The 3 Key Aspects Financial Managers Need to Scale Their Business Globally
When a business grows from operating locally to globally, there’s plenty of reason to celebrate. Yet there are plenty of challenges too. A company whose ERP system is working adequately for its local needs suddenly finds that it is not nearly advanced enough for a company operating at a global or multi-regional scale. What’s a financial manager to do?
You may choose to outsource your organizational and financial management to subsidiaries located in each region. This solves the problem of how to conduct business properly in different countries, according to the local language, currency, and regulatory environment. But it’s a band-aid solution that only creates more problems.
A small ERP, with extra functionality patched on to cover the company’s global operations, will inevitably become a haphazard mess. A serious, global business can’t run on shared Excel reports, nonstop emails, and multiple systems running in different languages and time zones. Security is continually compromised, and you, as the key management figure of the story, end up becoming a slave to the system, rather than the system working for you.
As a financial manager, you can only be in one place at any given time, but the company’s financial functions are ongoing, 24/7, in every region.
If you end up using local ERP systems in each region, you will not be able to achieve the transparency required to know what is going on in all parts of the company. What’s more, you need to be able to rely on the validity of your data at all times and with no hesitation, so you can truly trust your final numbers and rest assured about your business. Local ERPs are simply not up for the job.
There’s only one option, really, and that is to implement a solution that works globally for SMBs in the process of growth. What would such a solution look like? Let’s focus on three key aspects:
-
Global functionality
A global company operates in multiple countries and regions, each with its own currency, regulations, laws, and language. It is not always enough to assume that operations in English will suffice. In certain regions, it is critical to work in the local language in order to properly accommodate different markets in the most efficient and accurate way. A solution that supports full functionality in every country in which the company operates is the only solution.
-
Unified visibility
When working with an ERP, you need unified visibility that ensures the entire team can see the full 360-degree picture of the company’s operations, no matter where they are located in the world. Without a one-stop-shop-style ERP platform, you will inevitably be stuck in the rut of multiple systems running separately, with no way to understand what is going on in the business in real-time. The optimal solution for companies operating at a global scale is an ERP that enables complete transparency and access to company-wide activities and data, at any and every moment.
-
Modular based
When a company is growing, it is usually a gradual process. It doesn’t go from small, local business to massive global enterprise overnight. On the one hand, you don’t want to be stuck with an inadequate local ERP when you are already working in a number of countries. On the other hand, it is not a good idea to purchase a platform that is way larger than the current needs of the company – that will only waste precious resources that could otherwise be funneled to more worthwhile goals. The ideal solution is one that can grow with you, at the pace that your company is growing. A modular-based ERP platform can do just that, adding more functions and capabilities bit by bit, as you need them, without underperforming according to yesterday’s requirements, or overstretching the budget with an outsized solution.
As a global professional services company, AllCloud sees its fair share of local companies who are struggling to transition efficiently to becoming a multinational company. When a company turns to AllCloud for assistance, they already know that their current ERP is just not going to cut it in the new global reality. These smaller ERP systems, that worked sufficiently well up till now, simply cannot give financial managers what they need functionally in order to successfully carry out their jobs.
That’s why we will often recommend working with NetSuite, a globally oriented platform that can manage operations in multiple regions at once – covering everything from ERP, financial management, BI, reporting and analysis, and much more, all in one worldwide-integrated product.
NetSuite delivers the three key aspects necessary for an advanced global ERP solution, plus much more, to give globally scaled companies the capability to fully understand and operate the business as needed, and the security and freedom to take the risks to achieve even more growth.
From local, traditional business to global powerhouse, NetSuite is the right technology tool and partner for your company’s journey.
Want to find out how AllCloud’s team can benefit your company with a NetSuite integration? Contact us today!