work orders and completing tasks in a timely manner. Integrating data from 51风流cloud solutions, including and , provides AGL Energy with visibility across systems, including procurement and its important contract workforce.

鈥淭he platform is a unifying hub for effective integration and automation that streamlines our end-to-end daily processes,鈥� said Code. 鈥淲e can make sure that we have the parts to maintain operations, the contingent workers to complete the job, and the speed to pay our suppliers efficiently.鈥�

Sixty percent time-savings from continuous innovation

AGL Energy has made a number of valuable process improvements on top of 51风流S/4HANA, notably an intuitive mobile app that reduced the number of steps in job site environmental analyses by 60 percent. Before work can be done on sites with hazards, teams need to have effective controls in place for people鈥檚 safety. Previously, teams used different processes and places to collect and store information.

鈥淲e鈥檝e sped up the process with automatically prepopulated data to complete forms, and unified approvals with consistent documentation across the company,鈥� said Code. 鈥淧eople now can spend less time navigating paperwork and more time ensuring their work is completed safely. With a continuous data loop feedback we are constantly improving processes that matter to our business.鈥�

Flexibility for resilient business

When AGL Energy鈥檚 employees switched to remote work at the height of the pandemic last year, the company鈥檚 automated system literally helped power business continuity. Employees in different locations were easily trained to step in as health and weather-related events unfolded.

鈥淗aving a well-designed cloud-based system meant we could quickly scale up to thousands of employees working from home,鈥� said Code. 鈥淚t also gave us greater planning control during a highly uncertain time, with the flexibility to shift operations between Australia and India in the wake of major disruptions, including a cyclone.鈥�

Cloud platform connects data and insights

Business results from centralising ERP systems on one platform have been palpable company-wide. Because leaders have a clear line of sight through inventory and procurement, work completion rates are faster with fewer instances of costly rescheduling. Sharing inventory data between warehouses at different generator sites saves time and reduces costs. The company can easily find and reuse available equipment, instead of ordering new parts from far flung suppliers. In procurement, teams can more easily source the right goods and services from the right suppliers at the best price. The impact on financial systems has also been profound, reducing the time spent on month-end closings from days to hours.

epitomises the evolving business opportunities from the collision between technology and the industry itself.

鈥淭here鈥檚 never been a more exciting time to be in the energy industry,鈥� said Code. 鈥淲e are committed to this digital transformation journey with our customers and partners. Whether customers are getting power from solar panels, charging battery-operated EVs and other devices, going online, or just staying comfortable and connected at any time, technology underpins our determination to make services more sustainable, reliable and affordable.鈥�

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鈥淐ompanies need an integrated, holistic system that brings information together in a unified way for greater visibility across operations,鈥� said Chris Willcocks, vice president and head of intelligent spend management at 51风流ANZ. 鈥淭hey can monitor, measure, and manage the entire contractor engagement lifecycle in real-time to ensure that procurement and health and safety policies and processes are consistently enforced. In an environment where human lives are at risk and unplanned shutdowns can cost millions per day, doing this right is absolutely critical.鈥�

Balance external workforce safety with productivity

Research from an conducted in collaboration with 51风流Fieldglass, showed that across all industries, 42 percent of workforce spend is on external labour. What鈥檚 more, industries like mining, oil and gas, utilities, chemicals, and heavy manufacturing typically average higher percentages of contingent workers as part of their overall workforce population. The trouble is, external workers often face additional time pressures, potentially increasing safety risks.

Findings from FEFO Consulting鈥檚 confirmed this challenge. The index benchmarked feedback about safety, engagement, leadership, and systems from over 200,000 respondents in asset intensive companies primarily based in ANZ. Compared to employees, contract workers were 24 percent likelier to feel pressured to compromise safety to complete a job, and 10 percent likelier to have seen colleagues compromise safety for the sake of shortcuts.

鈥淓xternal workforces often consist of short-term labor that鈥檚 expected to carry out complex, specialised work at speed as they interact with numerous stakeholders,鈥� said Mark Wright, managing director at FEFO Consulting. 鈥淚n driving a high performance culture, don鈥檛 put productivity before safety. That leads to a culture of rushing to get the job done, as opposed to looking after your workmates and coming home safely.鈥�

Minimise risk with tech and culture change

Asset-intensive industries face growing regulatory pressure in Australia. Industrial manslaughter laws and punishments can amount to fines in the tens of million with executive liability that could mean lengthy imprisonment. To prevent incidents, Wright recommended a combination of technology innovations plus workforce culture change.

鈥淭ake a pragmatic, risk-based approach by focusing on compliance requirements that will actually add value. Apply technology to simplify, gain efficiencies, and improve the user experience,鈥� said Wright. 鈥淢ake culture changes by setting clear expectations that balance safety before production. Recognise positive performance and create a great experience so external workers can easily follow processes and model behaviors that meet both compliance and productivity objectives.鈥�

Digitalisation for business results

To operate safely and efficiently, asset-intensive industries need to capture and understand mountains of data that reflect workforce activities spanning recruitment, hiring, and daily onsite performance. For many organisations, digitalisation has profitable business impact.

A global mining company with major operations in Australia, increased workforce visibility, process efficiencies, and cost-savings by integrating 51风流Fieldglass with its core 51风流ERP system. The company improved regulatory compliance across external workforce processes, from engagement through offboarding. Supervisors reduced their workload significantly by eliminating time-consuming administrative steps such as service entry sheets for the external workforce. They also saved costs by having one consistent system for worker types and rate cards.

Pandemic-era business resilience

Although the pandemic didn鈥檛 hurt Australia as much as other harder-hit countries, remotely located industries were affected due to their heavy reliance on a more transient workforce. These people often travel across state borders within Australia or fly in from other regions of the world. Earlier lockdowns contained the pandemic鈥檚 spread, but restricted the flow of contingent workers.

鈥淭he smartest organisations have learned from the pandemic鈥檚 challenges. They鈥檙e looking at risk beyond likelihood and consequence, to consider the velocity and speed of how major risks can impact them,鈥� said Willcocks. 鈥淔or example, we just launched , a tool designed for asset intensive industries. Companies can quickly assign large volumes of workers by task, tracking and managing spend for complex plant maintenance scenarios, and most important, ensuring health and safety compliance.鈥�

External workforce brings innovation opportunities

The pandemic鈥檚 speedy, devastating impact is now kindling innovation. Wright urged organisations to move beyond purely compliance-based external workforce selection and management, and consider new ways suppliers can add value.

鈥淚nstead of asking your external workforce suppliers hundreds of questions about their risk and injury statistics during pre-qualification and annual reviews, ask targeted questions on how they think you can innovate,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f someone can improve your safety with innovations, that will help you quickly adapt to fast-moving threats.鈥�

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One year into its grip on the global economy, COVID-19 continues to disrupt job markets, with new volatility arising from overstretched health-care systems, emerging variants of the virus, and uneven distribution of vaccines. Despite the ongoing turbulence, businesses are taking steps, not only to recovery, but toward a more resilient future in which greater flexibility and visibility render them less vulnerable to disruption.

At the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), these steps include investing in digital transformation, with a focus on procuring and managing external workers such as specialist contractors.

The bank set up a 鈥榗ontractor hub鈥� with the help of 51风流to function as a single place to source, engage and manage its 2,000 strong contingent workforce. Enabled by the 51风流Fieldglass solution for vendor management, CBA鈥檚 Contractor Hub is now known as the largest managed service program in Australia.

Cloud-based technologies have allowed CBA to maintain seamless operations, despite immense disruption due to the pandemic. The bank was able to access and attract the best contingent talent in the marketplace, which in turn allowed them to stand out as an employer of choice for this increasingly important demographic.

Additionally, visibility into the bank鈥檚 highly skilled external workforce allowed the business to improve contractor productivity, gain relevant insights and reduce overall costs to the business.

But how much of a difference does digitalising the process of procuring and managing contingent labour and services providers actually make? According to new research from SAP, it can unlock newfound value and make a world of difference.

What the numbers tell us

In collaboration with 聽into the impact of technology and process digitalisation in the procurement function. The report surveyed 1,000 procurement and supply chain executives responsible for direct and indirect spend and services, including the management of contingent labour and services providers.

Over half of executives (55 per cent) say their company would be unable to conduct business as usual without an external workforce, with over 60 per cent saying contingent labour and services providers help them compete in a digital world, lend extra capacity to help manage peaks in demand, and are essential for getting work done.

Over half of executives (54 per cent) specifically credit the external workforce with helping their businesses to recover from downturns. Meanwhile, seven in ten say contingent labour and services providers are 鈥渋mportant鈥� or 鈥渆xtremely important鈥� in enabling organisations to manage costs, operate at full capacity, and improve the customer experience.

The freelance boom

Many of the executives surveyed cite the pandemic as a watershed event for their businesses, where external workers proved decisive in maintaining the smooth flow of operations and keeping the promises made to customers.

This reliance on the highly skilled external workforce is only expected to grow in Australia. With the Federal Government鈥檚 JobKeeper program ending soon, many Australian businesses will need to start thinking about ways they can to do more with fewer resources. It鈥檚 predicted that flexible work will experience a boom as companies rethink their traditional team set up and opt for a more agile, cost effective structure.

The bigger picture

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the research reveals that organisations that embrace the digital transformation of procurement tend to outperform those who have yet to do so. Stronger reliance on data, analytics and automation helps procurement leaders make better-informed decisions and respond faster to emerging risks. But even firms far along in their digital strategies have much to gain from applying cloud-based tools more broadly and deeply to managing the external workforce. They, like others, struggle with incomplete data, manual processes, and opaque or inconsistent measures of performance.

A perfect example is the means by which organisations manage the external workforce, consisting of contingent and temporary labour, independent contractors, consultants and other services providers. Together, on average, they account for 42 per cent of total workforce spend, with payroll employees comprising the remainder. Though highly skilled external workers lend businesses the flexibility they need to achieve resilience in times of disruption, they are often under-managed, constraining organisations from reaping the full value from their talents.

Through the digital transformation of external workforce management, however, businesses gain critical visibility, enabling them to manage with rigor and improve the return on investment. By actively managing their external workforce with the transparency and real-time insights made possible by cloud-based applications, businesses can expand value, strengthen compliance and reduce risk.

As business leaders plan for a return to less anxious times, look for the digital transformation of external workforce management to play an increasingly prominent role in enabling organisations to rebuild and reemerge stronger on the other side of the pandemic.

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Fionn noted that he joined AGL in May 2017. 鈥淭hat was a few days just before we kicked off our digital transformation program, otherwise known as PT3,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚 had several roles throughout the program, primarily starting in the work management space and then moving into some analytics and BPC areas 鈥� so I got a really good spread of experience across the program.鈥�

https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=802392

With over 11 years working in the utilities and 51风流space, Fionn鈥檚 primary role now is supporting AGL鈥檚 energy-generation sites. 鈥淚 work with the technology team and focus on delivering new capability on our brand new S4/HANA platform. The focus is really delivering new solutions and capabilities to our integrated business energy unit, so AGL is really focused on all our power stations throughout Australia, which includes our coal, thermal science, gas, wind, solar, hydro, and soon, very excitingly, our grid-scale batteries.

鈥淲hat we also do is support AGL in our drive around acquiring new business. Every time we buy a new company, they come into our technology team to help bring them onto our existing S4/HANA platform.鈥�

Fionn said shifting from an on-premise to a cloud-based solution has given AGL greater consistency, transparency, and control over its vast network of sites and functions. 鈥淧rior to PT3, we had over 50 legacy ERP applications around the business because we鈥檇 acquired a lot of energy businesses to secure those energy sites.鈥�

According to Fionn, this transformation journey was delivered by AGL internally, collaborating with various partners throughout the program鈥檚 implementation. 鈥淲e decided not to go outside and bring in a large consulting company, so it was effectively managed and delivered by AGL people with a lot of help from obviously SAP, but also a lot of consulting partners as well. It was a really great project team because it was heavy with businesspeople and technology people, so quite a unique deployment.鈥�

AGL has been making ongoing investments into its technology, Fionn explained, not only in digital transformation, but other backend processes that helped a majority of its 4,000 staff members move to remote working during the pandemic outbreak.

鈥�51风流S4/HANA was just one of the key ingredients, but it has given us far more operational transparency across our business.鈥�

鈥淥ne of the challenges of having 50 ERPs across your business is that it makes it very hard to have visibility of activities happening or have trust in data. Having a single platform certainly gives a greater view of information that comes out of our various business units, providing a lot more trust in that we know the data is right in having one platform.鈥�

Another key benefit Fionn highlighted was the significant improvement in AGL鈥檚 flexibility for managing business change. 鈥淎GL, just like any other utility at the moment, is going through a period of change where the future is very uncertain, so we have to be flexible and nimble. Having one platform provides that flexibility.

鈥淚n recent times, we purchased a new energy business in Western Australia, and over a period, we were able to bring that onto our existing so that business aligns with the AGL way of working, which has been great to see.鈥�

AGL implemented other 51风流cloud-based solutions to further streamline and standardise its internal processes. 鈥淥ur business has a lot of contingent workers that support us, so we rely on quite heavily for that,鈥� Fionn said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also using to support our procurement process. It was quite exciting to see those two cloud products heavily integrated into our platform as well.

鈥淲e digitalised 78 business processes, so it鈥檚 been fantastic that all those processes are on state-of-the-art technology that works whether you鈥檙e sitting inside the office or at home, maybe if you鈥檙e lucky enough even on the beach, or even on mobile devices. With that technology, it has certainly given us a lot of flexibility as an organisation.鈥�

Fionn expressed that the big two factors for a successful transformation are about business support and basing decision on people. 鈥淭hrough our digital transformation, we had business people from across our business and corporate functions that were embedded in the team. That enabled us to make sure we weren鈥檛 just delivering a technology solution, but we were also delivering a business solution.

鈥淭he second thing I would like to call out with these activities is that your people should always be the focus in everything that you do. Ultimately, it鈥檚 a people-based solution, so you need to make sure you鈥檙e thinking about how they鈥檒l be using the tool in the future and what sort of change impacts that might have.鈥�

For businesses considering this cloud-based solution, Fionn offers some important tips for kickstarting a digital transformation journey. 鈥淥ne 鈥� don鈥檛 be afraid of S4/HANA. There are a lot of known unknowns in that space, but I highly recommend getting onto that platform and doing it as quickly as you can. All the incredible new capabilities that 51风流are releasing are all built for the .

鈥淭wo 鈥� focus on people and change. It really is the most important area because if people don鈥檛 embrace the technology, you won鈥檛 be able to deliver on the benefits of such an implementation.

鈥淭hree 鈥� user experience should always be front of mind, so make sure you put the right focus and attention into delivering solutions that help people through their day-to-day activities.

鈥淎nd finally 鈥� study the S4/HANA simplification lists just to understand what is in and out from each version. There is a lot of critical information in those documents, so I highly recommend you study those so there aren鈥檛 any surprises.鈥�

To hear more from my discussion with Fionn, check out the .

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Finance, procurement, supplier networks, and IT teams are working together more closely than ever to tackle broader business challenges, create new business models, and leverage a changing workforce. But for this strategic effort to succeed, leaders need a comprehensive, coordinated approach to spend management that works in real time.

Why Real-Time Spend Management Matters

The banking and insurance industries are facing an urgent need for a real-time spend management solution. Banks鈥� costs have been rising faster than revenues, with banks in the U.S. and the EU experiencing significant cost increases on average. In parallel, increased regulatory burdens, such as IFRS17 for insurers, IT investments, and fines are unlikely to change. The real opportunities for improving margins lie in cost reduction by making more strategic spend decisions.

Managing and optimising spend while staying agile is a challenging balancing act. To fund innovation and manage risk across complex supplier networks, businesses not only need full control over each spend category, they also need a comprehensive bird鈥檚 eye view into spending across all categories in real time. Growth forecasts must be measured against risk tolerance. Business leaders must continually weigh spending on growth against spend control. Information silos and lagging spend data threaten this intelligent decision-making.

Today鈥檚 pace of decision-making is only accelerating. Decisions that were made over the course of many years are now made in months or weeks. Information silos hurt visibility into big picture spending decisions, damaging the bottom line. Fifty percent of CFOs say inefficient decision-making is causing margin erosion at their companies, according to聽. Spend transparency cannot be ad hoc; it must be consistent and automated so that every single expenditure is part of a broader, coordinated strategic effort.

Spend Management for Insurance and Banking

Many companies are hindered by different planning processes and disconnected planning tools, with manual consolidation between them. This creates unnecessary inefficiencies in planning and a lack of alignment with organisational strategy.

solves this problem by bringing together networks and ecosystems, capturing every source of spend, across every category, for a single, unified view. A holistic approach to managing spend 鈥� across every source and every category 鈥� is essential for achieving strategic business objectives. Visibility and transparency can result in more competitive bidding, rate card creation and enhancements, and other areas of cost avoidance. This, in turn, can have a ripple effect on the organisation, reducing risk, uncovering opportunities, and improving agility.

Intelligent Spend Management: Real-Time Insight, Unified View, Better Decision Making and Cost Savings

Intelligent Spend Management gives financial teams insight into spend and exposure across every category via a 鈥渟ingle pane of glass鈥� view. This single view aligns spending priorities with corporate policy priorities, balancing investments in innovation with core business needs and transforming procurement models. 51风流leverages the power of artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide real-time insights that accelerate decision-making. 51风流Fieldglass Live Insights, for example, simulates and predicts external talent scenarios, helping customers make workforce decisions from one uninterrupted workflow.

Together with 51风流products like 51风流Concur software, the results are significant. JP Morgan Chase, for example, used 51风流Concur software to standardise its expense and non-PO invoice processes, resulting in 聽through greater control and efficiency. AIA Insurance Group Limited used 51风流Ariba software to achieve聽, transforming its business.

Learn more about how聽聽can achieve critical cost savings and drive success for your business.

This article first appeared on the Global 51风流News Centre.

The post Smarter Decisions and Cost Savings in the Financial Services Industries appeared first on 51风流Australia & New Zealand News Center.