Transforming R2A drives a more analytically-focused future

Digitalizing your record-to-analyze processes enables you to spend less time crunching numbers and more time analyzing data to drive more insights. This shift is driven technology and your people in equal measure – but where do you start?

Imagine you’ve just landed your dream job, but end up spending most of your time doing administrative tasks that stop you from doing what you’ve been employed to do. You’d rightly feel frustrated and be looking for ways to sort out the admin, so you can dive into the good stuff.

This is the reality facing most record-to-analyze (R2A) teams – until recently.

Traditionally, R2A teams spend most of their time ensuring that every finance transaction is recorded accurately and in a timely manner. But this means typically spending most of the month and end-close period checking transaction accuracy, correcting errors in upstream processes, and preparing information for reporting. As a result, R2A teams often don’t have enough time to analyze the data they work with.

Shifting the focus from “record” to “analyze” means your R2A teams spend less time crunching numbers and more time analyzing data to drive more insights – which represents the true value your stakeholders expect from your finance function. But with your R2A teams spend more time analyzing data, who – or what – will record finance transactions and make the data associated with them available for analysis?

This is where digitalizing your R2A operations through leveraging a proven AI-augmented solution comes into play.

Technology makes transforming your R2A operations possible

Digitalizing the “record” side of your R2A process requires implementation of the right technology to integrate and orchestrate your data quickly and easily. This enables R2A platforms and an AI-augmented workforce to run your accounting transactions efficiently and automatically with minimal human supervision, while your R2A teams focus on analyzing the data to achieve the results your clients expect.

Implementing technologies such as BlackLine empowers your end-to-end R2A process by automating accounting workflows, streamlining financial reporting, and providing a centralized and secure workspace for period-end accounting activities. This helps you close faster with more complete and accurate results. And leveraging an integrated AI-augmented governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) solution can help eliminate process risk to drive frictionless operational efficiency, improved fraud and revenue protection, and improved compliance.

But this is only half the story.

Change is driven by your people

While technology plays a crucial role towards the R2A shift, it’s important not to lose sight of the main force that will drive your transformation forward – your people.

People are an integral part of the success of any transformation – and the key to ensuring your business processes are understood by your R2A team. To ensure your people are prepared to meet the challenges of their new digitalized environment requires you to invest in training and upskilling and talent development. Training that focuses on improving your people’s analytical skills and capabilities, better understanding finance analytics methodologies, and generating better analysis for your organization through using AI-augmented technologies.

Additionally, implementing different change management initiatives will help your people to work as part of an AI-augmented workforce. Involving your people in the in the core automation process or the implementation of analytical tools will accelerate them on new learning paths, helping them to become architects of their own future.

To learn more about how Capgemini’s AI.Controllership solution infuses AI into your accounting, reconciliation, close, reporting, and compliance processes to drive enhanced efficiency, increased effectiveness, and improved compliance, contact: malgorzata.bateup@capgemini.com