The Connect Effect: Transforming Employee Experience

Learn how the connect effect can help transform employee experience and business outcomes.

Monica Boydston of insightsoftware explains “the connect effect” and its impact on transforming employee experience and driving better business outcomes. Learn how connected data, capabilities, applications, and global teams can lead to success.

The value data can hold has been well understood for years, yet many company leaders still need help to wrangle their data beneficially. This is especially prevalent among finance departments. More specifically, data silos remain one of the biggest barriers to innovation. Hybrid work environments paired with an influx of data and segmented solutions have spread data throughout companies without a common link between them. This makes it almost impossible for companies to improve collaboration and extract valuable insight from the data they already have access to.

Now more than ever, CFOs must focus on improving the agility and resilience of their teams to ensure continued growth. This means understanding how to connect systems and streamline a company’s data for better decision-making, improving business outcomes, processes, and team productivity.

The Cause and Effect of Disjointed Reporting

Recent research found that more than two-thirds of IT and finance professionals waste an entire day each week on operational reporting. This continued ineffective and disjointed reporting results from siloed data that can prevent real-time collaboration and impactful conclusions.

For example, too often, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is not connected to planning and budgeting applications, causing many employees to need routine help with reporting and analysis. Off-the-shelf reporting in most ERP systems is either difficult to use, limited in functionality, or both. Add to these the ad hoc information systems built around complex spreadsheets that finance teams are also required to use, and we can understand how quickly companies develop a collection of applications and data sources that cannot communicate with each other.

This user experience can also become increasingly frustrating to employees, and reporting can burden finance teams. Further, as the demand for accurate reports and financial predictions increases amid a volatile economy, companies risk employee burnout and turnover. These silos make providing this ongoing analysis vastly more difficult for employees. Among a skills shortage in the finance industry, CFOs are draining resources at a time when they need to do more with less.

Even more complicated for many of today’s companies within a post-pandemic world is the growth in remote work, resulting in employees operating in multiple countries and time zones. While remote hiring may help address the skills shortage, collaboration becomes more difficult if such applications and data remain disconnected.

See More: Data Analytics and Reporting Drive Insightful Decisions

Understanding The Connect Effect

Leaders need to respond to disjointed reporting and its ongoing effects on employees as well as the growth of the company by streamlining applications and adopting automation techniques. Connecting applications to enable employees to solve multiple business problems faster and automate tedious tasks is one solution known as The Connect Effect. This approach unites companywide data to provide a clear view of all business areas, including finance, HR, logistics, IT, product management, and more.

the connect effect is structured around four key concepts:

• Connected data: Organizations must become pros at connecting users to their data. By pulling data at a more granular level from more ERP systems, organizations can help CFOs run a world-class operation.
• Connected capabilities: Sixty-six percent of finance teams feel too reliant on IT. With such capabilities, employees should no longer need to request a custom design or report modification from the IT department – in fact, one-quarter of finance teams still find manual and time-consuming processes a key challenge, which can be addressed through automation. Utilizing automation to assist with report development gives IT more time to focus on tasks and empowers employees to pull their reports.
• Connected applications: Solutions need to be interconnected, and employees should be able to work from the same unified tool set. Productivity is challenged when users switch between multiple applications to find information or complete tasks. When applications are streamlined, everyone works with a common toolset and a single source of truth.
• Connected global teams: COVID-19 quickly ushered in a new way of working, and by the end of 2023, Gartner forecasts that 39% of global knowledge workers will operate in a hybrid setting. When organizations can offer connected data, capabilities, and applications, a collaborative work environment can be achieved, improving productivity and communication while ensuring clear accountability no matter where employees decide to work. Organizations that leverage this connected approach will see marked improvements in customer, partner, and employee experiences. You can achieve greatness when you’re well-connected to the right software, technology, and people.

See More: How to Communicate and Collaborate Seamlessly

Benefits of The Connect Effect

Finance teams have already seen improvements when their organizations have implemented connected tools across all corners of financial planning, including tax and transfer, close and consolidation, financial reporting, operational reporting, and more. For example, by connecting real-time ERP software to Microsoft Excel, finance teams can create reports or perform analysis immediately without decreasing productivity. That’s the power of the connect effect.

As mentioned, market uncertainty is increasing the demand for more frequent and accurate forecasts and reporting. Taking a connected approach can allow finance teams to draw on quick insights and collaborate with all stakeholders and areas of the organization to draw accurate conclusions. This means finance teams can achieve maximum efficiency by utilizing available resources instead of relying on tools from separate sources that create more disconnect and, ultimately, offer outdated data.

The connect effect can also assist in minimizing skills gaps within the finance industry. Because financial technology is continuously changing and improving, finance professionals require strong technical abilities to keep up with the most recent innovations. Automated processes allow more time for learning and development of new skills and, therefore, decrease employee burnout from tedious tasks.

Organizations can no longer afford to keep tools and employees divided and, instead, need to look to integrate technology that will allow for better outcomes while minimizing team disruption and bandwidth. Doing more with less is key to scaling effectively, and the connect effect is an ideal strategy to guide companies in the right direction. Connected reporting is more than just connected data; it connects employees to allow for continued organizational growth.

Have you considered improving collaboration, automating processes, and achieving organizational growth through the connect effect? Let us know on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!