The Power of Connected Products
Although most organizations are using software to automate labor-intensive processes, many companies are still operating with disjointed systems. Their ERP is not connected to planning and budgeting, and many routinely struggle with reporting and analytics. Off-the-shelf reporting in most ERP systems is either difficult to use, functionally limited, or both.
Now add a few subsidiary companies running different ERP systems, or a CRM system that houses the data from your sales pipeline. Sprinkle in a few ad hoc information systems built around complex spreadsheets, and an image starts to emerge of a fractured collection of applications and data sources that simply cannot communicate with one another.
This gets even more complicated for many of today’s high-growth companies, which operate in multiple countries and time zones. Collaboration is a key ingredient for successful global companies, but the disjointed nature of business applications makes it difficult to collaborate efficiently and effectively. Remote teams, or even individual remote workers, make it more challenging to communicate clearly and accurately without significant delays.
At insightsoftware, we solve the problem of disjointed, siloed information and offer our customers a competitive edge. We call it our Connect Effect.
What Is The Connect Effect?
Insightsoftware’s Connect Effect manifests on multiple levels. In essence, our tools and experience are the missing links you need to bring your data, applications and people together. It’s about bringing new capabilities and efficiencies that make everyone in your organization more productive.
Most finance teams today are the “owners” of the corporate ERP system which serves as the transactional nervous system of the organization. Global companies may even use multiple ERP systems, each with a unique data structure, chart of accounts, accounting periods, and functional requirements. Bringing that information together in a coherent way can be a challenge, especially if you’re still relying on the built-in reporting tools that come with the ERP software.
Connected reporting unites the data from ERP, CRM, and other data sources, allowing users to access a single source of truth in real time. Gain a seamless, holistic view of your business and see our Connect Effect in action.
Global Collaboration
insightsoftware’s Connect Effect isn’t just about reporting, though. Connected applications bring global teams together with real-time collaboration across time zones and around the world.
For distributed organizations, processes like planning and budgeting can be especially challenging. Communication often breaks down, bogging down the process and often impacting accuracy.
Most organizations resort to using manual spreadsheets for planning and budgeting. They email multiple versions of a file back and forth, often struggling to keep track of who changed what, and when. All too often it happens that one user’s changes supersede another’s, leading to gaps in the chain of communication and errors in the resulting plans.
The larger your global team grows, the more difficult it becomes to manage all the input from all the participants.
Connecting Budgets With Actuals
As the fiscal year progresses, the finance team is responsible for producing budget vs. actual comparisons, as well as some detailed analysis for key figures in the financial statements. As C-suite executives digest the results, they frequently ask questions that call for even further analysis by the finance team.
There’s typically a disconnect between the various data sources that feed into these reports. Without an integrated toolset, finance teams are compelled to export data from multiple systems, consolidate them in spreadsheets, and add formulas and formats to suit their intended purposes. This is cumbersome, time-consuming, and highly prone to errors.
With a fully integrated, end-to-end suite of technology tools, data flows seamlessly across all financial functions. Reporting, budgeting, and planning are all connected to ERP data. Changes in the source ERP system are automatically reflected everywhere else, without the need to export, import, copy, or paste. Tedious manual effort is eliminated. Opportunities for error are removed from the process.
The result is a unified, trustworthy, holistic view of all the data that matters. Team members around the globe can collaborate using a single source of truth, a common platform accessible to any user, wherever they may be located.
Unite data across your business to give departments like HR, logistics, IT, and product management a clear view of your organization’s health and they’ll quickly understand how our Connect Effect can increase their productivity.
Bringing The Connect Effect to Your Business
Our Connect Effect is built around four key concepts delivered by insightsoftware – connected data, connected capabilities, connected applications, and connected teams:
Connected Data
You’ll feel the Connect Effect when you’re working from a single source of truth, built around integrated data. At insightsoftware, we have applied our deep ERP expertise to integrate with over 150 different ERP systems. Give everyone in your organization access to real-time information about what is happening in the business. Real-time connectivity eliminates the need to manually export data, then format it and manipulate it within a spreadsheet. With connected data, the right information is simply available to you when you need it.
Connected Capabilities
While you want connected teams, they should also be able to operate efficiently in isolation. Codependencies create bottlenecks and slow down your corporate machine. For example, at many companies, users don’t know how to access data easily and promptly. At insightsoftware, we connect capabilities to create new opportunities for users. By connecting real-time ERP data to Microsoft Excel, for example, we make it possible for virtually anyone to create reports or self serve ad hoc analysis. Users no longer need to request help from the IT department. They can connect the dots themselves, which makes everyone in your organization more productive.
Connected Applications
Our suite of insightsoftware solutions are modular and interconnected. That provides powerful collaboration capabilities throughout your organization, increasing the speed of information and workflows. Your team will feel insightsoftware’s Connect Effect when everyone is working with a common toolset and a single source of truth.
Connected Global Teams
Around the world and across multiple industries, insightsoftware connects global teams, offering enhanced productivity, better communication, and clear accountability. Whether it’s FP&A, reporting and analytics, or tax planning and transfer pricing; we understand the importance of clear communication, security, and auditability.
Bring the Connect Effect to Your Organization
Today, everything is connected. The biggest challenge for growing organizations is keeping your workforce connected. The technology and partners you invest in should bring your people and data together, not drive them further apart through inefficiencies. Start increasing data accuracy and streamlining workflows today to feel the power of our Connect Effect in your organization.
Learn how you can enjoy insightsoftware’s Connect Effect in your organization, download our free guide, Supercharge Your Finance Team with The Connect Effect.
The Power of The Connect Effect
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