Microsoft has reaffirmed its commitment to streamlining and enabling digital transformation in the financial services industry as the global technology company hosted a roundtable in partnership with Harvard Business Review to educate and highlight how advanced technologies can disrupt the industry.
The event was aimed at Chief Financial Officers (CFO) and Chief Operations Officers (COO) and provided insight on how the top executives have now become an integral part of the decision making and rollout processes of new innovative and advanced technologies in their organizations.
Mayowa Agboade, Director Industry Solutions – Financial Services at Microsoft noted that organisations must be highly aware of the ‘uncomfortable’ shift in roles that has presented itself in the face of digital change.
“The role of today’s CFOs and finance executives needs to be broader and requires an increased appreciation of technology.” He said.
“The emergence of the digital age is fundamentally changing the priorities and roles of today’s finance executives with security at its core.”
While traditional roles that involve cost reduction as well as sourcing new revenue streams remain at the core of the CFO and COO function – exploring new opportunities for growth has emerged to the fore.
This disruption has been enabled through the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, mixed reality and blockchain.
However, risks arising from recent trend can be mitigated through the application of technologies such as machine learning for revenue forecasting. Similarly, employing predictive analytics for risk management has been identified to help manage reputation and ultimately save costs.
Experts at the event agreed that finance executives have to lead their companies to reach goals around growth, profitability and productivity in order to remain competitive amid on-going digital transformation.
“We always value connecting with members of the C-suite face to face as this gives us the opportunity to listen to them and understand their business concerns. We also look forward to engaging together to help unlock value of digital transformation.” Agboade said.
SEGUN ADAMS
