249. Financial Transformation Live: Stop Shopping, Start Transforming

In this insightful Financial Transformation Live session, Hannah Munro, Managing Director of itas Solutions, challenges the traditional approach to purchasing new technology solutions. Rather than focusing solely on procurement checklists and feature comparisons, Hannah encourages finance leaders to rethink how they approach technology selection — shifting from “shopping” to “transforming.”

Drawing on her consultancy experience, she explores how organisations can accelerate time to value, engage suppliers more effectively, and turn the buying process itself into the first step of transformation.

💡 In this episode, Hannah covers:

• Why the traditional RFP (Request for Proposal) approach often fails to deliver transformational outcomes
• How to design a consultative selection cycle that prioritises outcomes over features
• The importance of sharing problem statements, goals, and process maps with suppliers to drive better recommendations
• How to educate and engage potential partners to uncover innovation and align with your business challenges
• Methods to evaluate technology solutions based on process efficiency, control, ROI, and real-world use cases
• Practical steps to ensure suppliers start learning about your organisation before implementation — accelerating time to value

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Previous session: Transformation Troubleshooter
• Connect with Hannah Munro
• Explore more Finance Transformation Live sessions
• Which Sage Product is Right For You Quiz!
• Learn more about Sage Intacct 
• Customer Success Stories
• Pre Purchase Consultancy
• Book a discovery call 

• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Agenda
• 2:55 Why Traditional RFPs Fall Short
• 5:05 Outcomes Over Features
• 8:10 Build A Problem-Led Brief
• 11:20 Educate And Engage Fewer Partners
• 14:00 Share Insights And Create A Knowledge Base
• 16:20 Budget Ballparks And Fit Check
• 18:10 Outcome-Focused Demos And Scoring
• 21:00 Reference Calls And Real ROI
• 23:00 From Shiny Demos To A Plan

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome to CFO 4.0, the future of finance. The CFO role is changing rapidly, moving from cost controller to strategic visionary. And with every change comes opportunity. We are here to help you take advantage of this transition. To with at work, drive a career forwards, and lead with confidence. Join Hannah Monroe, Managing Director of iTest, a financial transformation consultancy, as she interviews key experts to give you real-world advice and guidance on how to transform your processes, people, and data. Welcome to CFO 4.0, the future of finance.

SPEAKER_03: 0:50

Hi everyone, and welcome to this episode of FTL. So I've mentioned this potential session in a few different uh episodes previously. So we're going to just talk about maybe some food for thought for how you approach purchasing a new technology solution. So this isn't specifically ERP, but I think we need to maybe change the traditional approach given the current wave of new technology that's coming through. So I just thought I'd share my thoughts with you today. So very excited to do this. So I have uh called the session stop shopping, start transforming. And I think the big thing to think about as we go through this piece and as you approach technology generally is how do you accelerate the time to value for the solution that you're looking at? Um, and I think the traditional methods, and we're going to talk about this in a little bit, um, focus very much on the process of purchasing, and then it almost comes to a stop, and then you start transforming. And what I want to help maybe rethink is how do we get started on that journey faster? So today's session we're going to talk about why the traditional RFP approach doesn't always work. Um, where are some of the challenges with it? So it doesn't mean that it's not always a great solution, um, but I'm I guess I'm here to sort of say that perhaps there's a different way. Um, how to run a consultative selection cycle that really helps you get to choose, not just choose the right technology, but get value from the partner that you're working with and how to accelerate the time to value. So for those of you that don't know me or haven't heard of me before, my name is Hannah Munro. I'm managing director of ITAS or ITAS Solutions, as we're often referred to. Um, and we're a we're a financial transformation consultancy that specializes in Sage. Now, um, for my sins, even though I look after the team now, I'm actually an ex-consultant. And so one of my passions is building out frameworks that um ensure consistent quality of service across our organization. So that's part of what I do, and it's why I do these financial transformation live sessions. Um, for those of you that um didn't manage to make our transformation troubleshooter session in September, is now available on demand if you'd like to listen. That's both on the podcast and on our YouTube channel. So let's get started then. Um, and for the we've actually made, you know, if I give maybe give you a positioning statement. So we've actually made a decision as an organization to not engage within RFPs. Now, RFPs, for those of you that don't know, are request for proposals. That's where you submit a list of requirements and then obviously people submit tenders against them. So what I've found, and the reason we don't particularly like working with them, is because it either become, it doesn't allow suppliers to really get into your process. And we're a consultancy, so actually, our value is helping you not just give you what you think you need, but help make sure that we're delivering the outcomes that you want as an organization. Um, and the challenge we have with RFPs, not RFIs, by the way, you know, there's a different approach with RFIs, but with RFPs, you have very little room to actually consult and add value. Um, it's very much about a tick feature feature tick box exercise. Um, and it's and and that's brilliant if you know what features you want and need. But I would challenge most technology buyers in the current age to actually know um and know what they actually need in order, as in how they need their solution to work. A lot of the time, that certainly now it's not just about buying good technology, it's about buying a transformation partner, somebody that's going to help you on that journey. And I don't feel like the current RFP process are designed for that. And what we've often found, right, regardless of the the perception that comes across, is that the team have already made a decision or they've selected, they've worked with a different supplier before, and and they're kind of going through a process of doing an RFP to tick the box versus actually engaging it as a way of assessing different solutions. So so that so there's so there's some big challenges, I think, with how people purchase technology, and the should and the I guess the only alternative that's currently available is for people to either go in alone or to um to do an RF or to do an RFP. So, what I want to talk through today is perhaps there's a different way, um, and how can you engage with suppliers in a consultative way to really one select the best product for your organization, but two find the best supplier um and to encourage them to innovate and help you deliver your value and your goals, right? So, and that's what I think a process should be is it should be that purchasing process should take you on the start you on that journey of the transformation. It shouldn't just be a point at which you once you've finished it, you start transforming. So the focus on outcomes needs to be there. So I the key things I I would suggest you think about is ed how can you educate and you know get your potential or prospective suppliers up to speed on your business and your processes? Um, how can you give them the space, the room to offer alternative solutions that you may not have considered? And how can you engage and evaluate the outcome that a product will deliver, not just tick box on features? Because some things are comparable, some things aren't. And so that needs to form part of a holistic view of how you assess a technology vendor. So I think what's really important is people produce in our traditional FBs, they produce this very long list of requirements, but what they don't do is give enough information about the organization, the processes, the controls, the use cases, the scenarios, right? So if you're gonna spend money on a consultant coming in to help you put together a document, why not make it something that actually starts you on your transformation journey? So my view of what that could look like, and I guess some food for thought is um imagine a document that you give to each of your prospective suppliers, right? That has a series of problem statements and goals for each area of finance or the business. So, i.e., for accounts payable, it has a statement around this is the challenge that we need a new solution to solve, right? This is the outcomes we want. So we want to get the cost per invoice down to this, for instance, or we want to have we want to increase capacity to make to double the capacity of AP invoices that we can um cope with without increasing head count. You know, whatever are your goals as an organization, right? So you actually summarize for that particular area, problem statement, your the goals that you want to achieve. You have an outline of the current process. So what's your current process look like? The use cases and scenarios that you might need to hit, um, i.e., we've got um, you know, we've got project-based invoices, we've got overhead invoices, we've got multi-currency-based invoices, we've got stock, we've got free, we've got service items. Yep. So a series of use cases and scenarios that you need to be able to cope with, the controls that you need for that for that area and department, and your required outputs, right? Imagine having that for AP, AR, um, for general ledger, you know, budgeting and planning, projects, etc. So a series of knowledge, you know, some an overview of how the business currently operates and what you where you need it to go. And you gave that to a supplier because you know, they might say, Well, yes, you know, if if I ticked your box around, I need, you know, I need an a digital um process. They may not look at some automated technology like OCR, right? I'm sure they would, but it you know, you can see where I'm going is like I think RFPs encourage tick boxing versus this is how we think we should reimagine your your procurement process. You know, you may not have asked for a digital supplier on boarding, but that's available, you know, those kind of you know, those kind of things. But in order for them to make good recommendations, they need to understand your business and your your process. So you can rather than spending that money on a consultant to put together requirements, perhaps what they could do is put a summary of the challenges, the outcomes that you want to get, and the process maps for each area. So, and that's what I think is a much more valuable process, right? So you so imagine you've got this document that summarizes for each of the areas that you're looking to put a new technology solution in, those things, yeah, the problem segment goals, the current processes, use cases scenarios, controls required, and required outputs and reporting. Yeah, and you gave that to your suppliers, right? Um, then what's really important is you offer them time with the required individuals and areas, right? So this is again where RFPs, because they've already spent so much time um potentially, you know, dealing with the person that's put together the RFP, people get very like they don't want to engage anymore. So if you've given them enough information, right, what what you need to make it clear to your suppliers, and it's a good assessment of them, is have they actually read the document? Are they asking you things that are already in there? Or is this further, you know, delving into um or what over and above what you've already given them? Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 10:32

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SPEAKER_03: 10:58

Now, what's really important about this is I think that when you're in this, when you're going through this process is that you're minimizing the number of partners that you're working with, okay? Because you you don't want to waste your time more than anything. So, you know, having three strong partners and you know, potentially um, and I'm assuming across different technologies, um, all with a, I would have said, you know, make sure you've got some either a recommendation or you've seen some case studies of somebody in a relevant industry or type of or a similar industry, like i.e. project-based, etc. Um, and and then ask, you know, having sent them document, ask them, you know, get give them time to delve deeper into make sure they're fully understood and that there's no questions outside of what you've already talked about that perhaps they've missed. Um, document your sessions with them, right? Because very often, certainly I would have thought most of them will come up with questions that you hadn't thought of that highlight particular capabilities you may want or need or areas for improvement, and then circulate the additional questions to the to all of the suppliers that you're working with, right? Create like a black box of data. So you're constantly trying to, you're basically trying to help your suppliers get to know you as quickly and as well as possible. So, so by continuing to sort of update them with the information that the other partners have found, you're actually gaining real value from this process because they're uncovering things, but you're sharing that knowledge. So everyone is working from a similar core base of knowledge about your organization. Um, and and then at that point, once they understand your business, you can say to them, right, give me a rough idea of what you think I need budget-wise, both for software, for implementation, um, and what modules would be looking at. So just ask them for ballparks, right? Because if you ask them for anything concrete at this stage, you're potentially, you know, you're you're not going to get there. Yep. So what you want is ballparks, then you can look at them and go, is everyone in the rough ballpark? Um, are we talking in the same piece? And also you as a um, you're not investing a huge amount more effort if people you haven't got the right ballparks in the room. Maybe they're too high, maybe they're too low, maybe um you're you're concerned about how you're going to justify the ROI. And that in that case, you can start to think, okay, we need to go into the next part of the process with that in mind. Okay. So once you've um educated your suppliers, you've asked them to um you've offered them time to be able to consult with you and get under the hood of how you guys operate, um, and you've got um some rough ballparks, then's the chance to evaluate. So, what I would then ask them to do is deliver demos against those problem statements and outcomes. So they should show you each of the areas that you've documented, how they will enable you to achieve those outcomes, and that's what you need to measure. Yeah. And I think this is where, again, people lean on RFPs, is that it's easy to tick box, right? It's a lot harder to effectively evaluate a piece. So you need to think about making sure you've got the right people involved in your evaluation. So individuals that both have an operational knowledge. So you want people that are doing the process to kind of look at that and go, okay, this is going to cause us a problem. Or not even all, and you need people that can look at this and go, this will allow us to achieve our overarching goals, yeah, that can assess your the ability to achieve the outcomes, yeah. Um, and then assessing against the process. What does the does the process look good? Does it look effective? Is it going to deliver the outcomes we want? Does it deliver the controls that we and the um the the um you know, for instance, an AP that could be approvals? Does it deliver the controls of the process that we want? Um, does it deliver the reporting the outcomes? So sort of marking and assessing against each of those functional areas against those different pieces, like is the process more efficient? Does this pro does this way of working allow us to achieve our goals? Does it solve our problem statement? And how well does it do it? Um does it um give us the controls over the process that we need, um, and does it deliver the outputs in terms of reporting, etc., that we need? Okay, so and I would do that for each area. So I would do um again, and oh, and can it cope with the use cases that we've put forwards and make sure you tick each of the use cases off as part of this? Yeah. So as you get and as they show you that, make sure you're recording sessions, yeah. Again. Um, and and and then you can use that to build because very often you can get sidetracked or by a sparkly piece of technology, right? But just make sure you've got your marking matrix available to support that. Um, and then once you've you've gone through that, you could do this with all three, but I you know you might want to get two down to final two. Um, then have a look and speak to customers um ideally within the same industry or with a similar problem. So, in for instance, if you're in construction, you're project-based. Yep. So looking and speaking to other customers of theirs that are in project-based industries is a good way to assess it. Ideally, more than one if you can get it. Um, and that, and ask them, you know, um, ask them about the challenges they faced, etc., and their experience, and more importantly, did it achieve the outcomes because it's not about features. Um, and then what you can do is based on what you've seen, then assess ROI, right? Because depending on the solution that's in front of you, the ROA is the ROI is going to be different. So it might be that a particular solution's got a really great automation around bank rec, for instance, that and that could save you um one FTE or give you some controls that another another solution may not be able to give you. So you need to assess each solution, and I think that's why ideally you want to kind of get down to two and understand sort of what's the ROI of the solution you've seen. And at that point, that would be when I would then sit down with the particular vendor and go, okay, can you now give me an investment plan and an implementation plan? What does this look like in terms of how I need to resource and how you are going to resource and in what order and how do we to how do we get there? Yeah, because it's all very good them showing you this beautiful shiny toy, but you need to make sure that you have a plan to get there as well. And certainly, if they give you a plan and you feel like it's it's not detailed enough or it doesn't cope with some of the change in management, then you've got the opportunity to kind of get into that one, yeah. But the the key piece about this, right, is that as you're going through this, they're learning about your organization, right? You're enabling them to understand as a starting point. So rather than this be a process by which you select a technology, it actually becomes a way you could start their education journey on you as a as in you as an organization. And then what by the time you actually start the project, you've got this whole history, you've got, you know, ideally, you know, um, four end-to-end demonstrations for each of the areas that cover the use cases that you've selected, right? They've understood the use cases and your current processes, you've got clear ROI and benefits against outcomes, and you've got an investment plan and a way of achieving it. So it does sound in some ways like common sense, but the key piece is to it, the key differential from how I've seen a lot of current processes work is to focus on this is what I want, where I want to go, Mr. Supplier. How are you going to help me get there? How am I best to achieve this aim? Um, and take me on that journey. This is what you need to know about me, and this is this is the outcome I need to achieve. Help me figure out the best way to get there. And I feel like that for me is the key differential. I think there's too much focus on ticking the box in terms of features and capabilities, right? Because if I'm I'm the first one to say that not all technology is created equal, there are some real differentials, but sometimes differentials come down as much to how it's implemented as it is to what is implemented. Yeah. So this is your way of making sure that the focus is on the outcomes and that you're truly getting value from your transformation, and that you're starting that journey at the beginning of the buying cycle. So that once you get into that process of actually implementing the technology you selected, there's already a level of knowledge around your organization within that supplier that can then accelerate your time to value. Okay. So this is and has been a very short but sweet one. I hope it was valuable. Um, and of course, um, I really, if you have any questions around this, I'd love to get some feedback on this piece. And I am, you know, looking for a few. Um, we do a huge amount of um uh we have a lot of conversations with different customers, um, prospects and both are existing about how to evaluate what's you know what they want from their technology and what solutions to look for. Um, but um I'd be really interested in your feedback. If you're going through this process and would like some more insights or some guidance, I'd be happy to help. So um coming up in November though, guys, we do have our transformation troubleshooters. Please do join us for that. It's on the 20th of November. Um, and if you have found this uh session interested, perhaps you're looking to explore a different way, or you want to, you're about to start a procurement process, then please do reach out. I'm happy to have an informal conversation, answer any questions you might have about this, I guess, this alternative model and how it could work in practicalities. Um, we do offer a pre-purchase consultancy um service for those of you that are interested. Um, we tend to work obviously within the Sage suite of tools. So um, you know, in terms of options that we offer on the table, that's where we go. Um, but um the principles that I've been talking about here, you know, documenting current processes, focus on how the as how it could look and where that differential is, putting forwards um solutions and modules based on what you're trying to achieve and you know where you want to go versus what you do now is is all of what that's about. So we do do drink our own champagne here at ITS. Um, so if you're looking to assess that, then please do reach out. But if you just want some, I guess, some some advice and guidance on how to go through this process, please do reach out to me on LinkedIn. You know, I'm I'm happy to have an initial call just to give you a nudge in the right direction, if that would help. So, um, and of course, um for those of you that don't know, we do have our which product is right for me quiz. Um, and we do have some uh we, you know, if you're looking to evaluate technology, then of course please do book our discovery with one of our technology teams. Well, thank you so much for listening. Um, I hope this has been useful. Perhaps some food for thought um on a Wednesday afternoon. Um, and uh yeah, if you've got any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. Thanks guys, and we'll see you next time on Financial Transformation Live. One of the hardest things, I think, is actually putting into words what it means to work with myself and the team here at ITAS. Um, because not only are we a financial transformation consultancy, but we do it using Sage technology. So rather than me tell you how awesome we are, let me introduce one of our customers.

SPEAKER_02: 23:28

I'd recommend ITAS as a Sage partner, um, not only because of their knowledge that they have on the product itself, um Intact, but also their friendly and professional approach to the whole project. Um they've been incredibly flexible throughout the process, but also challenging us as a customer to really think about what it is that we're after and ensuring that intact was actually the correct solution for us to meet our to meet our needs, which was really refreshing rather than feeling we're just being sold the product that they offer. Um we've got on really well with the whole team, they've been hugely approachable, um helpful throughout the whole process, really putting it at us at ease if you know anything we kind of felt um we were struggling with or difficult. It really helped us to understand some of the complexities with the new system that's different to other finance systems, things that we just never come across before, like the new dimensions and understanding how that actually works.