Central to achieving these objectives within an organisation’s core Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system are two interconnected pillars: robust integration and the proactive maximisation of the ERP’s inherent capabilities. By establishing seamless data flows across various systems and fully leveraging the functionalities embedded within their ERP, CFOs can unlock unprecedented levels of efficiency, gain critical insights, and ultimately steer their organisations toward sustained growth and profitability.

Integration Unlocks Value

The significance of integration cannot be overstated in the contemporary business ecosystem. As organisations increasingly adopt specialised applications and cloud-based services to address specific needs, the ERP system, while often serving as the central nervous system, must effectively communicate and exchange data with these disparate platforms.

The speed of decision-making has accelerated dramatically, necessitating real-time access to information from across the organisation. Whether it’s sales data, supply chain information, or customer relationship management details, the ability to consolidate and analyse this information within the ERP, facilitated by tight integrations, empowers CFOs and other C-suite leaders to make informed decisions on demand.

“If you look at CFOs, CIOs, CROs, they’re all looking to make decisions effectively on-demand. The ability to push information in real-time and extract information real-time means that whenever the C suite needs to make a decision, they can have that information on demand at their fingertips. Every time there’s a crisis, and you can argue tariff wars and trade uncertainty is one of those, then it merits more information being captured, analysed and then understood,” said Bob Stark, Global Head of Enablement at Kyriba.

Having integration ready on day one of any significant system implementation or upgrade, such as a move to cloud platforms like SAP S/4HANA or Oracle Cloud, is essential. Without these connections, organisations risk operating in silos, leading to delayed insights, inaccurate reporting, and ultimately, an inability to react swiftly to market changes or internal performance indicators.

Key data points, such as cash flow and liquidity, are particularly pressing in today’s landscape of economic uncertainty. Integration with banking systems and other financial platforms provides CFOs with a real-time view of their cash position, enabling proactive management of liquidity and informed decisions regarding investments and borrowing.

However, achieving effective integration is not without its challenges. One significant obstacle is the lack of a clear understanding of the organisation’s data strategy. Without a defined vision for what data needs to be connected, why, and with what frequency, it becomes exceedingly difficult to prioritise integration efforts and ensure that APIs and other connectivity tools are utilised effectively. Prioritisation itself can also be a hurdle, as organisations juggle numerous competing initiatives and may not fully recognise the strategic importance of robust integration.

Moreover, the openness of the systems that need to be integrated with the ERP plays a crucial role. If these external platforms lack open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), building and maintaining integrations can become complex and time-consuming, potentially leading to technical debt, which can hinder scalability and future upgrades.

The concept of technical debt is also relevant within the ERP itself, particularly concerning customisations. While some specialised functions may seem necessary, excessive customisation can impede integration efforts and complicate future upgrades. Generally, integrations should leverage pre-built connectors whenever possible, ideally within a low-code or no-code environment, to minimise the effort and risk associated with bespoke interfaces that may not be sustainable over time.

Leveraging the Power of Composable Architecture

The concept of composable architecture is also presented as a trend that CFOs should be aware of. Composable architecture, often interchangeable with cloud-native architecture or microservices, represents a modular approach consisting of loosely coupled microservices or headless systems deployed together.

One of the primary advantages of a composable ERP for CFOs is the enhanced agility in financial operations. Businesses can adapt much more quickly to changing business models, such as evolving global tax compliance requirements, by swapping out specific components rather than overhauling the entire system.

Composable ERPs have also shown the ability to deliver and improve real-time insights. This is crucial for CFOs who need up-to-date information to make informed decisions, as highlighted by the need for real-time data for effective decision-making in today’s accelerated business environment.

“You tend to get much cleaner, more timely financial data with composable architectures. It reduces long term costs and tech debt because traditional ERPs come with a high degree of customization and high degree of maintenance costs. The footprint with traditional, monolithic ERPs is much heavier, so it’s more expensive for you to operate and run. With composable architecture, you’re only deploying the services that your business needs, and not deploying the whole monolith, even though you only need maybe 30% of that. It has a much lighter footprint,” said Dinakar Hituvalli, CTO and SVP of product development at Deltek.

Reduced long-term costs and technical debt are also significant benefits. Traditional ERPs often accumulate a high degree of customisation and maintenance costs, with heavier footprints. Composable architectures allow organisations to deploy only the services they need, resulting in a lighter footprint and lower operational expenses.

Ultimately, a composable architecture future-proofs the finance technology stack. Its cloud-native nature allows for the easier integration of new and emerging capabilities without disrupting core processes. This is particularly relevant in the context of rapidly evolving technologies like AI, which is a significant trend reshaping financial decision-making. The ability to plug in new AI-powered functionalities without major system overhauls is a key advantage for CFOs looking to leverage these advancements.

In essence, composable ERP architecture provides CFOs with a more agile, insightful, cost-effective, scalable, and future-ready foundation for their financial operations compared to traditional monolithic systems. This modular approach empowers finance teams to adapt to change, gain timely insights, and leverage new technologies more effectively, ultimately contributing to better strategic decision-making and value creation for the organisation.

ERPs are Empowered By Connection and Flexibility

For modern CFOs to effectively navigate the complexities of today’s business landscape and drive maximum value within their ERP systems, focusing on robust integration is essential. By establishing seamless data flows through strategic integration initiatives, CFOs can gain the real-time insights necessary for agile decision-making.

The evolving role of the CFO as a strategic partner with technology leaders, coupled with a commitment to data-driven decision-making and a forward-looking perspective on technological advancements, will be critical in harnessing the full potential of ERP systems and positioning organisations for continued success in the years to come.

The interconnection between a strong data strategy and the effective implementation of AI underscores the fundamental importance of a well-integrated data environment as the bedrock for future innovation and value creation within the ERP ecosystem.

Businesses also need flexibility to maintain a competitive advantage in times of volatility. Composable ERPs can offer users the ability to manage operations reliably and efficiently. By allowing users to mix and match different software programs, organisations can find the ideal form for their tech stack to take.

The post The Indispensable Link: Integration, Composable Architectures, and Value Maximisation for Modern CFOs within ERP Systems appeared first on ERP Today.

Finance departments have historically been burdened with a multitude of manual tasks, ranging from data entry and invoice processing to account reconciliation and report generation. While these processes may have been manageable in simpler times, the increasing complexity of business operations and the sheer volume of financial data have exposed their significant limitations.

Manual processes are inherently time-consuming, diverting valuable resources and personnel away from more strategic activities. They also require human intervention, which inevitably leads to errors and oversights, potentially resulting in financial misstatements and compliance issues. Manual processes require significant manpower, often straining finance teams that are under pressure to accomplish more work without increased staffing.

Drawn-out manual processes can leave organisations in the dark, hindering access to timely and accurate financial information vital for informed decision-making. Additionally, Manual processes struggle to scale with business growth and increasing data volumes, creating bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

Manual processes also introduce the potential for errors in financial reporting workflows, which increases the risk of non-compliance and financial penalties. These inherent drawbacks underscore the urgent need for a paradigm shift in how finance processes are executed. Automation and hyperautomation offer a compelling solution by addressing these limitations head-on and ushering in an era of enhanced efficiency, accuracy, and strategic focus.

The Transformative Power of Automation in Finance

Implementing automation across various finance functions yields a multitude of benefits, streamlining operations and improving overall financial management:

• Streamlined Accounts Payable (AP) Processes: Automation can significantly improve AP workflows by automating tasks such as invoice receipt, data capture, routing for approvals, and payment processing. This reduces manual data entry, minimises errors, accelerates processing cycles, and improves vendor relationships.
• Enhanced Accounts Receivable (AR) Management: Automation in AR can streamline collections processes through automated outreach to clients, reminders for upcoming payments, and management of payment delays. Hyperautomation further enhances this by using AI to proactively identify customers likely to be late and recommending incentives to encourage timely payments.
• Accelerated Financial Close: Automating daily matching and reconciliations is crucial for an efficient and accurate financial close process. Manual processes are time-consuming and error-prone, but automation ensures real-time data validation, faster error detection, and seamless integration across financial systems, allowing finance teams to close their books faster. Solutions like SAP Advanced Financial Closing and platforms from third-party vendors automate balance sheet reconciliations, transaction matching, and journal entries.
• Improved Efficiency and Productivity: By automating repetitive and mundane tasks such as data entry, reconciliations, and report generation, automation frees up finance professionals to focus on more strategic activities and decision-making, leading to higher productivity and better resource allocation.
• Enhanced Accuracy and Reduced Errors: Automation minimises human intervention in critical processes, thereby significantly reducing the likelihood of errors and ensuring greater accuracy in financial data. This leads to more reliable financial reporting and better-informed business decisions.
• Better Compliance and Audit Readiness: Automated reconciliations and reporting improve audit readiness, regulatory compliance, and financial transparency by eliminating bottlenecks and inconsistencies.

The Evolution from Automation to Hyperautomation

Automation, in its essence, involves the use of technology to perform tasks with reduced human intervention. This has been a pursuit for decades, with organisations seeking efficiencies and cost savings by automating mundane and repetitive activities through various tools and techniques. However, the current decade has ushered in a new paradigm with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into automation frameworks. This synergistic combination has led to the advent of hyperautomation, which is the merger of tools like AI, ML, robotic process automation (RPA), with the goal of pushing automation even further.

Hyperautomation represents a significant leap beyond basic automation. It encompasses a more sophisticated framework that includes discovery and analysis of processes, language-centric process construction leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP), and continuous measurement, monitoring, and refinement of business processes. This underscores the understanding that in today’s intricate business environment, achieving true operational excellence requires a holistic and intelligent approach to automation, moving beyond simple task execution to encompass contextual decision-making and augmentation of human capabilities.

The Advanced Capabilities of Hyperautomation in Finance

Building upon the foundation of automation, hyperautomation leverages the power of AI, ML, and other advanced technologies to address more complex and nuanced aspects of finance processes.

• AI-Driven Decision Making: Hyperautomation aims for increasingly AI-driven decision-making, enabling systems to handle processes that require contextual understanding and judgment. For instance, in collections, NLP can be used to interpret client requests for payment extensions and AI can provide contextual decisions on approvals.
• Predictive Analytics and Forecasting: ML algorithms can analyse vast amounts of financial data to identify trends, patterns, and anomalies, leading to more accurate financial forecasts and enabling data-driven decision-making. AI can proactively inform collections agents about customers likely to be late, allowing for preemptive action.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Enhanced Communication: NLP can streamline communication-intensive processes within finance, such as initiating outreach to clients, intercepting requests, and providing contextual responses. This can significantly improve efficiency and the quality of interactions.
• Process Discovery and Optimisation: Hyperautomation involves the discovery and analysis of existing processes to identify areas for automation and improvement. This enables organisations to optimise their workflows intelligently, rather than simply automating inefficient processes.
• Intelligent Automation of Complex Tasks: Hyperautomation can tackle more complex tasks that require a combination of different technologies and intelligent decision-making, such as handling exceptions in invoice processing or managing intricate reconciliation scenarios.
• AI-Driven Fraud Detection and Prevention: Advanced analytics and AI algorithms can identify and prevent fraudulent activities by detecting unusual patterns and transactions in financial data, providing a proactive approach to safeguarding organisational assets.

Specific Applications of Automation and Hyperautomation in Finance

There are several essential finance workflows that are beginning to be transformed by automation and hyperautomation:

• AR/Collections: Hyperautomation technologies can dramatically improve the collections process by predicting late payments, providing recommendation analytics for incentives, and using NLP for streamlined communication and contextual decision-making.
• Financial Close: Automation is crucial for reducing the time and errors associated with the financial close process, with solutions automating reconciliations, transaction matching, and other key activities.
• Tax Compliance: Automation can streamline payroll tax calculations, provide real-time regulatory updates, and reduce the administrative burden of managing complex tax requirements across multiple jurisdictions.
• Procure-to-Pay (P2P): While traditionally focused on invoice automation, solutions are expanding to incorporate other aspects of the P2P process, such as processing order confirmations and delivery notes, enhancing efficiency across the entire cycle.

Navigating the Adoption of Automation and Hyperautomation

While the benefits of automation and hyperautomation are compelling, successful adoption requires careful consideration of several key factors. First and foremost, high-quality, cleansed, and harmonised data is the bedrock of effective AI and ML-driven automation. Organisations must ensure their data management practices support the accuracy of automated processes and the insights generated.

Companies should identify specific areas where automation and AI can have the most significant impact, particularly focusing on repetitive, mundane, or data-intensive tasks and processes where forecasting and planning insights are needed.

Investing in training and upskilling the workforce is crucial to ensure employees can effectively utilise AI-powered tools and adapt to evolving roles. Automation is not intended to replace humans entirely, but rather to augment their capabilities and allow them to focus on higher-value activities. AI and automation solutions require constant feeding, monitoring, and optimisation to maintain their effectiveness and adapt to changing business needs.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Finance with Intelligent Automation

The landscape of finance is continuously evolving, with AI and automation remaining at the forefront of technological advancements. Emerging technologies like agentic AI and advancements in large language models hold the potential to further transform finance processes, enabling even more sophisticated levels of automation and intelligent decision-making.

While the specific trajectory of these technologies remains to be fully seen, the fundamental importance of automation and hyperautomation in driving efficiency, accuracy, and strategic value in finance is undeniable. Organisations that proactively embrace these transformative tools will be better positioned to navigate the complexities of the modern business environment and achieve sustainable success.

The post A Transformative Leap: The Emerging Role of Automation and Hyperautomation in Elevating Finance Processes appeared first on ERP Today.

With new upgrades and implementations arriving more frequently than before, the enterprise software landscape is constantly in flux. This means businesses face new challenges in ensuring the quality and stability of their increasingly complex application ecosystems.

In an exclusive interview, Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software, provided invaluable insights into the critical world of end-to-end testing, helping companies understand how they can mitigate risk and meet their quality goals. With a history stretching back to 1997, Original Software has been a consistent presence in a space often characterized by fleeting trends, offering a unique perspective shaped by decades of experience.

Making Testing Straightforward and Accessible

One of the key differentiators of Original Software is its roots in low-code and no code capabilities. Armitage explained that the decision to avoid a code-based testing solution was fundamental from the company’s inception, as it was fundamental to problem-solving.

“If you are trying to test a code base as it is, why on earth would you want to build another code base to test the first one? The testing code would be just as likely to have bugs in it as the code being tested. You would need specialized skills to build it, and you haven’t made the problem easier. You’ve made it harder,” said Armitage.

Beyond simply eliminating code, this approach tackles other inherent challenges in traditional test automation, such as managing timing dependencies. The common practice of embedding fixed-duration wait loops in test scripts highlights their inflexibility and potential for failure if application response times vary. Original Software’s solution intelligently handles timing, recognizing when the application is ready for the next action.

Adapting to the new Enterprise Software Landscape

Original Software’s core business revolves around helping organizations achieve their quality goals while man aging and reducing risk. This is particularly crucial during major upgrades and the implementation of new applications, ensuring a “risk informed state of play” when companies go live.

This is especially important in the modern technology landscape. ERP vendors are increasing the rate of updates, and companies cannot test the software the same way they have done in the past.

“Recently, a lot of ERP vendors have moved to monthly updates. What you could do to test something if it was only once a year was fine. If you have to test every month, you can’t go and rip 20 or 30 of the key business users out of the business every month for two weeks. It is just physically impossible. So, it tends to be at that more operational level there where they’ve reached a point where they just can’t continue testing the way they have been doing it,” said Armitage.

Armitage added that the ability to test business processes seamlessly across multiple applications becomes not just advantageous but “essential.” Original Software’s platform rises to this challenge by supporting a wide array of applications, from modern browser-based ones to desktop applications and even legacy IBM emulators, recognizing their continued importance in some business processes.

This is particularly important for companies that are now managing multiple ERP systems due to acquisitions. The ability to support these diverse environments is crucial for their companies navigating consolidation efforts.

“We may run into somebody who says, ‘we’re an SAP shop,’ but they’ll be using Salesforce as a CRM rather than SAP or they will be using something else for their e-commerce. For an end-to-end business process, you’ll typically be visiting multiple applications. So, it’s not a nice idea to support multiple applications. It’s essential,” said Armitage. “And it is that end-to-end testing, the ability to test the process across applications, that is essential. You don’t want to see application boundaries. You just want to be able to test the business process. It’s very much a strength of ours, going across applications.”

Understanding Challenges and Evolving to Meet Them

With nearly 30 years of experience in the testing space, Original Software understands where technologies like automation can be helpful and where business process overhauls are more likely to yield the desired results.

When looking to improve their testing workflows Armitage says companies should start off by taking a step back and evaluating their business pain points. For instance, companies often request test automation as their first order of business. Yet taking the time to review their current practices may reveal that the real issue isn’t a lack of automation but the disruptive impact of user acceptance testing (UAT), where key users are taken away from their regular duties.

“Companies can argue that maybe they could automate their testing, but that’s difficult if there’s new features. There’s always going to be an element of manual testing done on that. But more importantly, that familiarization with either changes or new features has to be done by the users, and that, again, has an impact on the business,” said Armitage.

While automating UAT might seem like a solution, it’s challenging with new features, and the crucial familiarization aspect for users will always require manual input, impacting business operations. Therefore, enhancing the efficiency of this process can be a significant win for companies.

Armitage cautioned against the expectation of automating everything, as it “doesn’t make any sense” for processes which run infrequently. Instead, he advocated prioritizing the automation of core processes that would cripple the business if they failed. He used the analogy of building a “survival pack” of automated tests for critical processes like order-to-cash or procure-to-pay, al lowing companies to quickly verify their core functionality after a new release.

Recognizing that some companies, especially in test automation, might need extra support, Original Software also offers a “fast start service” involving remote embedding of its personnel to help build initial test assets quickly. However, the bedrock of the company’s offering remains its comprehensive software platform.

Incorporating AI into Testing

Original Software has long been ahead of the curve on AI, incorporating it in a practical sense to solve fundamental testing challenges. Armitage illustrated this with the example of identifying UI elements, explaining how their AI can understand what a user would intuitively call an element (e.g., the “User” text box) rather than relying on technical HTML identifiers that are meaning less to a business user.

This focus on user-friendliness and readability is crucial for making test scripts accessible to a wider audience. While promising further developments in AI for its offerings, Armitage emphasized a realistic approach, learning from the initial over-promising often associated with new technologies. This allows Original Software clients like Costco to have an accurate expectation that it is refining what it already does well, rather than doing anything radically different.

“Costco uses part of our platform. It takes them three days to run the extraction because their live database is so big. They were delighted when we managed to shave around 20% off their time. That’s a big win, because they can get back to their day jobs earlier on and do more testing with the available time,” said Armitage.

Building a Business Case

While many IT experts will understand the importance of sophisticated testing capabilities, the reality is that they also need to build a business case that emphasizes the importance of testing to business leaders. However, this can be difficult, particularly when the primary benefit is avoiding potential catastrophes rather than generating direct revenue.

Armitage acknowledged that the “tipping point” for investment varies among customers. Companies that have experienced significant negative impacts from software failures often find the justification straightforward.

However, for others, the impetus might come from middle management facing increasing pressure due to inadequate testing coverage or the rising frequency of software updates.

The shift towards monthly updates by vendors like Infor, compared to the less frequent updates of on-premise systems like SAP ECC or Oracle EBS, makes traditional manual testing approaches increasingly unsustainable.

Armitage emphasized the need to present a compelling case to senior management, which Original Software assists customers in doing. Highlighting real-life examples of companies narrowly avoiding major issues can be a powerful tool.

Adapting to the New Normal

Companies often struggle to adapt to the rate of change in the new technological landscape. Armitage said that the move to the cloud has changed the rules in terms of vendor relationships and it also means that businesses are not in control of how often they need to run tests on their software.

Finding a partner like Original Software in this new environment is essential. It can help companies not only understand the technology landscape as it now exists but allow them to adapt to it. With new software deployments and upgrades constantly being rolled out, businesses need to have confidence that their investments are being protected from risk and can deliver the value they need to reach their business goals.

The post Protecting and Maximizing ERP Investment through Testing appeared first on ERP Today.

To help the office of the CFO understand how to best leverage their ERP to drive value and innovation, ERPToday recently sat down with Michael Ross, Chief Strategy and Product Officer at Trintech.

Filling the Gaps

Ross highlighted how important it is to find the right partner to help guide the way in the financial close automation landscape. Though platforms like Oracle and Workday are powerful on their own, companies like Trintech help to “fill the gaps” by providing functionalities that these ERPs don’t inherently cover in detail, particularly in the complex area of Record to Report (R2R) activities.

“I’d say the office of the CFO and Financial Services was later to technology. We see that that is a market that is going through a transformation cycle, with new banking cores, new GLs, and new ERPs. We also see new compliance obligations really targeting financial services, with banks and capital markets. That really drives scale requirements. We’re seeing that as a space that we want to make more accessible to more customers because we see that scale for financial services just continuing to grow,” said Ross.

A key tool companies can rely on in this area is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Trintech is working to develop an in-house LLM with unique capabilities and the exploration of agentic AI models for tasks like matching, reconciliation, and journal entry automation. There are varying levels of AI readiness across industries, especially in heavily regulated sectors like financial services, so companies need flexible solutions that can adapt to different compliance environments.

Finding the Right Solutions

The most effective solutions are not one-size-fits-all. By offering platforms like Cadency for large enterprises and Adra for mid-sized organizations, Trintech caters to a wider range of organizational needs and complexities.

“We believe fundamentally that there are different segments and industries that need unique capabilities, right. Trintech is a great example; we run Adra. If we ran Cadency, it would be like driving a Mack truck when we need a Porsche. If you’re a Fortune 10 company, Cadency is a great choice. They’re both great cars, but every car has a great buyer,” said Ross.

Ross also highlighted Trintech’s vertical market focus, particularly in financial services and retail. The company is investing in solutions tailored to the unique needs and scale requirements of these industries, including leveraging technology gained through acquisitions to enhance banking-specific capabilities. This targeted approach emphasizes the importance of specialized solutions in addressing complex reconciliation and close challenges within specific sectors.

If you look three to five years out, everything will evolve around your view of data and AI. If you are AI centric, it all comes back to your data. You need to think about how to get the data clean and crisp.

While Trintech remains open to opportunistic inorganic growth, Ross emphasizes the strong focus on organic growth driven by the significant opportunities to improve financial close processes for existing and potential customers across their target ERP and vertical markets.

In his advice to a prospect navigating digital transformation in the office of the CFO, Ross stresses the critical importance of understanding their business readiness for AI and the need to ensure data quality. Though tools like those that Trintech provides can play a vital role in achieving financial reporting accuracy and controls, but companies must ensure that their data is AI-ready.

“If you look three to five years out, everything will evolve around your view of data and AI. If you are at a you are AI centric, it all comes back to your data. You need to think about how to get the data clean and crisp, whether it’s for tools like Cadency for financial access and controls or other tools. This is one of the areas where we’re starting to have customers come to us because they realize they need to get their data in order to use AI. And we’re a tool that helps with financial reporting accuracy and controls,” said Ross.

What This Means for ERP Insiders

Filling the Gaps in ERP Functionality
White ERP platforms like have powerful for financial management functionalities, they often lack detailed coverage for important activities like Record to Report (R2R). Companies must seek out partners like Trintech to fill these gaps with automation solutions for reconciliation, transaction matching, journal entry automation, and compliance reporting. The financial services sector, in particular, faces growing complexity with new compliance obligations and evolving banking structures. Trintech’s solutions help finance teams handle these challenges and scale effectively.

Leveraging AI is challenging, but likely will prove to be a worthwhile investment. The role of AI in financial close processes is slowly expanding. AI adoption varies across industries, but has been slower in highly regulated sectors like financial services, making flexible and adaptable AI-driven solutions essential. Ross advised companies to ensure their data quality is AI-ready to maximize the benefits of automation and improve financial reporting accuracy. Trintech is developing its own RN LLM and exploring agentic AI models to automate complex tasks like reconciliation and journal entry management.

Tailored Solutions for Different Business Needs. Trintech offers specialized solutions based on business size and complexity. Cadency is designed for large enterprises, while Adra caters to mid-sized organizations. Ross compared the two to a Mack truck and a Porsche—both effective, but suited for different needs. Trintech also focuses on specific verticals like financial services and retail, providing targeted solutions to meet industry-specific challenges. The company aims for organic growth while remaining open to strategic acquisitions to enhance capabilities.

The post Meeting the Financial Needs of the Modern CFO with Trintech’s Michael Ross appeared first on ERP Today.

These new responsibilities cannot be achieved by relying on the same methods and techniques that CFOs of yesteryear leaned on. Rather, financial executives need to have dynamic, cutting-edge tools and partnerships that allow them to deliver results quarter after quarter.

Data Means the World

To help understand the challenges that the modern CFO faces and how they can overcome them, ERP Today sat down for an exclusive interview with Lee An Schommer, Chief Product Officer and General Manager, ERP Reporting and BI at insightsoftware.

Schommer emphasized the importance of data in empowering CFOs to be able to perform at their best.

“We know that CFOs are now becoming the arbiter of truth around the health of the business. If I’m a CFO and I care about all the data. I don’t just care about financial reporting. I care about the supply chain and operational data,” said Schommer.

To drive the performance of their finance teams, CFOs need to be able to access clean, accurate data above all else. This allows them to make timely, informed decisions that drive business performance and reduce risk.

In the volatile economic environment in which organizations must now operate, financial leaders are expected to go beyond reporting historical results — they must proactively guide strategy, optimize cash flow, and support agile responses to emerging challenges.

Real-time data enables CFOs to monitor KPIs, detect financial anomalies early, and identify trends that influence forecasting, budgeting, and resource allocation.

Without real-time insights, CFOs risk basing decisions on outdated or incomplete information, leading to missed opportunities or costly errors. Accu rate data also strengthens stakeholder confidence, ensures compliance with financial regulations, and improves internal governance. For example, during financial close or audits, immediate access to reconciled, validated numbers reduces delays and increases transparency.

Moreover, as companies adopt digital finance transformations, real-time visibility across operations becomes essential for managing working capital, aligning with ESG goals, and supporting enterprise-wide automation initiatives.

In essence, real-time data empowers CFOs to shift from reactive to strategic leadership—supporting innovation, operational excellence, and long-term value creation in a rapidly evolving business landscape.

Flexibility and Connectivity are Paramount

Organizations often seek to strengthen their positions and expand operations through mergers and acquisitions. This presents numerous challenges for finance teams – many of which can be handled by complementing and extending existing ERP systems by connecting to their data.

This is a major reason why insight software focuses on out-of-the-box connectivity. It can integrate with a wide array of systems, including major ERP platforms like SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics, as well as over 140 other ERPs and EPMs, and modern cloud data sources.

This capability is particularly valuable for companies that are highly acquisitive or operate with multiple, potentially legacy, ERP systems and need to bring all that data together to manage their business. The company’s pre-built connectors allow them to achieve this faster than others.

“Let’s say your company has nine in stances of ECC and they are so customized because SAP said we can make you whatever you want. All of these different notes, like you’ve just customized ECC. The idea of breaking all of that does not sound great. One of the things that we do is we enable you to treat ECC like an Infor like a snowflake data base. You don’t move all of it. We can let you run in parallel and create and make sure that everything moves over and stays intact. It makes it easier to rip the Band-Aid off and figure out how to rebuild everything if you go for a period of time where you’re just treating it like a third party instance,” said Schommer.

Strategic Priorities

Looking ahead, Schommer highlighted some of the strategic priorities her organization has and how those dovetail with the important work that modern CFOs are seeking to accomplish.

1. Adopt Meaningful AI: In 2025, AI is everywhere. While it can be helpful, the hype has often surpassed the deliverables. This is why Schommer emphasizes “meaningful AI.” Companies should seek out AI that solves real productivity challenges, particularly for the Office of the CFO, rather than just adding AI as a feature for marketing purposes.

“One thing we are focusing on more and more is AI that is focused on the office of the CFO’s challenges. Getting the right pre-built content, analyzing the data, spitting it out and actually having it inform my model my business model, and creating a report for me based on the following dynamic. We’re really doing more and more on the AI front and getting into agentic AI,” said Schommer.

AI is most effective when it is able to automate tasks like pulling reports, analyzing data to inform business models, and using agentic use cases to proactively schedule reporting and highlight anomalies or changes in data sources.

2. Maximize the Migration Journey: The migration from legacy ERP systems to newer versions or cloud platforms is a significant focus for many companies around the world. These businesses are facing man dates or incentives to move as ERP vendors are increasingly pushing them towards newer solutions. Schommer says insightsoftware aims to provide “safe passage” for reporting and analytics during these migrations.

A crucial part of this is ensuring report portability. insightsoftware allows customers to run their legacy and new systems in parallel during the transition, while still being able to bring clean data together. This diminishes the difficulty of migrating heavily customized systems, like multiple instances of a customized ERP, by treating the legacy system like a third-party instance.

Beyond just technical connectivity, insightsoftware also offers consulting services around process optimization, using tools like process mining and data mapping to help customers improve workflows during migration, countering the tendency to simply replicate old, potentially inefficient, processes in the new system. It aims to help make the business case for migration more compelling by mitigating costs and risks and increasing benefits

3. Find ERP-Focused Solutions: Companies should seek out partners that work to understand their business challenges and offer a comprehensive set of capabilities tailored to their specific ERP environment. These ERP-focused solutions help businesses to streamline operations, reduce silos within their teams, and provide visibility to all relevant parties.

Solution and Product Portfolio

insightsoftware’s solutions connect to and make sense of data, boosting business performance with smart data solutions. The portfolio covers various areas critical to the Office of the CFO and broader business operations:

• Budgeting & Planning: Solutions to streamline and automate planning processes, improve data quality, enhance decision-making, support continuous planning, and integrate with ERPs/ EPMs.
• Operational Reporting & Analytics: Solutions for informed day-to-day decision-making and optimizing operations across various business areas like supply chain, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. It offers built-in ERPSmarts and self-ser vice capabilities. Products include Angles Professional and Angles Enterprise for Oracle.
• Financial Reporting: Solutions specifically designed for finance professionals to access and analyze ERP data efficiently, provide strategic guidance, understand the business state, and save time through automation. These tools allow users to pull real-time ERP data into formats like Excel or Web reports, often with drill-down capabilities, without needing technical expertise.
• Close & Consolidation: Solutions to automate and accelerate the financial close process, ensuring accuracy and compliance. They help reduce close time, improve data quality, handle com plex consolidation scenarios (multiple entities, currencies), and provide performance insights.
• Tax & Compliance: Solutions to optimize tax and compliance management, offering faster processing and a single source of truth. Capabilities include supporting tax provisioning, country by-country reporting, BEPS Pillar 2, and transfer pricing.
• Accounting & Treasury: Solutions to manage complex financial data, comply with regulations, and optimize performance. This area includes streamlining equity administration and reporting (cap table management, ESPPs), and consolidating IFRS 16 lease data for compliant reporting.
• Embedded Analytics: Solutions designed for ISVs to integrate data-driven features like interactive dashboards and reports directly into their own applications, providing self-service analytics to their end users. Logi Symphony is highlighted as a product built for this purpose.
• Automation & Data Management: Solutions to speed up processes, con solidate data from multiple sources in real-time, and manage data efficiently. Capabilities include automating manual ERP processes, managing master data, and streamlining product information management.

These solutions leverage the power of data to enable better decisions, improve efficiency, reduce errors, and save time, integrating with existing ERP and EPM systems.

Finding the Financial Future

Though there are challenges, modern CFOs can look ahead to a bright future. Finding solutions through partners like insightsoftware can help businesses to navigate complex data landscapes, particularly those centered around multiple ERP systems.

By leveraging exciting capabilities reporting, analytics, and advanced data management solutions, finance leaders can make smarter decisions more quickly than ever before.

The post How CFOs can Navigate Challenges to Deliver Real-time Results appeared first on ERP Today.

Typically, companies are unable to meet these requirements on their own, so they look to trusted partners to help. Many of them are turning to Vertex, due in no small part to its longstanding relationship with Oracle.

Vertex and Oracle: Better Together

Vertex is a recognized member of the Oracle Partner Network (OPN) as an Oracle Build Partner, having achieved both “Powered by” and “Integrated with Oracle Cloud” statuses. This deep integration ensures that customers benefit from automated tax technology and integrated solutions that streamline tax determination and compliance across critical business functions within the enterprise and globally.

The partnership between Vertex and Oracle spans over 30 years. This established collaboration aims to accelerate transformation, drive innovation, and deliver better business outcomes for their shared customers. Oracle isn’t just a partner; they also utilize Vertex Accelerator for Oracle Cloud ERP for their own global business requirements.

The primary focus of the Vertex and Oracle partnership is to innovate finance, improve the tax function, and support business growth. This collaboration provides several powerful benefits for customers, including increased global tax and IT efficiency, reduced audit risk, streamlined tax and IT operations, and improved business scalability.

Vertex offers global indirect tax solutions across the Oracle ecosystem, supporting various Oracle platforms such as Oracle Cloud ERP, Oracle eBS, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, and Oracle Retail. For Oracle Cloud ERP users, Vertex provides powerful, automated tax determination through a seamless push button integration that allows for faster time to value and allowing complex taxability logic for precise tax calculation on every transaction.

Benefits of Adoption

Integrating a Vertex tax engine with Oracle applications allows users to automate manual tasks like managing global tax changes and updating tax content across all Oracle applications, saving valuable time for tax and IT teams. By adding a single Vertex tax engine integrated across all Oracle applications, users can leverage continually updated tax content for improved accuracy. Immediate benefits include eliminated manual processes, improved tax data governance, reduced audit risk, a consolidated tax experience, improved scalability, and reduced cost.

Vertex enhances Oracle’s native tax calculation by providing greater efficiency through continually updated tax content within the Vertex engine, centralizing and standardizing tax decisions in one place, and offering robust tax content supported by over 1 billion data-driven tax rules and a global research team. The Vertex tax engine offers extensive tax content and features to centralize and automate tax determination for even the most intricate transactions across numerous jurisdictions globally.

Also, for Oracle E-Business Suite, Vertex automates tax determination with the invoice-to-cash process, offering comparable features and benefits, including support for multiple origin addresses. The partnership is further strengthened by regular meetings between Oracle and Vertex contingents to ensure collaborative development and support.

What This Means for ERP Insiders

Tax functions must be streamlined to be effective. Oracle organizations are constantly inundated with updates to tax rates across thousands of jurisdictions. Vertex automates tax determination on every transaction in real time within Oracle Cloud ERP, providing regularly updated sales and seller’s use tax content for O2C transactions, US and Canada tax content, and VAT sales calculations for EMEA and APAC. It also supports the calculation of tax on sales, lease, and rental transactions. It includes address validation and cleansing for more precise tax calculations and provides tax details by jurisdiction.

Automation is essential for timely and effective tax workflows. Inefficient manual tax processes can quickly add up, costing companies significant time that they could be using on other essential workflows. Leading organizations are increasingly reaching out to partners like Vertex that can equip them with automated solutions to streamline important tasks like researching tax changes and updating tax content across all Oracle applications.

Trust experience to overcome a changing tax landscape. With all the recent changes across the tax landscape, companies are more concerned about their audit risk than ever before. Businesses need to work with partners to ensure they remain on top of these changes. Oracle and Vertex have worked together for over three decades to ensure that users have access to the latest solutions to remain compliant. Vertex offers tax compliance options including periodic reporting, exemption certificate management tools, e-invoicing, and compliant digital invoice generation tools.

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What Is People Data?

People data encompasses all the information that defines and contextualizes your workforce, including:

• Job Data: Titles, profiles, and management levels.
• Personal Data: Names, addresses, and demographic details.
• Organizational Data: Locations, hierarchies, and supervisory structures.
• Transactional Data: Job changes, absences, and time off.

This data forms the foundation for Workday’s Advanced Compensation tool, enabling its features to function effectively.

Critical areas for accurate data

• Employee Demographics: Essential for location-based pay adjustments and addressing disparities.
• Performance Metrics: Ensures high performers are rewarded appropriately and equitably.
• Market Benchmarking: Aligns compensation with competitive market rates.
• HR Process Data: Maintains efficiency in workflows and approvals.

Best practices for maintaining data accuracy

• Centralize data collection to make Workday the single source of truth.
• Conduct regular audits to identify and correct errors.
• Empower employees with self-service updates to keep profiles current.
• Automate data integration across systems to reduce manual entry errors.
• Train HR teams and managers to prioritize and maintain data quality.

With accurate people data, organizations can unlock the full capabilities of Workday’s Advanced Compensation, ensuring fair, informed, and transparent compensation decisions that drive organizational success.

What it means for ERP insiders

How Workday’s advanced compensation enhances your role

For HR managers, compensation analysts, and payroll specialists, Workday’s Advanced Compensation tool is poised to redefine your day-to-day responsibilities. Instead of wrestling with manual processes, disconnected systems, or data inconsistencies, you’ll gain access to a streamlined platform for managing pay reviews, bonuses, and merit increases. This technology empowers you to focus on strategic decision-making, such as crafting equitable pay structures or addressing market competitiveness, rather than wasting time on error-prone administrative tasks. With accurate people data as the foundation, you can expect smoother processes, better compliance, and more trust from employees – all while freeing up time for higher-value contributions.

The Market Context: A growing focus on compensation management

The global human capital management (HCM) software market is projected to surpass $30 bn by 2028, driven by a heightened focus on employee engagement, equity, and data-driven HR practices. Compensation management, a critical subset of HCM, has seen significant innovation from vendors like Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, and Oracle HCM Cloud. These providers are integrating advanced analytics and automation into their platforms, responding to growing demands for precision, compliance, and transparency in pay practices. The competition is fierce, with vendors differentiating themselves through seamless integrations, ease of use, and adaptability to evolving workforce dynamics. Workday’s focus on accurate people data places it among the leading solutions tackling these challenges.

Choosing the right compensation management solution

When evaluating compensation management tools, end-users should prioritize solutions that align with their organization’s strategic objectives. Key considerations include the accuracy and centralization of data, as well as the platform’s ability to integrate with other HR and financial systems. Usability is equally important – solutions should offer intuitive workflows and self-service features that empower both HR teams and employees. Additionally, assess the provider’s commitment to innovation and customer support, ensuring the tool evolves alongside your organization’s needs. By selecting a platform that combines precision, adaptability, and a user-friendly interface, you can drive more effective compensation strategies and strengthen employee trust.

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ERP integrates essential business processes – like finance, HR, operations, and supply chain – into a single system. This unified approach streamlines workflows, offers real-time insights, and enhances decision-making. However, selecting and implementing ERP software is no simple task. This is where the intelligent buyer’s strategic mindset proves invaluable.

Phase 0: The launchpad for success

Phase 0 is the foundation of ERP transformation, where intelligent buyers define objectives, anticipate risks, and map out implementation strategies. This stage is critical for laying the groundwork for a successful project.

Here’s how intelligent buyers excel during Phase 0:

• Defining Goals: They identify clear objectives, whether it’s operational efficiency, improved financial management, or real-time analytics, ensuring the ERP project aligns with business priorities.
• Mapping Total Costs: Beyond upfront expenses, they evaluate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), accounting for customizations, training, and scalability.
• Assessing Vendors: Intelligent buyers scrutinize vendors for their functionality, partnership potential, and ability to innovate.
• Planning for Risks: Anticipating challenges like scope creep and adoption barriers, they create proactive strategies to mitigate risks.

The intelligent buyer mindset

Intelligent buyers are distinguished by their:

• Visionary Thinking: Viewing ERP as a cornerstone for growth.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Using analytics to select solutions that address both present and future needs.
• Collaborative Approach: Engaging stakeholders across departments to ensure alignment.
• Adaptability: Tailoring ERP solutions to the business’s unique and evolving requirements.

Why an intelligent buyer is essential

Without an intelligent buyer, an ERP transformation risks veering off course. Intelligent buyers anchor decisions to clear goals, ask critical questions, and focus on long-term partnerships rather than quick fixes.

Your call to action

To ensure ERP success, embrace the mindset of an intelligent buyer. Start strong in Phase 0, build a compelling business case, and foster collaboration across teams. By thinking strategically and acting decisively, you’ll set the stage for an ERP transformation that delivers lasting value for your organization.

What it means for ERP insiders

How intelligent ERP decisions impact your role

For finance managers, operations leaders, HR professionals, and IT specialists, ERP transformation is not just a technology upgrade – it’s a revolution in how you work. Imagine real-time financial insights, seamless supply chain operations, or HR processes streamlined through automation. By adopting an ERP system guided by the intelligent buyer’s principles, you’ll experience fewer bottlenecks, faster decision-making, and a more connected organization. These improvements aren’t just theoretical; they have the potential to transform your day-to-day tasks, making your role more strategic and impactful.

ERP’s market momentum

The ERP market is booming, with global revenues projected to exceed $78bn by 2026, driven by digital transformation trends and the need for data-driven decision-making. Cloud-based solutions are leading the charge, accounting for over 50% of new implementations, as organizations prioritize flexibility and scalability. Vendors like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and Workday dominate the landscape, competing fiercely to offer comprehensive solutions. However, niche players are emerging with specialized offerings tailored to specific industries. This competitive and fast-evolving market underscores the importance of selecting the right partner for your ERP journey.

What to look for in an ERP provider

When evaluating ERP providers, end-users should prioritize a few critical factors. First, assess the provider’s ability to align with your business’s unique needs, ensuring the solution is both scalable and adaptable. Look for robust support and training programs to facilitate smooth adoption across departments. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) should go beyond upfront costs, considering long-term expenses like customizations and upgrades. Finally, examine the vendor’s innovation roadmap and partnership potential, as a strong, forward-thinking provider can drive sustained value for your organization.

The post Want to ace your ERP transformation? Start by thinking like an intelligent buyer appeared first on ERP Today.

But what if ERP could be more than just a system? What if it could understand human emotion, anticipate business disruptions, and provide intelligent, proactive guidance?

Imagine an ERP that could sense an employee’s frustration when navigating a com plex approval process and automatically simplify the workflow. Or an AI-powered ERP that could predict supply chain disruptions weeks in advance and provide contingency plans. What if the financial planning systems simulated different economic scenarios and helped CFOs make strategic decisions and not just report numbers?

The next era of ERP goes beyond automation—it is about affective intelligence (emotion-aware AI) and augmented intelligence (AI-powered decision support). These advancements will transform ERPs from rigid, transactional systems into intuitive, strategic allies that will enhance decision-making, and bring human touch to business operations.

From Transactions to Emotional Intelligence: The Rise of Affective ERP

Traditional ERPs are designed for efficiency, not empathy. They rely on fixed workflows, predefined rules, and manual user inputs. The problem? Employees often feel like they are working for ERP systems rather than ERP systems working for them. The user experience is secondary, and frustration is inevitable.

Affective intelligence in ERP introduces context-awareness, adaptability, and responsiveness to how businesses operate. By analyzing behavioral signals, workflow complexity, and business patterns, AI can interpret intent, detect friction, and adjust dynamically.

How Affective Intelligence Strengthens Enterprise Resilience

Affective ERP ensures that businesses are not just processing transactions but making intelligent, adaptive decisions through:

• Context-Aware Interfaces: ERP dynamically adjusts dashboards and workflows based on usage patterns—simplifying navigation and decision-making for finance, procurement, and operations teams.
• Adaptive Business Process Optimization: AI detects process inefficiencies and proactively suggests adjustments, ensuring that approvals, supply chain routing, and financial forecasting are streamlined without human bottlenecks.
• Intelligent Guidance for Complex Decision-Making: When teams face uncertainty—such as an unexpected supply chain disruption or cost overrun—AI can interpret financial, operational, and market conditions to recommend strategic actions.

Example: a procurement manager navigating volatile supplier pricing gets real time AI insights that suggest optimized bulk purchasing, supplier contract renegotiation strategies, or alternate sourcing options based on historical trends.

What If ERP Could Predict the Future? Augmented Decision-Making for Business Stability

Beyond affective intelligence, ERP’s true potential lies in augmented intelligence—the ability to enhance human decision-making with AI by filling in analytical gaps, reducing errors, and providing a predictive edge.

The difference between traditional analytics and augmented ERP is profound:

• Traditional ERP tells ‘what happened’
• Augmented ERP tells ‘what will happen’ and ‘what a user should do about it’
• How Augmented Intelligence Helps Businesses Adapt and Scale
• Multi-Scenario Financial Modeling – Instead of static financial reporting, AI allows CFOs to run different business scenarios, evaluating risks and returns before com mitting to a strategy.
• Supply Chain Risk Forecasting – ERP integrates real time geopolitical, economic, and logistics data to predict potential risks in supply chain operations—proactively suggesting alternate suppliers or rerouting strategies.
• Proactive Fraud Detection & Compliance Monitoring – AI continuously analyzes transaction patterns to flag anomalies in procurement, invoicing, or payment processes—reducing financial risk.

Example: A global distributor using AI-powered ERP detects a potential logistics bottleneck in its supply chain three weeks in advance. AI not only provides an alert but also suggests alternate ports and optimized freight routes— ensuring minimal business disruption.

By enhancing business foresight, augmented ERP ensures organizations mitigate risk and maximize operational continuity.

What If ERP Became Invisible? The Future of Embedded and Frictionless Intelligence

ERP systems have traditionally required users to actively interact with complex dashboards, reports, and workflows. The next evolution of AI-driven ERP will be invisible—delivering insights at the right time, in the right context, without users having to search for them.

How AI-Embedded ERP Creates Operational Efficiency

• Conversational ERP – Executives and managers can query business performance data using voice or chat assistants integrated into Microsoft Teams, Slack, or mobile devices.
• Proactive Insights & Alerts – AI pushes relevant financial, procurement, and sales insights directly to decision makers—before they even ask for them.
• Automated Process Optimization – ERP learns from business activity and automatically refines workflows, approvals, and compliance rules to reduce inefficiencies.

Example: Instead of logging into an ERP to check financial health, a CFO receives an AI-driven alert: “Projected cash reserves will fall below optimal levels in 60 days due to increased supplier costs. Would you like to adjust payment terms or explore financing options?”

The AI-First ERP: A Blueprint for the Future

The next phase of ERP is not an application—it is an intelligent, autonomous ecosystem. The AI-first ERP will:

Be Predictive, Not Reactive – AI will forecast supply chain risks, financial fluctuations, and operational inefficiencies before they impact the business.

Be Adaptive, Not Rigid – AI will tailor ERP workflows, interfaces, and automation dynamically, ensuring businesses operate with maximum efficiency.

Be Invisible, Yet Indispensable – AI-powered ERP will embed itself seamlessly into business workflows, surfacing insights and automating decisions at the moment they are needed.

The convergence of AI and ERP is not just an evolution—it is a reinvention of enterprise intelligence. AI is no longer a peripheral add-on to ERP; it is the new foundation upon which modern enterprises will compete, adapt, and scale.

Venkat Ramamurthy is the Chief AI Officer at SplashBI

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The SC&TR tool leverages AI to automate the complex process of smart contract testing, addressing a growing need for enhanced security in the rapidly expanding blockchain market. tool will be available for client use in Q1 2025.

The enhanced SC&TR tool aims to mitigate these risks by improving the depth and accuracy of contract testing. Its integrated AI capabilities allow for greater code coverage, reducing the chance that vulnerabilities will go undetected during manual reviews. The tool automates key aspects of the review process, including sandbox simulations and test creation, eliminating manual errors and accelerating the contract deployment timeline.

“To capitalize on the true value that smart contracts can bring, enterprises first need to remove several of the manual processes that are highly time-intensive and can easily overlook vulnerabilities in the testing process. Our EY Blockchain Analyzer: SC&TR tool is a testament to how blockchain and AI can complement one another to automate and improve processes, leading to – in this case – more efficient smart contracts,” said Paul Brody, EY Global Blockchain Leader.

Securing Contracts with the Blockchain

The integration of AI into the SC&TR tool represents a significant step forward for smart contract security. By enhancing automation and increasing test coverage, EY aims to help clients deploy contracts with greater confidence and efficiency in an increasingly complex blockchain environment.

The new AI feature enables users to simulate and test contracts using natural language prompts and the tool’s advanced testing engine. Trained on a vast library of existing tests and simulations, the AI-driven system identifies vulnerabilities more effectively, improving overall testing outcomes while reducing resource demands. This ensures that clients can achieve higher accuracy and faster turnaround times without increasing costs.

One of the key benefits of the updated SC&TR tool is its ability to automate the identification of potential weaknesses in smart contracts before deployment. Traditional manual reviews are often time-consuming and prone to human error, but the AI-powered system minimizes these risks by conducting continuous, automated testing under various simulated conditions.

As blockchain adoption accelerates across industries, the need for secure and reliable smart contract deployment has never been greater. Smart contracts, which are self-executing agreements stored on a blockchain, are increasingly used in finance, supply chain, and decentralized applications (dApps). A single vulnerability in a smart contract can lead to significant financial losses and reputational damage.

Understanding Emerging Technologies

Blockchain technology significantly enhances security by providing a decentralized, tamper-resistant, and transparent framework for recording and verifying transactions. Unlike traditional centralized systems, where data is stored on a single server vulnerable to hacking, blockchain distributes data across a network of nodes. This decentralization makes it difficult for a single point of failure to compromise the system.

Smart contracts—self-executing agreements coded into the blockchain—enhance security by ensuring that contract terms are automatically enforced without the need for intermediaries, reducing the risk of fraud and human error. Additionally, blockchain’s transparency ensures that all transactions are traceable and auditable

The SC&TR tool empowers businesses to strengthen their smart contract security posture, improving the likelihood of successful and secure contract deployments. By combining AI’s analytical capabilities with EY’s expertise in blockchain security, the SC&TR tool sets a new standard for smart contract testing.

With automation reducing review times by half and enhancing vulnerability detection, EY’s AI-powered SC&TR tool positions itself as a vital resource for businesses navigating the growing blockchain landscape. As the smart contract market continues to expand, EY’s strategic investment in AI underscores its commitment to providing innovative solutions that address the evolving needs of the digital economy.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Prepare for growth and its associated challenges According to Allied Market Research, the smart contract market is projected to grow to $2.5 billion by 2032 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.6% from 2023 to 2032. This rapid growth comes with increased risks, as hidden vulnerabilities within smart contracts can lead to significant security breaches and financial losses. Companies will need advanced tools in order to keep pace and reduce risk.

Accommodating the rise of the blockchain. Approximately 45% of organizations were implementing blockchain technology for secure information exchange, highlighting its significant role in enhancing security measures. Additionally, a survey indicated that 42% of businesses utilizing blockchain benefited from its security capabilities. Moreover, 81% of the world’s top 100 public companies have adopted blockchain technology, underscoring its growing acceptance in the corporate sector. Organizations should prepare for the rise in this technology.

Blockchain and AI – better together. Blockchain’s decentralized and immutable nature ensures that the data AI relies on is secure and tamper-proof. AI models depend on large datasets to improve accuracy, but poor data quality or manipulation can distort outcomes. Blockchain provides a reliable, verifiable source of data, ensuring the integrity of AI inputs. Technologies like EY’s (SC&TR) tool helps address a growing need for enhanced security in the rapidly expanding blockchain market.

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