BlackLine Blog
March 01, 2023
Paving the Road to Digital Transformation With Data-Driven Efficiencies & Powerful Automation
BlackLine Magazine
Learn how BlackLine customers Resimac and Humm Group leverage financial automation to achieve their transformation goals.
Digital transformation is an essential element in modern business success and has become more of a when—not an if—for today’s organisations. For financial institutions operating with vast amounts of data, investing in solutions that automate critical business processes and streamline data management to drive business success is a critical piece of the digital transformation puzzle.
At the recent CFO Magazine Sydney CFO Symposium 2023, we were joined by Resimac and Humm Group to discuss their respective digital transformation journeys with the support of BlackLine, including how they modernised traditional accounting processes to deliver powerful, measurable results. They also shared how they delivered change, implemented new processes, and confronted cultural challenges in their finance transformation journeys.
Resimac: Results Delivered From Beginning to End
As an ASX-listed, non-banking lender, Resimac supports more than 50,000 customers nationwide, including over 80 corporate entities.
As part of a wider, ‘once-in-25-years’ overhaul of its processes and supporting software solutions, Resimac turned to BlackLine to strategically automate its financial operations and free up resources to deliver efficient reporting and provide data-driven insights to internal stakeholders.
Santo Ahmed, group financial controller at Resimac, said, “Resimac was undergoing a period of growth that meant we needed to reassess our operations and identify opportunities to streamline processes and simplify our technology stack. Within our financial operations, we recognised that there was a major time sink in terms of how long it was taking the team to complete reconciliations and manually follow up with individuals across the business.”
Resimac’s strategic operational overhaul included restructuring its finance team, transitioning management of its daily operations to its offshore team, and empowering its internal finance business partners to oversee dedicated sectors with support from deeper insights.
Ahmed said, “Leveraging the BlackLine solution as part of the wider transformation lets the company realise a greater value add from its onshore finance team in Australia, whilst complemented by an efficient operations team offshore.
“Additionally, BlackLine lets Resimac achieve a greater level of transparency across its financial operations; it’s easy to see at a glance where any hold-ups are in the reconciliation process. Resimac auditors can also do self-service reconciliations, which ensures that Resimac no longer needs to wait until month-end. Reconciliations can operate seamlessly on a daily basis, and it only takes one click to remind users to complete reconciliations, which are now always completed on time and accurately.”
Humm Group: Starting the Digital Transformation Journey Strong
As a commercial funding business that provides credit cards and coverage for buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), Humm Group helps finance more than 2.7 million customers across Australia. To support its ongoing growth, Humm Group needed to upgrade its existing finance and accounting solution to a more modern platform that would position it more strongly to continue to drive the business forward.
Marc Gozzett, head of finance operations at Humm Group, said, “Humm Group had a process in place that supported stable business while the company wasn’t developing new solutions or growing as fast. As the company continued to expand, Humm Group needed a solution that would better match transactions and show any differences, driving greater efficiencies to identify and deal with gaps instead of relying on our team to manually find them.
“BlackLine will deliver a greater level of control and information management than Humm Group previously had access to. The solution gives the business a better grip on the balance sheet, reconciliations, and where control accounts are. This lets the finance team more clearly see where the business is on a daily basis and lets the company address any issues ahead of month-end.”
Taking the First Step in the Digital Transformation Journey
While every organisation’s digital transformation journey is different, Resimac and Humm Group have advice for businesses ready to take the first critical step.
Ahmed said, “The manual processes within a finance team that we know of today will not exist in the future. Automation is inevitable and digital transformation is the future. Whilst there will be pain points in automating your processes, it’s important to embrace it, otherwise cost pressures will eventually force you to do it at a potentially higher cost in the future. Having the right people on the team with the right skill sets is essential, as is having the right solution in place to get the best results from the team. It’s critical to front-end change management and work closely with your solution provider to get the most out of your investment. BlackLine delivers ongoing support that lets Resimac continue to further its operational automation for greater efficiencies and even more detailed reporting.”
Gozzett said, “Price and flashiness isn’t the be-all-end-all of a good solution; ultimately, the ongoing support you receive is paramount to success. It’s important to do your due diligence and understand early on what ongoing service and support you will need to ensure your business remains agile enough to pivot to changing market demands. Humm Group’s journey is ongoing, and BlackLine continues to work closely with the team to ensure new team members are brought along as we continue to grow.”
Start Your Journey With BlackLine
At BlackLine, our goal is to empower modern finance and accounting professionals to do more strategic work, and we’re committed to helping organisations achieve this through increased efficiency and automation.
Learn how BlackLine customers Resimac and Humm Group leverage financial automation to achieve their transformation goals.
Digital transformation is an essential element in modern business success and has become more of a when—not an if—for today’s organisations. For financial institutions operating with vast amounts of data, investing in solutions that automate critical business processes and streamline data management to drive business success is a critical piece of the digital transformation puzzle.
At the recent CFO Magazine Sydney CFO Symposium 2023, we were joined by Resimac and Humm Group to discuss their respective digital transformation journeys with the support of BlackLine, including how they modernised traditional accounting processes to deliver powerful, measurable results. They also shared how they delivered change, implemented new processes, and confronted cultural challenges in their finance transformation journeys.
Resimac: Results Delivered From Beginning to End
As an ASX-listed, non-banking lender, Resimac supports more than 50,000 customers nationwide, including over 80 corporate entities.
As part of a wider, ‘once-in-25-years’ overhaul of its processes and supporting software solutions, Resimac turned to BlackLine to strategically automate its financial operations and free up resources to deliver efficient reporting and provide data-driven insights to internal stakeholders.
Santo Ahmed, group financial controller at Resimac, said, “Resimac was undergoing a period of growth that meant we needed to reassess our operations and identify opportunities to streamline processes and simplify our technology stack. Within our financial operations, we recognised that there was a major time sink in terms of how long it was taking the team to complete reconciliations and manually follow up with individuals across the business.”
Resimac’s strategic operational overhaul included restructuring its finance team, transitioning management of its daily operations to its offshore team, and empowering its internal finance business partners to oversee dedicated sectors with support from deeper insights.
Ahmed said, “Leveraging the BlackLine solution as part of the wider transformation lets the company realise a greater value add from its onshore finance team in Australia, whilst complemented by an efficient operations team offshore.
“Additionally, BlackLine lets Resimac achieve a greater level of transparency across its financial operations; it’s easy to see at a glance where any hold-ups are in the reconciliation process. Resimac auditors can also do self-service reconciliations, which ensures that Resimac no longer needs to wait until month-end. Reconciliations can operate seamlessly on a daily basis, and it only takes one click to remind users to complete reconciliations, which are now always completed on time and accurately.”
Humm Group: Starting the Digital Transformation Journey Strong
As a commercial funding business that provides credit cards and coverage for buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), Humm Group helps finance more than 2.7 million customers across Australia. To support its ongoing growth, Humm Group needed to upgrade its existing finance and accounting solution to a more modern platform that would position it more strongly to continue to drive the business forward.
Marc Gozzett, head of finance operations at Humm Group, said, “Humm Group had a process in place that supported stable business while the company wasn’t developing new solutions or growing as fast. As the company continued to expand, Humm Group needed a solution that would better match transactions and show any differences, driving greater efficiencies to identify and deal with gaps instead of relying on our team to manually find them.
“BlackLine will deliver a greater level of control and information management than Humm Group previously had access to. The solution gives the business a better grip on the balance sheet, reconciliations, and where control accounts are. This lets the finance team more clearly see where the business is on a daily basis and lets the company address any issues ahead of month-end.”
Taking the First Step in the Digital Transformation Journey
While every organisation’s digital transformation journey is different, Resimac and Humm Group have advice for businesses ready to take the first critical step.
Ahmed said, “The manual processes within a finance team that we know of today will not exist in the future. Automation is inevitable and digital transformation is the future. Whilst there will be pain points in automating your processes, it’s important to embrace it, otherwise cost pressures will eventually force you to do it at a potentially higher cost in the future. Having the right people on the team with the right skill sets is essential, as is having the right solution in place to get the best results from the team. It’s critical to front-end change management and work closely with your solution provider to get the most out of your investment. BlackLine delivers ongoing support that lets Resimac continue to further its operational automation for greater efficiencies and even more detailed reporting.”
Gozzett said, “Price and flashiness isn’t the be-all-end-all of a good solution; ultimately, the ongoing support you receive is paramount to success. It’s important to do your due diligence and understand early on what ongoing service and support you will need to ensure your business remains agile enough to pivot to changing market demands. Humm Group’s journey is ongoing, and BlackLine continues to work closely with the team to ensure new team members are brought along as we continue to grow.”
Start Your Journey With BlackLine
At BlackLine, our goal is to empower modern finance and accounting professionals to do more strategic work, and we’re committed to helping organisations achieve this through increased efficiency and automation.
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