Top 10 Problems Solved by Infor SunSystems Cloud in Financial Services. Problem #1: Manual Reporting
In this blog, the first of ten, we focus on the problems caused by manual reporting. This is a problem that affects the financial services sector particularly acutely, causing risk, inefficiency and regulatory pressure. LAKE solutions based on SunSystems Cloud eliminate these problems through a combination of automation and reporting flexibility.
The manual reporting problem explained
“Manual” systems have a number of common features:
- Typing data into Excel spreadsheets
- Manual cleaning and formatting of data
- Manual gathering of data from multiple systems
- Time consuming and repetitive monthly or quarterly report compilation
- Over-reliance on a limited number of experts to keep the system going
And so on…
These systems were not so bad when your organisation was small, but they do not scale and they carry significant risk:
- Errors may result in incorrect financial statements, regulatory breaches, and flawed decision-making
- Inaccurate and out of date information reduces confidence in reports
- Inefficiency is costly
- Faster, more dynamic reporting is a missed opportunity
How SunSystems Cloud can help
Firstly, automation.
SunSystems Cloud automates data collection through APIs. No more rekeying. No need for spreadsheets. Data collection can be from multiple systems and in real-time. One example of where this can help is in the automated synchronisation of exchange rates.
SunSystems Cloud also comes with a Data Lake to facilitate integration into industry standard reporting tools such as Microsoft Power BI.
With automated reports and dashboards, information is up-to-the minute and available anywhere. Dashboards enable self-service and empower decision makers to drill down to explore the data that lies behind headline figures. Where Excel is preferred, Infor Q&A connects directly to your SunSystems data. This allows you to refresh regular reports to present to all your stakeholders with a simple click.
Secondly, reporting flexibility.
SunSystems is renowned for its reporting flexibility. There is no need for workarounds. No need for manual intervention. The core application can handle it all. A good example of this is multi-entity accounting. I encourage you to read our blog entitled Multi-Company Accounting in Financial Services.
Take the next step
In the next blog in this series, we highlight the problem of a lack of real-time visibility.
To find out how Infor SunSystems Cloud from LAKE could help your organisation, download a copy of our SunSystems Cloud Beginner’s Guide – Commercial.
By Jon Isherwood