Ep. 168: Mark Marmon and Janis Parthun - Transformation through Emerging Technologies

Mark Marmon, VP, Finance Transformation at RGP, and Janis Parthun, VP, Advisory & Project Services at RGP, join Count Me In to talk about transformation through emerging technologies and the audit considerations and regulations to be aware of. RGP is global consulting company that serves over 2,400 clients, which includes 3/4th of the Fortune 500 companies. Mark is a Vice President within RGP’s Global Finance Transformation Practice focused on process efficiency and improving automation in the finance and accounting functions and Janis is a Vice President within RGP’s Advisory & Project Services team, leading cross functional initiatives in finance, accounting, and risk and compliance. She brings over 20 years of experience and expertise in finance and technology process design, risk management and driving continuous improvement for companies. RGP enables rapid business outcomes by bringing together the right people who together create transformative change. In this episode they look through the lens of a CFO and explain the top trends and priorities for finance leaders. Download and listen now!

Contact Mark Marmon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-marmon-3255414/
Contact Janis Parthun: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janisparthun/

IMA's Transforming the Finance Function with RPA: https://www.imanet.org/insights-and-trends/technology-enablement/transforming-the-finance-function-with-rpa

McKinsey's Bots, Algorithms, and the Future of the Finance Function: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/bots-algorithms-and-the-future-of-the-finance-function

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Mitch: (00:05)
Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Mitch Roshong, and today I will be previewing episode 168 of our series. Before I introduce our speakers we will first set the stage for the topic. The global pandemic in 2020 and 2021 has shifted how finance and accounting professionals work in a virtual environment. And this change has also triggered opportunities for the finance organization to evaluate and introduce emerging technologies. Companies want to find ways to deliver financial results faster, amid grow complexities and regulations, as well as improved financial transparency for business partners. To discuss these trends from the CFO perspective, we were fortunate to be joined by Mark Marmon and Janis Parthun. Mark is the VP of Finance Transformation at RGP, and Janis is the VP of Advisory and Project Services at RGP. They joined my co-host Adam to provide insights on what they are observing from the marketplace and their clients. So to hear about how to best manage the complexities relating to transformation through emerging technologies, keep listening as we head over to their conversation now.

Adam: (01:27)
Janis and Mark, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. And as we looking into 2022, I wanted to start off by asking you both, what are some of the top trends and priorities for financial leaders as we look into this new year?

Janis: (01:43)
Adam, that's a great question and this is Janis, by the way. You know, CFOs are really playing a crucial role to drive change and to be value creators. So according to a 2021 Gartner survey on the CFO perspective, there's really a shift from a value protection to value creation and prioritization, of digital initiatives and investments, and from a value creation perspective, it's really, focusing on a strong forecasting process. And this is especially critical time for CFOs of companies who may be carrying inventory to have a strong forecasting process, to avoid inventory supply chain issues and, just overwhelming sales teams and processes. And then from a digital investment perspective, over 80% of CFOs have suggested to increase their investments. And emerging technology was one of the CFOs top five strategic business priorities for 2021 and also a significant increase from 2020.

Janis: (02:50)
So it, you know, it really says a lot about the importance of having to take a look at emerging technologies, and how that can impact the CFO's role. And, you know, by the way, IMA also has a great resource on the transformation of the finance function and association with RPA. And interesting enough, the research had discussed in terms of how it's possible to have over 70 percent of general accounting operation activities that can be automated using demonstrated technologies. So I found that that was really interesting to read through, in one of the resources, from IMA.

Janis: (03:35)
And so going back to the discussion on the value creation and digital investments, what does this mean? So this is stemming from the need to automate core processes and having to transition to generate more data insights and future outlook. And so according to another Gartner source in 2021, it was the top priorities for finance leaders, CFOs, controllers, and FP&A leaders now all expect to focus on digital initiatives and the top priorities that are expected to be taking more time to implement. And these top priorities mentioned included advanced data analytics, technologies, and tools and finance, and there's a wealth of data that can provide insight to make operational decisions. And it's also knowing how to use it. Another one is the robotic process automation and other workflow automation technologies. RPAs deliver speed, efficiency, and cost optimization for repeatable processes. But then if you add extendable platforms that incorporate hooks into machine learning and artificial intelligence, it really becomes more important as leaders to look beyond the simple rule based workflows.

Janis: (04:55)
And I would say, thirdly is the human element, which is accelerating digital skills and that's hiring an upscaling talent to accelerate adoption of digital technologies. So now the deployment could be difficult at times and having to spend time significantly with employee engagement and retention, as well as hiring and growing digital skills, but it be beneficial to have the ability to design flexible processes and then enable aspects of self-service reporting for users. So I would say the good news is that the new generation of the workforce entrance are digital natives. So not only do they embrace the technologies, but they also expect from their employers, those are some of the key highlights that I wanted to at least talk through in terms of trends.

Adam: (05:50)
Well, Janis, thanks so much for showing that. I mean, those are some great top trends and priorities that, financial leaders need to look at. One topic that I have heard that I didn't hear you bring up was financial close optimization. You know, this is one way that companies drive results faster, are able to, do budgeting. How does this change the game? And maybe Mark, we can have you start on this one.

Mark: (06:12)
Yeah. Thanks Adam. So first let's define, we're talking about when we talk about, close process optimization, we're really looking at eliminating some of the activities that are really not all that critical to the close cycle. So in many cases, you know, ma...