Deploying a Multi-Dimensional
Financial ERP Transformation Team
By implementing Financial Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) systems, Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and their
Program Managers (PMs) often envision a streamlined
finance organization that primarily records fully automated
financial transactions and allows personnel to pivot their
efforts from manual, time-consuming duties towards
more mission value-added activities (e.g., calculate real-
time financial metrics and insights on business activities,
and enhancing customer service). CFOs and ERP PMs
assume going into an ERP implementation that it will be
on-time and in line with the projected budget. However,
after significant investment in dollars and time, many,
if not most CFOs and ERP PMs, are not creating the
organizations they imagined. Instead, they see the
formation of more restrictive systems, duplication of
activities across various ERP technologies, continued
data integrity and reporting challenges, limited analytics
capabilities, and an underutilized workforce, which is
often over-budget and behind schedule.
Deploying a Multi-Dimensional Financial ERP Transformation Team
The technologies needed to transform
the finance organization are available
in the market and will only continue to
become more advanced. In the years
ahead, cloud-based ERP systems,
automation, and cognitive capabilities
will experience exponential innovation,
creating opportunities to radically simplify
finance processes and ultimately allow an
organization’s workforce to execute more
mission-based and value-added activities
and analysis. It’s exciting to hear the
technology is continuing to innovate, but
that still doesn’t ensure success for an ERP
implementation. As technology develops,
the role of the CFO is expanding as well,
meaning that CFOs now often oversee an
organization’s acquisition/procurement,
asset management, supply chain, and
facility functions in addition to its finance
functions. The oversight of various business
process areas can span throughout multiple
systems, adding additional complexity
requiring ERP PMs to reconcile capabilities
across multiple systems.
To maximize the potential of ERP
technologies and attain their broad visions,
CFOs will be best positioned for success
by deploying a multi-dimensional
Financial ERP Transformation team
to fill current organizational gaps
within the transformation. The multi-
dimensional Financial ERP Transformation
team would deploy the assorted mix of
skillsets to meet the needs of the CFOs and
the ERP PMs as well as the accountability
and program management required to
support the organization’s transformation.
Deploying a multi-dimensional Financial
ERP Transformation team will allow the
organization to leverage their own resources
to serve as subject matter experts (SMEs)
during the transformation and allow
the System Integrator (SI) to focus on
the technical activities required for the
finance transformation. The advantages
of deploying an independent, multi-
dimensional Financial ERP Transformation
team complementary to the SI are
extensive. Multi-dimensional Financial ERP
Transformation teams don’t come in a one-
sized fits all approach; they are uniquely
developed and composed based on the
organization’s needs.
Value of a Multi-Dimensional Financial
ERP Transformation Team
With a multi-dimensional Financial ERP
Transformation team, CFOs and ERP PMs
can be more strategic in implementing
ERP systems throughout the organization.
A multi-dimensional Financial ERP
Transformation team is vendor-agnostic and
brings a depth of experience in financial
ERP integration, which will supplement
and enhance their system integrator
accountability, deploy innovative financial
solutions, provide meaningful program
metrics and facilitate an enhanced customer
and change management experience. The
following roles are essential as they balance
the functional finance requirements of their
organization with the technology expertise
necessary to implement a financial ERP
system. The importance of a well-equipped
team ensures the CFO and ERP PM can
manage, rather than be involved with the
day-to-day process improvements that an
ERP solution can provide.
The figure below depicts traditional Financial
ERP Transformation teams and the multi-
dimensional value provided to support
successful financial transformations.
Figure 1: Multi-Dimensional Financial ERP Transformation Teams and Value
Designing a Multi-Dimensional Financial
ERP Transformation Team
There are a several issues and best practices
for CFOs and ERP PMs to consider when
assembling their multi-dimensional Financial
ERP Transformation team to support a
transformation within their organization:
The Program Manager provides overall
project support in the form of schedule
management, resource management,
communications strategy, organizational
change management (OCM), and metrics
reporting and analysis. In addition to project
support, the program manager understands
the considerations for programmatic
decisions to the CFO’s organization and
what the effects of those decisions may
be. The program manager will be able to
not only translate the impacts of certain
programmatic decisions to ERP PMs
and their stakeholders but also manage
and oversee multiple roles the CFO and
ERP PM choose to adopt as part of their
transformation.
Deploying a Multi-Dimensional Financial ERP Transformation Team
The Finance Strategy Transformation and
Governance team supports the organization
at the onset of the implementation
to define their mission and vision and
develop a transformation roadmap. This
role entails strategic system initiative
planning, including prioritizing system
initiatives against customer requirements
and resource constraints, while also
illuminating if CFO and/or ERP PMs are
on the right path to achieving the mission
and vision for the organization. This team
also connects programmatic goals to the
core mission of the organization. Applying
strategic planning skills and experience
within the implementation, this role helps
the CFO identify and focus on key strategic
milestones and outcomes as a result of a
successful implementation.
The OCM and Operating Model Design team
leads the design, development, execution
and management of the OCM plan. The
strategy and plan will address changes
in business processes, operating model,
organizational structure and culture within
the client organization. This team works
closely with the organization to ensure
proper alignment and communication of
an operating model, organization, business
processes and priorities. Additionally,
this team supports the CFO in preparing
their organization for the change that is
approaching and ensures all stakeholders
are engaged through the transition of
implementing ERP systems. Change is
difficult in every organization, and this team
will help guide the organization through the
change process and ensure all stakeholders
are ready to do their jobs at the completion
of the transformation.
CFOs need to think through the lens of
the customers to fully understand what is
required for the project to be successful. To
create customer experiences that support
successful transformation, it’s crucial
to have a holistic vision that helps a PM
understand what matters to customers
beyond their path to using the new ERP.
Deploying a Customer Experience team is
not just about removing the pain points for
the end-user, the team is fundamental in
seeing the big picture of what is important
to consumers in their daily lives: how they
interact with stakeholders, use technology,
and spend their time. This role confirms
that the customer requirement will resolve
the underlying issue at hand and advocates
that the “right,” rather than easiest, solution
be implemented. The ability to forecast
potential issues and develop proper
resolutions supports the CFO in developing
a customer-centric approach to the
implementation.
Data problems hide beneath the surface
for CFOs. Data related issues occur as
a result of a combination of technical
issues, restrictive systems and process
irregularities. The Technology Integration,
Data, Reporting, and Analytics Advisory
team develops solutions to synchronize
data between the various systems across
the organization’s enterprise architecture
and external systems. This role advises and
executes extraction, transformation and
load of legacy data via various integration
products, tools, and services to ensure the
stewardship of the organization’s resources.
Activities include gathering specifications,
deliverable management, advanced and
composite report building, and data
analysis. This team ensures that the CFO is
identifying and addressing the most critical
business analysis and reporting needs
within the organization.
Based on an assessment of the agency’s
needs and their current use of their ERP
financial system, the Functional Finance
Enhancements and Innovations team can
implement time-saving processes that will
reduce resource hours spent on time-
consuming, manual tasks such as data entry
without compromising the organization’s
stewardship of resources. This team should
understand the capabilities and value
of utilizing Robotics Process Automation
(RPA) and supports the PM in developing a
business case for an RPA pilot addressing
processes in need. Enhancements like these
help a CFO identify and implement solutions
to fix day-to-day process inefficiencies within
their organization.
The Financial Reports and Audit Advisory
team supports audit remediation efforts by
understanding unique and creative
methods to leverage system capabilities to
address existing audit findings and prevent
future ones. For example, this team can
establish monitoring activities that check
large data sets to enforce data integrity best
practices that are essential to the creation of
auditable financial statements. In addition, if
a regular pattern of delinquent or incorrect
information is detected, this team can
recommend system edits to prevent future
occurrences from happening, therefore
reducing the risk of future audit findings.
These remediation efforts assure the CFO
that audit findings are being addressed with
the proper controls and financial reports are
being reported accurately and timely.
The Case for the Multi-Dimensional
Financial ERP Transformation Team
None of us know for certain what the future
will hold, but we all possess the capacity
to think about what’s likely to happen
and to prepare for it. A touchless finance
factory of operations manned by finance
special matter experts (SMEs) to address
customer inquiries and provide proactive
organizational insights is on the horizon
for leading organizations. Using technology
to enable this means working today to get
the right people and technology in place to
take advantage of the inevitable disruption
ahead. The upcoming years hold great
promise for finance organizations wanting
to create more value for the organizations
they support. Getting there may not be
smooth and easy, but through the support
of the multi-dimensional Financial ERP
Transformation team CFOs and ERP PMs
establish, it will certainly be worth it.
Deploying a Multi-Dimensional Financial ERP Transformation Team

Contact us:

Christie Johnson Amber Caskin Joe Razzouk

Principal Senior Manager Manager
Deloitte Consulting LLP Deloitte Consulting LLP Deloitte Consulting LLP
Tel: (202) 909-3473 Tel: (571) 882-7164 Tel: (571) 585-5313
Email: chrijohnson@deloitte.com Email: acaskin@deloitte.com Email: jrazzouk@deloitte.com

Deloitte Government & Public Services (GPS) CFO Insights are developed with the guidance of GPS CFO Program Leaders Alla Bishop, partner,
Deloitte & Touche LLP; Cindy Stockman, specialist executive, Deloitte Consulting LLP; Natalie Samuel, Senior Manager, Deloitte & Touche LLP;
and GPS CFO Program Manager Eric Rose, specialist master, Deloitte & Touche LLP.

For more information about Deloitte’s GPS CFO Program, visit www.deloitte.com/us/federalcfo.

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