Artificial Intelligence (AI) is progressing at a rapid rate and advancing systems are becoming more efficient at adapting to new scenarios and performing in ways that are similar to the human brain. With further technological advancements, there is great potential for AI to transform large businesses in the coming years. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools have had a significant impact on how businesses operate and perform today. Artificial Intelligence will potentially reshape the next wave of this software, enabling companies to not just collaborate on innovative software, but also to gain a deeper insight and share further information and knowledge.

This generational transition means digitally-focused individuals are becoming more dominant in the workplace. For these employees, support from AI will become a regular part of workplace activities, providing additional support and enabling people to learn new skills. The businesses that implement intelligent use of AI will likely have a greater chance of attracting and retaining employees for longer. Industry experts believe AI strategies will be an essential part of business competitiveness.

The concerns surrounding the rise of Artificial Intelligence

The common concerns related to how AI could eliminate jobs across multiple sectors, to issues about the potential threat of creating an uber-intelligent system and its impact on our planet. For every investor in artificial intelligence, it is critical to ensure we remain focused on using AI as a technology to support humans and not to replace them.

AI has the potential to empower people, to increase the sharing of skills and knowledge. Revealing the insights with AI from thousands of human brains could dramatically enhance intelligence levels. For business leaders, it is clear that AI has a positive impact on productivity and efficiency, increased workplace happiness and improved workforce retention.

The potential challenge for the future is ensuring businesses utilise AI in a positive manner. Aside from supporting human knowledge and skills, AI could be implemented to measure employee performance and identify employees underperforming. If businesses implement AI in this manner may eradicate trust within a business. When considering how AI can be used, businesses should carefully consider the impact new technology will have on trust and reputation.

The rise of data and innovative workplace software systems mean businesses have significantly higher access to information than ever before, however, a large proportion of data and information remains stored in our minds. Businesses and innovative solutions that are capable of revealing this information are likely to rise efficiency levels significantly. Moving forward, businesses will need products and services that let employees discover and share skills and knowledge and Artificial intelligence will be vital to unleashing business productivity for the future.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a common technique applied to the operations of many businesses today. Studies suggest that by next year, over 70% of all enterprises will operate nearly completely on SaaS. In short, SaaS is an applied approach offering software and charging customers to use these services on a subscription model. The systems generally include a number of benefits such as a simplistic platform, reduced costs, access to multiple functions and a remotely available tool.

As far back as the 1960s, SaaS services have continued to expand, leading to a number of leading businesses in the marketplace. One notable business is Slack, the cloud messaging platform. In fact, Slack offers more than just messaging, enabling users to send and store files, make video calls and generate work channels. The platform has become a very popular option for many startup companies, offering a very user-friendly, affordable and aesthetic system. Slack now has over 10 million users and this is forecast to continue rising into next year. Many industry experts believe that the success of Slack boils down to the product and a carefully created software service that people are genuinely looking for, and more importantly, willing to pay for.

Another highly-regarded platform is Shopify, a targeted e-commerce system enabling any user to create and manage their very own online store. Their popularity has grown significantly and has become the 3rd most popular site worldwide. Shopify has been particularly clever in its approach, providing a multi-channel approach, enabling high volume traffic and engagement for each customer.

One of the most established companies in the SaaS market is Google, offering in excess of 135 differing SaaS products including productivity systems like Google Docs to popular advertising tools like Google Adwords. Google is regarded for creativity and innovation and this represents an essential part of its mission. Innovation requires ensuring you are one step ahead of competitors in your industry, thinking of new concepts and products that have the ability to transform the customer experience.

As proven by Google and other leading businesses, success in SaaS boils down to creativity, innovation and delivering a service that people are willing to pay for. Creating a product that is user-friendly, simplistic and ultimately creates a clear benefit to the user is more likely to succeed in the marketplace.

OneStream Software, the market leader in corporate performance management solutions for mid to large businesses has been chosen as the Gartner Peer Insights Customers Choice for Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis Solutions. 

Tom Shea, the CEO of OneStream Software explains that the finance industry is experiencing an era of digital transformation and today is really focused on strategy and creating a quicker and efficient set of business decisions. Financial planning and analysis techniques that can be applied across business and aligned with other financial procedures are vital to support this transformative stage. Shea believes this latest award and recognition from Gartner supports their wider missions of generating 100% customer success and creating a scalable platform that can support a number of planning, reporting and analysis requirements. Shea is proud of the value Anaplan provides to customers as highlighted by the number of reviews gathers on the Gartner Peer Insights.

Aligning and simplifying vital financial processes, including financial consolidation, reporting, planning, forecasting and analysis on a singular platform means OneStream is supporting an increasing number of businesses in replacing conventional applications and allocating more time on strategic planning and analysis. The software is designed in a manner to support larger cloud or on-premise systems and can be expanded to meet other requirements via the OneStream XF MarketPlace, offering over 50 business and productivity solutions.

Peer Insights is a rating and review platform consisting of IT software and services managed by IT professionals and technology leaders. The aims to support technology professionals make insightful purchasing plans and help technology providers enhance their offerings through constructive reviews and feedback. Gartner Peer Insights includes over 200,000 verified reviews spanning 340 markets.

In recent reports, Anaplan displayed an increase in earnings through a significant rise in subscriptions.

Customers are expanding their use of the Anaplan platform, and the business is securing a number of larger record deals, highlighting the success of its connected planning technique. Recent financial results reached a level beyond expectations by Wall Street and market experts believe that Anaplan is likely to experience further growth moving into next year.

Anaplan explains that in today’s world, the pace of progress continues to accelerate and as a result, we are experiencing a significant shift in the way businesses plan and make decisions. The leading companies out there clearly understand that in order to stay ahead of their competitors, they must ensure they remain connected via one singular platform that enables simplistic data analysis and the ability to make informed decisions within a challenging marketplace. 

The platform footprint has expanded and Anaplan today provides services to 324 customers with recurring revenue exceeding $250,000 each year. This figure emphasises that Analplan is supporting considerable change within businesses by focusing on connected planning. The number of processes and analytics being implemented on the Anaplan platform is continuing to rise and Anaplan remains focused on ensuring customers have the best and most innovative technology available.

Businesses investing in innovative digital platforms is on the rise, transforming how companies operate today and for the future. Industry is shifting from a functional basis to a more process-focused approach and now further towards a digital platform basis. Digital platforms are altering businesses and data represents the core of these systems. 

Data is the key to business transformation

Companies are progressively becoming more data-focused and those that tackle and master the application of data are the ones generating the benefits. Five of the leading Fortune 500 businesses are platform companies and studies suggest that the worldwide data and analytics markets will reach $135 billion by 2025. It is also predicted that data management and analytics will form one of the most important services and a priority function for generating business success for the future.

How business management is changing

A process-applied approach focuses on the tangible results of business activity. In order to remain competitive, businesses need to consider the experience of their customers and the entire business chain. Digital platforms have enables companies to improve the entire experience, something that businesses need to consider to enhance their operations. Transforming from functional to process thinking was a significant process and today, the transition from process to the platform is another giant step. It is difficult to measure what time and investment companies will require to allocate to manage, secure and apply data in the most efficient manner.

The rise of innovation is encouraging increased automation and shifting the business’s approach towards the process. The increased availability of analytics represents a great opportunity for businesses to gather insights on both customers and their employees. For businesses moving to a platform focused perspective, the importance of data management becomes more challenging. The business must consider how to capture and clean data, how it develops and stores data to ensure it can be readily accessible.

The results of data services

Rather than arranging a business around general processes, companies are now focused on data capture, management and the application of data across the range of platforms they are developing. This creates a significant change in where companies invest their money. Data has risen in terms of its importance to business and continues to grow. As a result, the number of money businesses will spend on data management is likely to continue rising in the near future. Unfortunately investing in data management and analytics in order to deliver a quality and power service is expensive. 

Data has evolved into a critical part of business processes and companies are quickly trying to establish a strong understanding of data management and utilising the platform to its best ability. One of the challenges facing many companies in a clear shortage of available talent in data management and analytics. Many businesses are targeting investment in this market in an attempt to attract the best talent available and position themselves in a rising market for the future.

The significant rise of data has created a number of new opportunities and as a result, the role of finance professionals is expected to change. In order for the industry to be continually viewed as a value-added service, finance professionals must continue to change and maintain pace with changing technologies. Laura Timms, representative of MHR Analytics highlights a number of significant changes we are likely to see in the years to come.

Rise of business consultancy in finance
Finance professionals have conventionally had to rely on historical data to generate insights. This technique created certain limitations and lacked a clear insight into how our decisions would shape the future. Predictive analytics has enabled finance teams analysis to progress from a stage of asking ‘why did it happen’ to focusing on ‘what will happen next’? The availability of richer insights has allowed finance professionals to monitor customer information in real-time and progress further than just maintaining records to deliver in-depth data analysis. The role of finance professionals has progressed beyond the days of working on numbers in the background. The future of the finance role is likely to see more individuals using new systems and analytics to position themselves in a more strategic and stronger position within a business. The power of information will enable finance teams to measure and interpret anomalies and patterns within a business. This information can be communicated within internal management to enable important decisions to be made.

Remote Working
The rise of cloud computing has significantly transformed opportunities for finance professionals. Traditionally fixed to the office space, the cloud has enabled more flexible working and remote work opportunities, creating a number of benefits for employees and further cost savings for businesses. Further security within cloud systems will allow finance teams to measure and share insights from any location without having concerns about handling sensitive information outside of core office locations. In the not so distant future, finance teams will be capable of sharing and analysing information with their colleagues simply by clicking a button and generating a real-time portrayal of business activities to multiple locations.

Implementing Non-Financial Data
For years, financial data has been the core focus of finance activities. This represented the data where patterns were identified, reports were generated and general observations were made. In reality, financial data only represents one part of a business. As data availability continues to rise, there will continue to be other sources of information capable of using to expand on financial data. For example, customer data on behaviour patterns can be used to identify fraud and suspicious activities. Finance professionals can use other data sources such as employee performance data to assess the ROI that each individual can provide for a business.

Implementing this type of data into the general assessment of business supports revenue generation and provides greater value for financial information. Studies have proven that finance teams that use non-financial data sources with their standard financial data are able to create forecasts with accuracy levels exceeding 90%.

High standard of service
The continued rise of data analytics is enabling an augmented work environment, enabling simpler tasks to be completed by machines rather than people. Augmented analytics will enable many administrative duties that have traditionally been part of a financial position to be replaced and swapped for other important duties, creating a more efficient way of working. This will enable finance professionals to work closely with data, generate leads and insights for their business. Data will leverage the skills of finance teams, allowing them to focus on creating a high-value service. Overall, data analytics will enhance industry performance, with both businesses and clients recognising the influence these roles can have on business profits.

Developing data-focused positions
Augmenting traditional positions will lead to the creation of data-focused alternatives to conventional bookkeeping and accounting jobs. As data becomes more important and embedded in finance, businesses will become even more reliant on financial insights to improve their strategy and the relationship between finance and data will become even more clear.

In the future, most finance professionals are likely to require to have some understanding of data analytics. Before this transition occurs, we will likely experience a rise in data science roles, created out of demand for data specialists in the business. Finance professionals that are training to become more skilled in data analytics are likely to be the type of talent in demand over the next few years.