The digital transformation of finance functions represents a major strategic challenge for companies facing a constantly evolving economic environment. Faced with the challenges of digitalization, CFOs must rethink their traditional role to become true business partners, capable of leveraging the power of new technologies and big data.
Discover how operational excellence in the finance function optimizes processes, automates low-value tasks, and improves decision-making through artificial intelligence and digital tools.
The challenges facing finance departments
In the face of the financial crisis and rapid economic changes, finance departments are expanding their roles. They are becoming drivers of corporate transformation. Complex operational challenges and new (inter)national regulations pose risks and compromise company growth and margins. To ensure sustainable and profitable growth, organizations must reassess their strategic levers.
New technologies enable faster and smarter processing of financial and non-financial data. This requires organizational and process transformations. This evolution is also driven by software vendors’ SaaS strategies, which require companies to adapt to new tools.
Artificial intelligence (AI) opens up new perspectives:
- Automation of repetitive tasks
- Improved decision-making via predictive analytics
- Increased personalization of services
Achieve operational excellence in the finance function!
We are here to support you.
Althéa’s Support for Finance Transformation
Althéa and its experts guide you through the transformation of your organization, processes and digital transformation. Our specialized consultants possess solid expertise in finance, accounting, and advanced technologies, including in-depth knowledge of market solutions.
We apply a proven methodology to guarantee rigorous cost and deadline management. We distinguish ourselves through our integrity, proactive collaboration and high-quality service, all essential to an effective partnership. Discover how our services can transform your organization.
Althéa’s areas of intervention in France and internationally
Althéa and its experts support you at every stage of your projects:
- Master plan: our consultants define a precise strategic vision of financial processes. They set specific objectives and develop detailed roadmaps to guide future development.
- Audit and assessment of current processes: we conduct an in-depth audit to identify strengths, weaknesses, inefficiencies, and friction points. This ensures a targeted and effective transformation.
- Solution benchmarking: after identifying the challenges, we select a shortlist of suitable technological solutions. These solutions are ready to be evaluated and integrated into the project framework.
- Solution Selection Support: we assist our clients in selecting optimal solutions. We draft detailed specifications and facilitate tenders for an informed choice aligned with transformation objectives.
- Project Management Assistance: we manage transformation projects, collaborating with business teams to design new processes and ensure the quality of solutions during the various project phases.
- Change management and operational maintenance: we deploy a comprehensive strategy to facilitate the adoption of new solutions. This includes detailed documentation, training, and ongoing support to ensure transformed processes run smoothly.
- Compliance with e-invoicing reform: based on DGFIP specifications, we provide a gap analysis to help our clients meet EIR requirements.
Key Figures
Experts specialized in corporate finance
assignments completed in 2023 for 50 loyal clients
33% of these assignments focus on the strategic aspects of projects
new clients in 2023, 50% of which are mid-sized companies and large companies
References
For a French company and global leader in small domestic equipment
Industry sector – €7.3B | 34,000 employees
Context
In the context of the European ViDA directive, the client mandated the Althéa and Fidal consortium to support them in their project to bring outgoing invoice flows into compliance: conducting regulatory monitoring in the countries where the group operates and drafting the specifications for the target platform (customer invoicing).
Project specificities and Althéa’s added value
- Scope size subject to the ViDA directive in terms of the number of countries and entities
- Heterogeneity of the accounting organization between entities (multiple SSCs, outsourcing, standalone entities, etc.)
- Heterogeneity of the application scope
- Strong EDI footprint on invoice distribution
Services provided
- Regulatory monitoring: analyzing the level of maturity regarding electronic invoicing regulations in 28 countries
- Benchmarking: developing a shortlist of customer invoice dematerialization software vendors meeting SEB’s challenges
- Specifications: drafting the consultation file (core model, deployment, etc.) for the choice of the target customer invoice dematerialization solution
- Compliance with electronic invoicing reform: identifying gaps in processes, tools, and data between SEB’s current state and the requirements of the French reform
For a French services company specializing in legal services, accounting, audit and financial consulting
Services sector – €1.8B | 21,000 employees
To modernize its information systems, the client launched a project to implement a new ERP to cover its financial processes. In this context, this leader in multidisciplinary services chose to implement the SAP S/4 HANA solution to harmonize, streamline, and secure its financial flows.
Project specificities and Althéa’s added value
The client called upon Althéa’s services to support them during the testing phase. The objective is to guarantee the proper functioning of the new ERP and ensure consistency between the delivered functionalities and business needs. To achieve this, the client relied on:
- Our testing strategy
- Our drafted test scripts for 17 SAP tiles
- Our monitoring of testing and system adjustments.
The client benefited from our tool-based and proven methodological approach, with an expert team for both the business side and IT implementation.
Services provided
- Drafting of test scripts
- Adjustment of test scenarios
- Facilitation of user acceptance testing (UAT) sessions
- Assistance to testers for tool onboarding
- Reporting on testing progress and monitoring test results
- Bug reporting and assessment of their criticality
- Verification of corrections made
- Coordination with stakeholders for validation
For an international NGO
Non-profit sector | 6,500 employees
Our client wished to launch a digital transformation program, including numerous ongoing projects, impacting the necessary overhaul of the finance, procurement, and budget information system, which had become obsolete. The Finance Department teams manually perform many low-value tasks and wish to take advantage of this transformation to modernize business processes.
The client is looking for an experienced partner to support them on this project at three levels:
- PMA for the review and optimization of Finance, Procurement, and Budgetary processes.
- PMA for the choice of the Finance and Procurement solution.
- PMA for the implementation of the selected solution.
Project specificities and Althéa’s added value
- Business process expertise: a specialized Althéa team improves and digitalizes Finance, Procurement, and Budget processes, providing solutions tailored to the client’s needs.
- Tendering process: a professional, tool-based, and fair approach, allowing for the transparent and efficient selection of the future IS and integrator.
- Support for related projects: expertise to integrate and manage related projects, ensuring their positive impact on the future IS.
- PMA and collaborative management: Althéa provides PMA for design, interfaces, and data migration, ensuring a competent, complementary, and cohesive project management team.
Services provided
- Analysis of finance, management control, and procurement processes to identify areas for improvement
- Drafting of specifications and support in the RFI/RFP process from the launch of the consultation to the choice of the vendor/integrator pair
- PMA for the deployment of the new finance & procurement information system, from the design phase to the tool’s Go Live
Challenges
Strategic Vision and Planning
Define the strategic vision of financial processes, set objectives, integrate new technologies, and ensure compliance with the requirements of new regulations (EIR).
Solution Assessment and Selection
Identify pain points in current financial processes and select solutions adapted to the challenges.
Implementation and Ongoing Support
Effectively manage projects, guarantee the quality of solutions, and facilitate adoption with training and continuous support.
Contacts
Your frequently asked questions about the digital transformation of finance departments
What are the main benefits of digital transformation for a Finance department?
The digital transformation of the finance function brings high added value by automating repetitive and low-value tasks, allowing accounting and finance teams to focus on analysis and business partner missions. The use of digital tools considerably improves operational efficiency, particularly through the automation of accounting management processes, the dematerialization of invoices, and the optimization of management control.
Performance management, moreover, becomes more agile thanks to the use of real-time data and the provision of dynamic dashboards. Digitalization also allows for better risk management, particularly against fraud risks, while improving the quality of financial information and effective communication between different company departments. CFOs can thus play a more strategic role in decision-making and the development of new business models.
How long does it take to successfully transform a Finance department digitally?
The duration of a successful digital transformation largely depends on the company’s initial digital maturity level and the scale of the projects to be implemented. A digital transformation of the finance function includes, in any case, several phases:
- Needs analysis
- Implementation of information systems
- Change management support
- Process optimization throughout the value chain
The adoption of new technologies such as cloud, big data, and artificial intelligence are key factors that can impact project duration. Expert support allows for the acceleration of this transformation by identifying key challenges and defining a roadmap adapted to the specificities of each organization.
What new skills are needed for a digitalized Finance department?
The profile of the Chief Financial Officer and their teams is evolving considerably with the digitalization of finance. Beyond accounting and financial fundamentals, employees must develop skills in digital technology, data analysis, and digital project management. Mastery of digital platforms and cloud solutions is becoming essential to optimize data usage and improve reporting quality.
Regarding soft skills, financial teams must also possess skills in change management and leadership in transformation to support the digitalization of processes. The ability to anticipate market developments, analyze the impacts of digitalization, and develop a strategic vision is crucial. The modern Chief Financial Officer must thus combine traditional financial expertise and digital skills to ensure an effective and sustainable transformation of their function.
