A succession of recent events have British businesses increasingly employing third parties – including RPA providers – to accelerate digital transformation of their finance and accounting functions, according to the results of a new survey from Information Services Group (ISG).
The report said finance and accounting departments at U.K. businesses have traditionally been very conservative about outsourcing critical functions. Brexit, GDPR and now Covid-19, however, have even the most staid businesses looking outside their company for innovative ways to tap technology. The report notes that these factors piling up over the course of a decade have turned U.K. businesses into leaders in leveraging outsourcing for digital transformation.
“Although it is slightly conservative, the U.K. now is one of the leading outsourcers of finance and accounting functions,” said Jan Erik Aase, director and global leader of ISG Provider Lens Research. “As the F&A industry matures, the U.K. is seeing a shift in enterprise buying patterns. Traditionally, the U.K. has been a slow mover in transformation; now a growing number of enterprises are showing an inclination to fast track their transformation journey.”
According to the research, 83 percent of enterprises have reached their highest level of automation maturity within their F&A operations, the highest percentage of any corporate function. The report also finds nearly 95 percent of enterprises are experimenting with or have deployed machine learning technologies in their F&A processes.