Factors Driving Adoption of Next-Generation Financial Management Systems

July, 2022

Financial management system vendors continue to see strong adoption of their next-generation suites. Customers are looking for new solutions to handle core financial processes, improve financial reporting, comply with changing regulatory requirements, and improve the accuracy of forecasting and budgeting. Vendors are also incorporating new functionality based on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), robotic process automation (RPA), and optical character recognition (OCR) to help enterprises detect anomalies, solve industry-specific challenges, and automate financial processes.

These trends, and others, are covered in Avasant’s Financial Management Suites 2022 RadarView™. The report is a comprehensive study on financial management suites, taking a close look at the leaders, innovators, disruptors, and challengers in this market.

It addresses the need for enterprises to optimize their financial processes with a unified financial platform and identify the right vendor. It also highlights key trends in the financial management software market.

We evaluated 15 vendors using three dimensions: product maturity, enterprise adaptability, and innovation road map. Of the 15 vendors, 13 are recognized as having brought the most value to the market over the past 12 months.

The RadarView recognizes platform vendors in four categories:

    • Leaders: Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP
    • Innovators: Infor, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, UNIT4, and Workday
    • Disruptors: Acumatica and Ramco
    • Challengers: Epicor, FinancialForce, and IFS

Figure 1 from the full report illustrates these categories:

MoneyShot Financial Management Suites 2022 RadarView 1030x687 - Factors Driving Adoption of Next-Generation Financial Management Systems

“Financial management systems are one of the oldest categories of commercial software, so you’d think this would be a pretty mature market,” said Frank Scavo, president of Avasant Research. “But there is an incredible amount of innovation taking place, especially in the application of AI, RPA, and OCR technology.”

Some of the findings from the full report include the following:

    • Enterprises are adopting financial management systems as a unified platform to reduce financial process cycle time and provide real-time financial reporting.
    • Platform providers are developing solutions powered by AI, ML, RPA, and OCR to reduce payment generation time, automate financial processes, and generate invoices more quickly.
    • Financial management solutions help enterprises create rules to identify anomalies like procurement fraud, unauthorized reimbursements, and asset misappropriation.
    • New solutions serve industry-specific challenges, such as custom profit and loss reports and generating invoices adhering to local regulations.

“Financial management software continues to evolve to take advantage of next-gen technologies,” said Gaurav Dewan, associate research director with Avasant. “These leading platforms give unified view across business groups  and are much better in terms of cash forecast accuracy, reconciliation, and adherence to industry standards.”

The full report also features RadarView profiles of the top 13 platform providers, including their solutions, offerings, and experience in assisting enterprises in digital transformation.


This Research Byte is a brief overview of the full Financial Management Suites 2022 RadarView™ (click for pricing).