How you respond to a crisis will impact how you move forward in the future

Financial services firms are keenly aware that how they respond to a crisis will impact how they move forward in the future. Technology is changing at a pace never before experienced by the business world. While it sounds scary, in practical terms this means new technologies that allow organisations to be more competitive, provide better service, reduce costs and make better decisions.

Here are five key actions you can take now to build resilience and recover faster:

1) Invest in your customer experience

Companies that combined cost-cutting with selective investing before the 2008 crisis ended had a 76% chance of pulling ahead of competition, as opposed to companies that solely cut costs. (Source: Harvard Business Review, “Roading out of Recession,” 2010.)

96% of investment services customers are very likely to purchase more products or services if they rated their customer experience as very good. (Source: Qualtrics, “ROI of Customer Experience,” 2019.)

Here are just a couple of ways firms are boosting the customer experience today:

a) Seamless omni-channel experience from desktop, mobile device, to brick-and mortar store

b) Automated financial advice with robo – advisors or virtual assistants powering customer engagement

2) Enhance operational efficiency and financial visibility

60% of finance professionals spend too much time cleaning and manipulating data in spreadsheets. (Source: Accounting Today, “The debate about Excel,” Jan 2018.)

Since implementing Sage Intacct, Sasser Family Companies increased revenue by 100% and gained a real-time view of complex financials within one—or all six—of its companies.

“Sasser consolidated financials in Excel and struggled with visibility and agility across the company… with Sage Intacct, our finance and business leaders have a more real-time, rich view of the company’s financials. Our finance teams have been able to shift from data processors to value-add analysis and process improvements.”

Lauren Zielinski, Senior Director, Finance & Accounting, Sasser Family Companies

 

3) Make working remotely a competitive advantage

46% of companies that allow telework say it reduced attrition — a big strength when losing a valued employee can cost an employer $10,000-30,000. (Source: Global Workplace Analytics, “Costs and Benefits: Advantages of Agile Work Strategies For Companies.”)

By working from home, remote workers typically save about $4,000 a year since they can skip the costs that come with commuting, professional clothes, eating out, etc. (Source: Flexjobs, “6 Ways Working from Home Will Save You $4,000 or More Annually,” July 2020.)

Clinch the win-win by enabling your remote team with

• Cloud Systems
• Chat tools
• Video conferencing

4) Fortune favors the bold—pursue opportunistic M&A

Companies that made acquisitions during the 2001 recession saw 7% higher shareholder returns than industry peers one year later. (Source: ⁶ PwC, “Preparing for successful M&A in uncertain economic times,” Dec. 2019.) For 10%, returns were even better at companies that announced deals in the first half of that downturn.

5) Find & hire exceptional talent (but skip the handshakes & office tours)

In a study of the 2008 recession, the most frequent reaction was to scale back recruiting.
But respondents also rated the selective hiring of high performing employees from competitors as 1 of the 3 most effective responses (out of a list of 22). (Source: Harvard Business Review, “Now Is an Unprecedented Opportunity to Hire Great Talent,” May 2020.)

The key to recovering faster and locking in long-term competitive gains is to balance cost cutting with careful investments before the crisis ends.

“Sage Intacct has not only given us the ability to see what’s happened in the past, it has given us a look through the window to see what’s going to happen in the future. We can use projections and know with more certainty that they’re going to be accurate.”

Von Maharaj, Controller, NTFN

Are you interested in finding out more about how cloud accounting can assist your Financial Services firm in taking the five key steps listed above? Contact us at Akuna Solutions and find out from a Sage Intacct implementation specialist how your organisation can have a finance transformation and benefit from one of the world’s leading cloud-based business software platforms – Sage Intacct.

We look forward to helping you find your way forward

• Our team is highly qualified and has decades of experience designing, implementing and integrating many hundreds of solutions locally and globally.
• Our approach is structured, yet agile and collaborative. We work closely with you to identify and achieve your short, medium and long-term goals.
• We understand the need for rapid ROI while not losing sight of the big picture.

Blogpost photo by Marc Pell on Unsplash