Finance and human resource leaders shape digital disruption

Vantage point: Insights from cutting-edge research

A shared finance and HR cloud system is a critical component of successful cloud transformation initiatives, says a global survey of 700 executives and finance, HR, and IT managers conducted by Oracle and the MIT Technology Review. The study, “Finance and HR: The Cloud’s New Power Partnership”, outlines how a holistic view into finance and HR information, delivered via cloud technology, empowers organisations to better manage continuous change.

Among the benefits of integrating enterprise resource planning (ERP) and human capital management (HCM) systems is easier tracking and forecasting of employee costs for budgeting purposes. Additionally, integrated HCM and ERP cloud systems improve collaboration between departments, with 37 per cent of respondents noting that they use the cloud to improve the way data is shared. The report also reveals the human factors behind a successful cloud implementation, with employees’ ability to adapt to change standing out as critical. Among organisations that have fully deployed the cloud, 46 per cent say they have seen their ability to reshape or resize the organisation improve significantly — as do 47 per cent of C-level respondents. Thirty-one per cent say they spend less time doing manual work within their department as a result of moving to the cloud.

Customer retention dominate priorities of Asian companies

Seventy per cent respondents to a survey by customer relationship management vendor Salesforce said customer retention is their key priority for the next 12 to 24 months with 53 per cent likely to adopt innovation to achieve the goal. Also, Asia (77 per cent) is being viewed as the region to lead innovation globally in the next five years, the research report titled “Innovation: All Eyes on Asia”, based on responses from key business and IT decision makers across eight countries including India added. Japan, Korea and China are the top three Asian countries seen to be driving the trajectory. In Asia, innovation is seen as the process of creating new and novel solutions to fulfil unmet customer needs. 

Companies in India (93 per cent), Singapore (88 per cent), the Philippines (88 per cent) and Malaysia (82 per cent) are most likely to invest in technology to boost customer retention. Technology is viewed as a valuable tool in accelerating productivity (62 per cent) and providing better customer support (38 per cent). “This research shines a spotlight on the innovation landscape in Asia and reaffirms our vision for customer-centricity. The mobile-first culture of immediacy has its roots here in Asia and shapes the new business imperative for Asian companies,” said Robert Wickham, regional vice-president, innovation and digital transformation, APAC, Salesforce.

Chinese players pursue $3.4-trillion digital payments opportunity

A new study from Juniper Research highlights the increasing dominance of Chinese companies in digital payments, with players such as Alibaba, Tencent and UnionPay seeking to bolster their revenues through international expansion. According to the research, “Strategies for Payment Providers: Opportunities, Risks & Competition 2017-2021”, digital payment transaction values are expected to reach $5 trillion by 2021, up from $3.6 trillion this year, of which $3.4 trillion will come from sales outside mainland China.

The report, which identified a series of key strategic approaches for players across the digital payments market, argues that both Alibaba and Tencent are keen to capitalise on the growing spend by both Chinese tourists and immigrant workers, now worth over $200 billion per annum. Potential game-changing decisions are Alipay’s move to roll out in-store payments in Europe and Tencent’s efforts to deploy its WeChat wallet, which processed more than $1.2 trillion in domestic payments in 2016, across international markets.