The booming pre-crisis economy provided companies the leeway to live with inefficient processes that often led to bloated operational bureaucracies and headcounts.  However, the post-COVID 19 reopening and recovery period will require organizations to quickly identify opportunities of doing more with less from a process, operational and talent perspective in order to stay competitive in a more challenging economic environment.

As organizations reopen, finance leaders are looking for ways that will both help them optimize costs in the short-term and position them for success as economic normality returns.  A recent Gartner survey of CFOs reveals that these executives anticipate investing more in robotic process automation, cloud-based ERP technologies, and advanced analytics to achieve those goals.  

However, to drive efficiencies, effective use of these tools will require an upgrade of skills.  Organizations will need tech-savvy professionals who couple domain expertise in their respective fields with use of this new breed of cloud-based automation and analytics tools.  Leaders must look internally to identify and/or upskill existing employees or externally for professionals already experienced with this coupling of business domain and technical expertise.