Speakers:

                              Renate Wagner                                                                Regional CFO                                   ALLIANZ SE, SINGAPORE

                              Seng Chun Tan                                                                      CFO                                         NETS, SINGAPORE

                                 Vishal Gupta                                                                  CFO                                   NANDO'S, INDIA

                               Klemen Drole                                                                        CIO                                          LAZADA, SINGAPORE

                              Ricardo Guardo                                                               Finance Director                                      BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO

                             Louise McCarthy                                      COO-CIO Global Group Digital Transformation           HSBC,UNITED KINGDOM

                Srinivasan Venkita Padmanabhan                        President - Global Head (Corporate) Finance            OLAM INTERNATIONAL, SINGAPORE

                             Kathryn Sherratt                                                                      CFO                                          FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPENSATION SCHEME

                                Ashish Tiwari                                                                   Group CFO                                       TRANSPORT CORPORATION OF INDIA

                               Tjendra Halima                                                                  Country CFO                                   SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC, THAILAND

                                 Pallav Patni                                           CFO, ASEAN & Hong Kong & FP&A Director,                                         APAC Region                               KIMBERLY-CLARK, SINGAPORE

                                Jeremy Cheah                                                                        CFO                                             AGROCORP INTERNATIONAL, SINGAPORE

                                  Joe Dische                                                             CFO                            PROPERTYGURU GROUP, MALAYSIA

                                  Niko Ratala                                         Regional Financial Controller, APAC & Middle East    ROLLS-ROYCE, SINGAPORE

                               Sandra Widjaja                                                                  VP of Finance                                     YTL HOTELS, MALAYSIA 

                       Yohanes Jeffry Johary                                           Regional Finance Controller, APAC                 ISS ASIA PACIFIC, SINGAPORE

                       William Tan Kwang Hwee                                                           CFO                                       ENGRO CORPORATION LTD, SINGAPORE

                                 Mischa Lewis                                           Finance Director, APAC Controls & Compliance              MICROSOFT, SINGAPORE

          Felipe Florez-Arango                        CFO, International                ALLERGAN, UNITED KINGDOM

In the Chair:

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What do you think are the biggest challenges in integrating technology in finance?

People mindset both from inside and outside Finance organisation.

Not only in small medium enterprises, even in large multinational corporation, when system, process and structure are not in place (from "not well organised" to " disconnection & disintegration”); driving transparency and openness (in practice) still become a jargon that always referring to somewhere place called “utopia”. The environment creates islands inside organisation with their own version of truths & sources. Some creates duplication. People from different departments and divisions keep holding tight their own truth. There is no connecting bridge. It lets organisation run with high inefficient operation and non-compliance risk potential that lead to a high cost running organisation. The intangible cost is the creation of bad working environment has been continuously nurturing bad culture with unhealthy conflicts and power game over information and control inside. The entire organisation adaptability and durability has been held back in making quick responses to the market changes.

The challenges has got higher magnitude from classical situation called "chicken and egg story”, which try to find the best threshold between delivering on-going result per shareholders expectation vs potential business interruption that might occur during migration that impacting service level to their customers. In fact, there is no “best threshold” in reality, it is utopia. There is only the best plan. The driving result has been never ended, but back-end is important to be built to make sure organisation run. The technology helps freeing people from transactional activities trap that holding them back to do more analytical work that enhance their skill and competencies. It is a must for every finance. Of course, there is always cost. The migration will hold back the business for awhile until the learning curve cycle is completed. Right after that organisation can run with finance function significantly evolves their role to be more effective in leading cost reduction, efficient in supporting operations, and integrated-control-balance between compliance and business growth.

In your opinion, what would be the most effective way of bridging the ownership and gap between the hybrid finance-tech function?

Leadership that lead ONE goal congruence across organisation, clarity in communication governance (what to say, how to say and when to say), and commitment to do more that coming from Senior Management Leadership Team, not only from Finance. It shall be underlined that it is not Finance project. It is also not IT project. It is Management Project.

Why it is called Management Project? Because the main purpose is to bringing greater good and benefit to the entire organisation, not only to finance or IT. It would bring Finance people getting closer to the business by more understanding the fundamentals and getting their hand dirties in commercial and operational duties. Commercial and Operation loves effective finance support in driving forward the business likewise timely and accurate financial reporting, value added financial advisory that provides right interpretation, forward looking feedback and healthy challenge; including improving the process and efficiency for lean cost structure that significantly improve their pricing competitiveness in the market.

Senior Management Leadership Team led by Country Manager/ CEO in Steering Committee together with CFO who taking ownership as Project Manager in driving finance optimisations and automation communicate effectively the vision and purpose WHY it is necessary to the organisation. By understanding WHY and with good Project Structure that continuously communicate openly and transparently in structure manner, it would attract people in organisation feeling part of the Project and being responsible to make the project success. We have good experiences by bringing a new level of standardisation project and SAP Migration (called Horizon) of three manufacturing entities with different plants and tolling location within 6+1 months in Henkel Indonesia few years back (2013), and in 2015 bringing Navision migration of 4 ISS Indonesia entities all at once within 3+1 months. It is complex, it is very short period of time and it is risky. However we prepared the best plan ever and run the project as like team building. It is stressful but fun. +1 we called Hypercare Period that ended with the first financial reporting closing that marked project success or not. I am lucky being trusted to be their Country Project Manager to lead Horizon migration in Henkel (2013) and Navision migration in ISS (2015). Only by setting the core structure there as foundation, we can drive faster the automation by simplification of reporting, data base improvement. In ISS back in 2016 we run the Phase 2 Project called “JARVIS”. It sounds Iron Man, yes. However JARVIS expedites the simplification of reporting thru Tableau Reporting and enhancement of Customer Contract Database data integrity thru quick search. Phase 2 was managed by selected new talent in ISS that identified to have capacity and capability to make it happen. Finance also could do more. Being trusted as mentor informally requested by young Project Manager from P&C. I have ever worked is a privilege. He drove the success behind HRIS automated Time & Attendance in Sunfish Go.

What is the importance of pursing financial digitalization especially in ASEAN countries?

To make ASEAN countries become more competitive in the market thru the improvement of cost and pricing structure. ASEAN countries are still classified left behind in finance digitalisation transformation, which is now needed to drive the new level of efficiency, effectivity and control. They are needed to win the competition and grow in the middle of heavy price pressure from China that has strong economic advantage thru their volume and talent. I would not talk too much in this area, otherwise nothing left over to talk during conference.

In creating a safer and low risk financial environment, what are the steps that we should take as we evolve into a more digitalized financial market?

As we evolve into a more digitalised financial market, herewith are the steps that we should take from our perspective:

• We need to admit the greater need to have ONE single version of truth and sources. We mention “source” with “s” (plural)? because there is no ONE ERP that fit for all purposes. There are SAP, Microsoft Navision, JDF Edward etc for Finance Operation and Reporting.There are also SAP, Peoplesoft, Sunfish etc representing Hire to Retire Process (H2R) used by People and Culture division. There is also CRM (Customer Relationship Management) used by Commercial team to measure and manage new pipeline opportunities and managing retention risk. In the context of Finance, both Microsoft Dynamic Navision and SAP capture core finance processes such as O2C (Order To Cash), P2P (Procure To Pay), R2R (Record to Report), MRP (Material Resource Planning), Manufacturing Plan (MP) etc. However today Finance should also think from overall organisation standpoint in order to create bridge o other ERPs to eliminate redundancy. Bridging is not same with Integration. Bridging needs policy, process and procedures. All efforts poured-in is only to eliminate redundancy, a truly hidden cost that the giving direct consequence to the organisation, ineffective processes and high bureaucracy (root of internal conflict and dis-harmonization).
• A necessity to have technology in managing big data and focusing on data analytic to accelerate speed, cost and accurate financial reporting & forecasting. The financial reporting and forecasting shall be connected to the business need. The alignment between Finance and Business Units are absolutely must. In expanded version, it shall be built as well in People & Culture division for accurate HRIS reporting & forecasting (man power resource planning).
• Adopting technology shall be in parallel standardising and simplifying the processes that lead to lean (cost reduction). If it is not done, we only change the IT/ERP platform but we keep maintaining the same old/ conventional process. We also do not change the mindset of the people.
• IT Security Risk Policy should be in place to provide purpose , guidelines, Do and Don’ts, procedures, and practical information in order to strengthen cyber security.
• Understanding the prevailing law and regulation over General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ensure it is adopted and fully adhered to it.

What do you think are traits needed in a digital transformation leader today to lead the finance department towards being an efficient and effective organisational backbone?

The traits needed in a digital transformation leader today to lead the finance department towards being an efficient and effective organisational backbone i:s

• Walk the Talk
• Transparency and openness mindset.
• Leading with purpose (understanding the WHY) and clarity
• Driving change and risk taking (not only as simply driving result)
• Promoting collaborative team work
• Having right balance between present and future; and between inward looking and forward looking as same importance

In the world of technology for finance, new developments are continuously being rolled out. What are your thoughts on the rapid and changing technologies? Should your company consistently adhere to new technologies?

The rapid and changing technologies are not always responded by doing quick adoption because it does not always fit for purpose to the Company. The Company shall only use technology to make their products/ services remain competitive in the market and give them higher flexibility to do quick manoeuvre due to rapid market changes and turbulences. In broader sense, the technology shall enhance system, process and structure of the Company to upscale them to higher stability, flexibility and sustainability. If not, better don’t do that.

About the Speaker

Yohanes Jeffry is a finance professional healer. Using his finance & business acumen and passion about People, Process & Structure, he helps them to unleash their hidden potential in delivering sustainable business performances. His long list of experiences in managing successful migration even in situations people thought impossible, makes him the modern-day Nanny McPhee.

marcus evans Finance Digitalisation Forum is gathering the major practitioners from the globe and Asia, bringing new strategies and tools to bring to bear in the diversification of markets and technological shifts taking place currently.
At this forum, you will be provided a platform to capture the latest trends, strategies and technologies. The region’s leaders will be sharing their insights and best practices on how technology and digitalization would be able to support the reach towards efficient and meaningful data analysis, process robotics, artificial intelligence, combating or taking on Fintech, and reaching out to new markets and opportunities. This is the event you cannot afford to miss.

About the Forum