Navigating the Digital Financial Transformation Journey | Stacy Brown

[00:00:00] Melissa Howatson: Welcome to The CFO Show. I'm your host, Melissa Howatson, CFO of Vena. Recent advances in artificial intelligence and other technologies offer tremendous benefits to the Office of Finance. Allowing us to synthesize vast amounts of data and gain better insights. It's no wonder that 92 percent of CFOs are planning to make a finance technology investment in the upcoming year.

Joining us today to talk about how to nail the finance technology stack is Stacy Brown. Stacy is a VP at Marcum Technology, and she has over 15 years advising clients on how to implement finance technologies. Stacey, thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks for having me. So, Stacey, before I get into my questions, let's talk a little bit about you.

Can you tell the audience a bit about your experience and about Markham [00:01:00] technology? My career has been

[00:01:01] Stacy Brown: different than a lot of folks, um, in my industry. I actually started off as a consultant, and for the first decade of my career, I implemented ERP systems. And then the second half decade, I've been implementing FPNA software.

So, my entire career has really been focused on the Department of Finance and creating efficiencies by leveraging software. Marcum Technology is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marcom, LLP, a top 20 national accounting firm in the United States.

[00:01:31] Melissa Howatson: Excellent. So, is this something that you always knew you wanted to do, or what was it that got you passionate?

One about implementing technology, and secondly, in the Office of Finance.

[00:01:41] Stacy Brown: So, I graduated with a degree in accounting, decided I didn't want to take the normal path of becoming an auditor. And so I landed a job consulting. My first boss told me if I knew accounting, they could teach me the IT side of it, but it was harder for them to teach a person the accounting side of it.

[00:02:00] And so I have a desire to help people. I always tell people when I'm talking to clients, you know, I find joy in my day by giving you time back in yours. And so it was just a natural progression, and I really enjoy…every day is different in my job role. And so, I really enjoy all the different aspects and seeing how people do things slightly different, even if they're in the same industry.

[00:02:24] Melissa Howatson: So, let's talk a bit about finance technologies and finance’s role in this. Why do you think it is, or should it be, that finance takes a more vocal position when it comes to deciding on the finance tech stack?

[00:02:42] Stacy Brown: I think back in the day, it was more IT-focused, right? Server-based. They had to meet specific requirements. It had to meet with our specific tech stack. When we transitioned to a cloud environment, I think it gave the Department of Finance a little bit more flexibility. It gave them the ability to step away from the IT department and the support of IT for everyday activities, and really focus on what they need, um, in the applications to make them successful and make their lives easier.

[00:03:15] Melissa Howatson: And have you seen any changes in the last, let's say, three years when it comes to how finance teams are thinking about their technologies?

[00:03:23] Stacy Brown: Absolutely. So, I would say in the last three, four, five years, you know, prior to that five-year mark, FP& A specifically, software was a nice-to-have, right? Everybody just used Excel.

They got by, you know, we don't have money for that, right? Because the Department of Finance is not always not only just looking at the numbers, but we're looking at the return on investment. And so sometimes the CFO in the past would look at the tech stack and say, well, I have all these other strategies that I'm trying to implement.

[00:04:00] I need to focus our money on those strategies. Where in today's age, I think the last five years, we've had to forecast because and reforecast because of the economy. And so, they've had to take a step back and say, “Okay, what do my analysts need to be able to get me those results more quickly? And so today, I feel like for the Department of Finance, FP&A has become a requirement in that position.

[00:04:24] Melissa Howatson: When someone is thinking about their digital transformation, that can sound really daunting depending on what prior experience you have, how big your team is. And so, do you have any tips for where to get started and maybe how to make it seem a little less scary?

[00:04:43] Stacy Brown: Yeah, I think we just need to first take an assessment of what we do have, right?

Um, A lot of organizations have modern ERP systems. And if they don't, that's where they should probably focus first because that's where our actual data is being stored. Right? Look at your requirements, look at your team and what expertise that they have within your team, and find efficiencies there first.

Then I would look into, you know, once I go from ERP, I would look at close management and FP&A and how I can improve those two tasks, right? I read an article a couple months ago that said FP&A analysts spend 80 percent of their time aggregating data and only 20 percent analyzing the data. And if you implement a software that works with your organization and your organization's needs, you can flip that statistic, right?

So now your analysts are spending 80 percent of their time analyzing the data and being that business partner and that advisor, not just somebody with the numbers, which, you know, back in the day, I felt like that's what the department of accounting and finance has seen us. They're just the numbers guys, right? And that evolution to what we need today has changed drastically.

[00:06:06] Melissa Howatson: And that's the fun stuff, right? Like if we can flip that around, think of how much more people get out of their careers and how they're spending their time and the value you can drive in your business. It's exactly so exciting.

[00:06:18] Stacy Brown: Exactly. And you think about, you know, a lot of times without an FP&A solution, like then, we go into a meeting, and somebody asks a question, and we don't have a report that pinpoints that number, right? And so, we always leave, and we'll say, we'll get back to you in a week. We've got to take time to get that data.

Well, with an FP&A solution like Vena, we can pull it right up and say, “Hey, this is the number you're asking for.” Just think about the time you're saving people, um, in that aspect. And I think in the last four years, there's been this transition where people, you know, they're getting burnt out. And so being, thinking about how much time somebody's spending to do one activity that could be asked once and versus reoccurring activities really needs to be analyzed to make everybody's lives easier.

[00:07:13] Melissa Howatson: As part of this mapping it out and getting started, how important is it to take stock of the whole tech stack and how far out should you have a plan, or how can you maybe chunk it out a little differently?

[00:07:27] Stacy Brown: Yeah, we talked to prospects a lot, that, you know, especially at the very beginning of their journey, maybe they're moving off of QuickBooks desktop into a modern ERP system.

If you're looking at several different software, it can overwhelm somebody, but you should look at the software that is on the market and look at what it can accomplish for you because maybe you don't need as many software in this tech stack that you think you do, right? So, for example, you have your ERP system. You don't need a separate tool for close management and a separate tool for FP&A, and a separate tool for operational planning. We could use Vena for all of that right. And so that minimizes the tech stack and the cost around your tech stack. And I always tell clients when they're implementing a tool, don't boil the ocean, right?

That overwhelms everybody. You have to take little steps at a time really to do two things. One to make it a successful implementation. But two, just to increase user adoptions. In my experience, software implementations always live and die by user's adoption of the application.

[00:08:37] Melissa Howatson: It really is dependent on the company, and it's important to know where you are on that journey.

[00:08:43] Stacy Brown: Right. So, I really think that there's five steps to the digital transformation journey. Um, one is really analyzing where you're at, which we just spoke about. Um, but you need a modern ERP system for accounting. You need a closed management tool to help, um, not only manage the tasks associated to it, but make the account reconciliations and the transaction matching easier.

You need an FP&A tool that can easily and quickly give you forecasting and budgeting and reporting that is flexible, right? A lot of ERP systems do not have great reporting capabilities that FP&A tools do have. Then you have BI, which is that graphical representation of your data. People outside of the Department of Finance can easily congest that data a little bit easier than looking at numbers a lot of times. And then lastly, RPA, which stands for Robotic Process Automation. And that's really just automating your everyday activities that maybe don't need human interaction.

[00:09:48] Melissa Howatson: And is that the order you tend to think of them in? Or is it more important to understand which component you're working on?

[00:09:54] Stacy Brown: Yeah, I think you need to step back and analyze where your struggles are as an organization, and what your requirements are for an organization to determine what step you need to take.

I do always tell clients, they need to start with a modern ERP. If you're on a modern ERP, then the rest of the steps you can kind of take in the order that best fits your, your needs.

[00:10:17] Melissa Howatson: Now, let's stop and talk about challenges in this journey that companies encounter. My own experience is I've often seen scope creep on an implementation, or not necessarily having the right skill set, so it takes a bit longer or there's a lot more training on the job.

Where do you see the common pitfalls that people have? Can really slow down the implementation or the digital transformation journey.

[00:10:45] Stacy Brown: Yeah, so when we talk about scope creep, what I see a lot is during the conversation when we're talking about why you're implementing a tool, we don't understand all the use cases that you want to use the tool for.

And so, when you get into it, it keeps… Once you learn what the tool can do, you seem to add more things in, right? And that creates that scope creep. One of the biggest challenges that I've seen today is people understanding their data. We as humans can only understand a finite amount of information, but we have a lot of data points that we're capturing, and organizations are capturing.

And if somebody doesn't understand how all that data flows and works together, that can make an implementation of a software, harder in my experience. So, you definitely need somebody on your team that knows your data. And I would say time, timelines. I think I talk to a lot of people who have this expectation that it is a flip of the switch.

And unfortunately, every organization is run slightly different. Their data points are slightly different. And so, there is configuration with any software that you implement, right? And so understanding your team's availability, understanding what the tool is going to need from an implementation standpoint, and then creating your time part.

[00:12:13] Melissa Howatson: And on the topic of time, because that is the one thing that we control our time, but it's so scarce. And so, what have you seen companies do to help their teams find the appropriate time to be able to move forward with these journeys?

[00:12:29] Stacy Brown: So, I've seen a couple things. So, for organizations that may have a little bit of extra money that they can spend, which is, you know, few and far between, I've seen them hire temp staff to take over day-to-day tasks so that their staff members can focus on implementation.

I've seen them expand the timeline. So, when we talk about their availability, you know, I have a client that I'm working with today. Two weeks out of every month they're out of pocket because they're focused on the closed process. Right? And so just understanding that availability. And so, for her implementation, it's further out because we only focus on it two weeks out of every month.

Right? And then I would say lastly, is just looking at your staff and maybe reorganizing whose responsibilities are what. Right? So really having some key focuses. I think one more tidbit I love to add is I feel like in today's world, everybody wants to be invited to every meeting.

[00:13:34] Melissa Howatson: We love our meetings.

[00:13:35] Stacy Brown: We love our meetings these days. But not everyone needs to be in every meeting. So, for example, if we're implementing FP&A and we're focusing on operational planning, I don't need the person who's in charge of department expenses to be in that conversation. I don't need the person who's responsible for HR planning in that conversation, right? And so being able to really identify who needs to be in the meeting to make progress, um, is, It's beneficial to timeline as well.

[00:14:08] Melissa Howatson: And what advice would you give to companies about how to go about identifying the most important opportunities? Because you've often got a team who are using these tools every day and you just start to get used to what you know and what you're doing.

[00:14:22] Stacy Brown: I see it every day, every day. Really, we talk about… I always tell clients at the very beginning of our implementations, I want you to tell me more about your business than you think I should know, because I can… I'm an outsider looking in. And as a consultant, I can identify places that we can create efficiencies that maybe you're not thinking about in those cases.

But I tell clients what they should focus on are the things that take them the most time, right? If something is taking you a week to do, a couple of days to do, those are things we need to create efficiencies for and decrease the amount of time that it takes for them.

[00:15:02] Melissa Howatson: And what do you think are some of the key updated features and functionality that we need to be looking for in a modern finance tech stack.

[00:15:12] Stacy Brown: Flexibility is key. I feel like organizations change rapidly, and their needs change. The amount of data that they're consuming changes to something that's flexible and can grow with you. Right. You don't want an application where you set it up, and that's all you can do. That's the only change you can make.

Um, and I've seen tools out there that do that. Um, I think we need to focus on our teams more, not on data entry, but understanding how the software works needs to be as focused as well. You need a couple of people on your team that are strong in software in the Department of Finance. I find People are successful with their finance tech stack when they have those two strong people in their organization that are managing it.

[00:16:03] Melissa Howatson: And I think along with that, when you mentioned that, it's making me think of, you also can't have it just be one person. Right. You need some backup, so that they can come up with different ideas, but also make sure that you're not so vulnerable that nobody else knows this tool, right?

[00:16:19] Stacy Brown: Right. I always tell clients you have to have at least two admin on any software stack. You have to have the primary, and then that person ultimately is going to take a vacation at some point, right? And typically they're out of office in the most inconvenient time, like in preparation for the board or right. And so, you need to have that second admin there that really understands the systems and can help make any changes that are necessary in those times of critical crunch, you know, crunch times, right? Like time is of the essence. So…

[00:16:52] Melissa Howatson: And you always, even if you plan those vacations around what you think will be okay, something is inevitably going to come up, right?

[00:16:58] Stacy Brown: Yeah , exactly.

[00:16:59] Melissa Howatson: [00:17:00] Now, what do you advise to your clients that they should look for when looking at vendors and selecting technologies?

[00:17:08] Stacy Brown: One, I always say, look at what you're comfortable with today, right? Like what is your team's abilities today, and will the software really lend to those abilities? We talk about what level of flexibility that they need, right? So, somebody who is a startup may need something that's super flexible because every week's different.

But potentially a nonprofit may not need that level of flexibility because there's not much change in their business, right? They manage grants and their grant timing might change, but there's not really a big change in their business themselves. So, you talk about that. And then we really focus on if you're implementing something like close management software, Power BI.

If you're focusing on FP&A, what integrates well with your ERP system, right? You want these systems working together, not against each other, and we don't need to reinvent the wheel. So that's another thing that I tell clients to take into consideration.

[00:18:22] Melissa Howatson: When you have clients that are looking at new technologies, what advice do you give them when they're selecting a vendor? What should they be looking for in that vendor?

[00:18:31] Stacy Brown: You know, AI is a huge thing today. So, transparency on AI and the software stack’s roadmap to AI and using it. The second thing would be really, what are your reporting requirements? What are your policies for independence? What are the needs of your organization to meet not only governmental requirements, but internal requirements as well?

I would talk through what systems, how systems interact. So, if you have your modern ERP system, what systems really create efficiencies and interacting your data points. And what I mean by is if a software has a NetSuite connector or an Intact connector, you want to probably stack that higher than somebody who doesn't have those connectors because they've already built in that efficiency for you. You're not having to reinvent the wheel. So, I would, that'd be a key piece.

And then I would look at what are the requirements that you have for the tool. And I think that can vary by industry, right? Someone who is a SaaS company are going to be super flexible. They're going to need to be able to change day to day.

Somebody that is more mature, um, in their lifecycle, probably have a standard process that doesn't change very often. And so they can look at something that maybe is more, a little bit more rigid in that case, but really identifying what those needs are.

And then lastly, looking at your current team and understanding what their capabilities are, right? A lot of applications, you know, build on Excel, like Vena does. And so, your finance team should be able to quickly pick those things up because they already are comfortable within the Excel application.

[00:20:17] Melissa Howatson: Let's look ahead. When you think about the next stage after digital transformation, let's call it beyond digital transformation. What does that look like?

[00:20:27] Stacy Brown: So, I've talked to many organizations that, you know, they're, they're pretty much at the end of their digital transformation journey or onset of their journey. I think it is a journey for a reason. There is no start and end. But really looking at automation.

I run into a lot of people these days that they want to automate everything. Let's just automate it. And then I'm asking, well, how often do you do it? Um, because if it's a task that we're doing once a month, once a quarter, once a year, and it only takes a few minutes to do it, is it worth, again, going back to that return on investment, is it worth automating that information?

Let's look at the things that are taking the longest for your team. Let's automate those activities. And let's automate the things that don't need any human interaction.

[00:21:14] Melissa Howatson: Good advice. Now, where have you seen clients make the most gains in their digital investment strategy?

[00:21:21] Stacy Brown: Ooh, good question. I think they've made the most gains in FP&A, specifically, because it's transformative. They're going from something that is very manual and process, pulling data from their accounting system, pulling data from their operational system, and then aggregating that data. So, we go back to the comment I made earlier about it being 80 percent aggregating the data, 20 percent analysis. When you implement an FP&A tool, you're flipping that statistic, and you're creating so many efficiencies for everyone. And what I've seen is within finance departments, it takes'em a little time to get comfortable with that efficiency, but once we're there, the return on investment is drastic. You know, they're automating. They're board decks. They're automating reports. They're distributing reports.

They're allowing department managers to really own their financial statements, which is a big thing for a lot of organizations that I work with, is really giving the department managers the information that they need as well.

[00:22:28] Melissa Howatson: Now, one last question. How do you think artificial intelligence and generative AI are going to change the Office of Finance?

[00:22:39] Stacy Brown: I've seen so much on all the roadmaps, right? I've seen things from, you know, helping with commentary, identifying trends. You know, we already have AI and FP&A tools today that help you predict out into the future using AI. So, I don't think it's going… You know, some people always fear that AI is going to replace a human. I think it's going to be more beneficial in giving you more analysis and maybe identifying trends. It's a way for you to get the most out of your experience in the data that you as a human can't see.

[00:23:14] Melissa Howatson: Such great advice, and it's clear you have so much expertise in this area. Really appreciate the chance to get to sit down with you here at Excelerate in person. Thank you so much for your time.

Now, whenever we have a guest on the show, we do have to rapid-fire questions, so I'm going to ask you those if that's all right.

[00:23:31] Stacy Brown: All right.

[00:23:32] Melissa Howatson: Okay. First one. What is the best piece of business or leadership advice that you've ever received in your career?

[00:23:38] Stacy Brown: The one piece of advice I got early on in my career that I'll never forget is that to be successful in business, you need to be able to connect to people.

And the easiest way to connect to people is to find something that you can relate to. And so, I was told when you're in person, you go into somebody's office, they always have at least one personal item in their office, relate to that item. Now that we're remote, that can be a little bit more difficult.

Yes. But what I'm finding is people that are also remote also have personal items in their backgrounds. And so always trying to relate to the person themselves. Because they are, we are all here to do work in the Department of Finance, but we're all human beings, and so it's great to meet somebody outside of just this is the number I'm looking for or how do I build this report, right?

[00:24:32] Melissa Howatson: Such good advice, especially in finance, where we can sometimes forget that because we just want to get some things done and we're, you know, we're results-oriented, but it is so important to connect for sure.

Second question. What is something that you do in your personal life that helps you show up as your best self in your professional life?

[00:24:50] Stacy Brown: I think it's really just finding what I find joy in and making sure that I make time for it. Not only am I helping lead a team here at Marcum, but I'm a wife. I'm a mother. And so, I've picked up tennis. I, you know, I find things that I'm interested in that bring me joy and make sure that I make time for them throughout the week, and when I do that, I'm more focused at work. So…

[00:25:16] Melissa Howatson: Such good advice. You need that balance. It's so key.

[00:25:18] Stacy Brown: You need the balance.

[00:25:20] Melissa Howatson: Stacey. Thanks again so much. Really appreciate this chance to chat with you today.

[00:25:24] Stacy Brown: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

[00:25:26] Melissa Howatson: If you'd like to learn more about today's show, please see the links in the show notes, and we would love to hear from you, our audience, please tell us what you like and what you'd want to hear more of.

And don't forget to leave us a review on any of the streaming platforms. Subscribe wherever you listen to or watch your podcasts because you don't want to miss an episode. For The CFO Show, I'm your host, Melissa Howatson. Until next time.