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T ’ S NOT EASY keeping up

Rapid regulatory changes bring a whole slew of challenges : an increase in costs per control , additional processes to organise , data to find and an overall lack of bandwidth and skilled labour . Those difficulties don ’ t just keep finance and accounting teams from performing at their best – they also cost the organisation financially .

That would be a worry at the best of times , but with skilled talent particularly hard to come by at present , finance teams are being forced to manage more regulatory demands with fewer resources . And to top it off , if your business is in the SME bracket , chances are you ’ re feeling this cocktail of pressures more acutely than larger corporations with bigger , better-equipped finance teams .

CFOs and their teams have a huge amount to keep up with , and it ’ s not just in the dayto-day that these pressures take their toll . Many SMEs working on growth will either undertake or be subject to mergers and acquisitions . If your compliance initiatives are struggling to keep up with regulations , any due diligence processes will be much more complicated , potentially resulting in major costs – or failed deals .

So what ’ s to be done – should you focus on improving your internal processes ? Hire external consultants ? Improve the programmes you use for your work ?

Give the repetitive jobs to the machines

To an extent , all of these approaches have merit in their place . But at the end of the day , dynamic regulatory landscapes need dynamic compliance solutions . If you ’ re looking to overcome the compliance burden , automation has to be at the centre of your strategy . Particularly with the skills shortage looking set to last , automation is a crucial tool to improve transparency and efficiency , ultimately contributing to cost reductions .

IF YOU ’ RE LOOKING TO OVERCOME THE COMPLIANCE BURDEN , AUTOMATION HAS TO BE AT THE CENTRE OF YOUR STRATEGY .

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