Connecting Silos: Partnering with IT to Push Intercompany Optimization Across the Finish Line

This is Part 1 of the series “Improving Communication and Collaboration Between Intercompany Teams”

If your business is looking to optimize its finance and accounting operations, you know what’s ahead. F&A teams will need to research what technology solutions would be a good fit, make the internal sell to finance heads, and lay the groundwork for a new platform.

But here’s one piece of the optimization puzzle that shouldn’t be overlooked: consulting and collaborating with the Information Technology (IT) department. Too often, controllers and other stakeholders make the mistake of forgetting to include IT in their research and decision-making.

This can greatly delay or even shelve a great optimization strategy, and nowhere is this more relevant than when a business needs to transform its intercompany accounting processes.

According to McKinsey & Company, 70% of digital transformation projects fail. If your F&A teams don’t connect with IT promptly, you could miss the budget cycle. Your teams would be left struggling with the same outdated legacy system for another year or more and take too much time to close.

Outside of needing tech support, F&A team members don’t interact with IT all that much - but that kind of siloed existence is detrimental to moving forward with a new solution designed to improve intercompany processes.

An IT department is an integral part of any high-functioning business. Without IT, an organization simply can’t function. IT oversees tech upgrades, network configurations, and user access and support. IT “owns” the technological systems that store and process intercompany data, whether it flows through ERPs, SAP, an Oracle system, or a cloud-based platform.

Even more importantly, the IT department holds the purchasing power over adopting new solutions, with the Chief Information Officer (CIO) calling the shots.

So, even though F&A teams are responsible for finding a best-fit intercompany solutions partner – and even though they are the users of a new solution – controllers won’t be able to move optimization across the finish line without a full endorsement from IT.

So, how do you turn a siloed relationship with IT into a productive, mutually beneficial one? The key is to connect with IT at critical touchpoints. This will ensure that IT is your ally in this journey instead of putting up roadblocks.

Here are three IT touchpoints to visit along your optimization journey:

• Initial information gathering. As you explore the possibility of optimizing intercompany processes and research costs, reach out to IT and schedule a brainstorming meeting to determine what aspects of the current system are wasting time and resources and where things could be improved. This is also a good time to show IT that no other in-house or already-owned system will achieve key objectives and get their input on which solution providers would be a good fit.

• Approved budget. Once the budget for optimization has been allocated, meet with IT to get input on your detailed strategic plan that you’ll eventually submit to get final approval. By developing a proposal that IT has helped to develop, you not only ensure that your strategy is airtight, but you bolster your case to leadership, knowing that IT is on board with the plan.

• Selecting the solutions provider. Once you’ve decided on the vendor, you’ll need to make sure IT approves your choice. Since you’ve established an ongoing, connected relationship with IT, you’re likely to be met with fewer questions and less resistance than if you started your outreach at this point.

Still, some important boxes must be checked to convince IT that you’ve selected the right intercompany solutions provider. Your CIO or IT team will want to know that the vendor you’ve selected meets certain objectives that relate to functionality, minimizing disruption, and controlling costs.

Here’s a checklist to follow when pitching IT on the intercompany solutions provider you’ve chosen:

• The technology is one that IT has already been working with, so IT is familiar with it and knows how to expand services.

• The solution has an excellent track record of helping multinational organizations automate time-consuming processes and consistently speed up the close.

• The solution will yield significant cost savings for IT and other functions if the organization relies on a homegrown legacy system.

• Implementation will fit the projected timelines and project scope and will cause minimal disruption to intercompany operations.

• The solution is scalable and will continue to perform at peak efficiency through multiple mergers and acquisitions.

• The solution will not put a drag on IT support resources, because it’s designed to be accessed and used by various departments with minimal training.

It takes time and effort to get approval for and implement a new intercompany solution – so you don’t want to take a chance on that work being wasted. By reaching out to IT at the right touch points, system users and owners can work together and accomplish mutually shared goals of achieving an optimized intercompany operation that increases productivity and makes everyone’s jobs easier.

The benefits of strengthening the F&A-IT partnership will continue well into the future, as controllers will have an easier time getting IT’s buy-in for future asks. What’s more, the ongoing time and cost savings achieved from an optimized intercompany system will free up both teams to be able to collaboratively strategize on new ideas that can increase profitability for the enterprise.

By partnering with BlackLine as your intercompany solutions provider, you’ll gain credibility from IT right off the bat, since BlackLine is one of the world’s foremost providers of intercompany and record-to-report (R2R) solutions.

Chances are, your IT department is already working with a BlackLine solution, so expanding those services would be seamless. BlackLine Intercompany Solutions are designed to bridge gaps and connect disparate ERPs and other systems so that intercompany doesn’t miss a beat, no matter how large an organization is or how fast it acquires new entities. What’s more, BlackLine is committed to maintaining a world-class security infrastructure, regardless of what type of legacy system is in place.