Corporate decision-makers depend heavily on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and enterprise performance management (EPM) systems.
They rely on these systems to understand what’s going on across the business; to optimize allocation of resources for maximum return-on-capital; and to keep within the organization’s acceptable limits of risk.
Financial services companies have much to gain from cloud ERP and EPM systems, which are much more agile, efficient and innovative than their on-premises predecessors. For example:
- Multi-dimensional insight. To make timely, fact-based decisions, managers and executives need ready access to historical, real-time, and predictive insights. Historical and real-time insights might be delivered in the form of traditional reporting and business intelligence; while predictive insights (looking towards the future) might rely on more advanced data science and visualization to help decision-makers predict trends in customer behaviors, operating margins, and product performance.
- Accelerated feedback loops. In a fast-paced, innovation-driven marketplace, it’s not just about making the right decisions. It’s about continuously re-evaluating those decisions based on empirical feedback and then quickly making adjustments—whether it’s a bit of fine-tuning or a wholesale change in strategy. In addition to delivering rich insight, cloud ERP must enable speed and frequency of change.
- Continuous cost alignment. Agility requires the ability to act quickly within the right cost parameters. Historically, that’s been a challenge for banks. With on-premises systems, new technologies required a sizeable investment in advance of returns (the “cap-ex” model). With cloud, banks can now quickly launch pilot programs at more sensible cost. If those programs succeed, they can scale them under an op-ex model that remains well-aligned with the income these new programs generate. If the pilots are not successful, the institution can exit with minimal loss exposure. Cloud ERP thus optimizes margins and mitigates risk, in addition to enhancing agility.
If you asked a banking institution about their biggest challenge, they might say the biggest threats come from fintech start-ups, blockchain innovators, or some other new business model that no one has invented yet. But a new paper from American Banker argues that the biggest threat is coming from within banks themselves—in particular, their reluctance to move to the cloud technologies required to become a digital business.
You can download the paper here.