Trends 2010: Financial Processes And Applications

Macroeconomic forces and ongoing regulatory changes will have significant impacts on how the office of the CFO carries out its mission-critical responsibilities. Lingering effects of the recession will remain in 2010, including cautious capital spending and ongoing cost management. Out of necessity, finance will make process and systems investments related to regulatory requirements, including International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). On a more strategic level, continuous improvement in finance will focus on better automation of the close-to-reporting cycle, as well as expense, payables, and controls processes. Although finance is not ready for widespread adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) as a deployment model for applications, new vendor offerings in 2010 will lead to higher levels of interest.