5 Ways IT & Finance Can Collaborate to Drive Scalable and Secure Growth

Communication and effective business collaboration is one of the driving factors for scaling organizations successfully. Organizations that have all department leaders on the same page can be more efficient with their time. Looking specifically at the functions that the finance and IT departments have, one may think that there isn’t a great need for collaboration to occur as their functions are different. However, effective collaboration and communication between your IT and Finance departments can pave the way to scalable and secure growth. Let’s dive into 5 ways that these departments can collaborate.

Before we get started, it’s important to note that Dataprise experts recommend that your organization have standing meetings between all department heads in your organization to ensure alignment, especially involving the IT and Finance groups. Having alignment meetings helps give visibility on projects to other departments within the organization, and spawns ideas that wouldn’t have come up otherwise.

Now, let’s explore 5 ways IT and Finance can collaborate.

IT can assist Finance with Business Reporting

With organizations pivoting to hybrid work models, efficient and effective collaboration has never been more important. One of the ways that IT can help finance grow is by implementing financial reporting software. Software like this is meant to keep everyone in the loop no matter where you are and allow finance to forecast revenue and profit, among other metrics. Providing dashboards and other reporting mechanisms helps provide internal stakeholders information on how the business is tracking its goals.

IT can assist Finance in securing sensitive financial records

Another way that IT assists Finance through collaboration is by securing sensitive records. Your organizations IT department is responsible for securing all the company’s sensitive data. All organizational data is sensitive, but it is especially critical that the IT team collaborates effectively with the finance department to make sure that all financial sensitive data is secure. Studies show that phishing cases are exponentially rising, and organizations cannot risk any downtime that could occur from this. Organizational downtime is a finance team’s worst nightmare, as there is no cash flow while you are not operating. Dataprise experts have developed a ransomware checklist designed to help your organization prepare before, during, or after an attack. Download the Checklist below.

Finance can assist IT with IT Budgeting and Forecasting

Next, let’s touch on a way that finance can assist IT. Budgeting and forecasting are of the utmost importance to organizations to maximize growth and operational efficiency. Finance departments are experts in budgeting, so they can assist in helping the IT team create a budget that fits the organization’s mission. By collaborating to budget effectively, organizations should be aiming towards putting their IT spending in a place where they can provide better service to clients and make their employees more efficient with how they provide that service.

IT can assist Finance with Automation

Additionally, IT can collaborate with Finance with automation. What automation can accomplish these days is fascinating. Whether it’s approval workflows of contracts, electronic document signing, expense reporting, etc. automation can relieve some of the day-to-day monotonous tasks that the finance department would have to deal with. This freed up time for the finance team can be spent forecasting business needs and better preparing the business for the future.

Finance can assist IT with presenting ROI to internal stakeholders

Lastly, another way that Finance can assist IT is by collaborating to come up with ROI when presenting new ideas to internal stakeholders. 2 is more powerful than 1, and having two leaders united to speak on a matter will lead to the overall point getting across more effectively. The Finance team can help provide ROI to board members that are not so technical and might not understand why the IT department would need further investment.

Organizational collaboration is critical to ensure that the business grows. This collaboration between the IT and Finance teams cannot be understated – being on the same page directly leads to the organization being more prepared, secure, and efficient.