What’s on the horizon for businesses in 2019? More change. From finding and supporting new customers to dealing with new technology and data challenges, the coming year will require businesses to take a different look at the way that they operate, leveraging technology to get there.

Six Trends Businesses Need to Watch in 2019

A recent Microsoft report looked at the challenges, opportunities, and risks that finance will face in the rapidly approaching year. This report looks at six key trends that businesses will need to look into in 2019, and we will provide a brief look below.

Growing Importance of Finance

Throughout the organization, finance has continued to become more important to the entire business. No longer just tasked with managing money and approving budgets, the finance organization has found its way into operations, IT, and risk management; Microsoft found that Sixty-four percent of CFOs reported being asked to take on broader operational leadership roles beyond finance. This will require a new skillset to adjust, but technology will ultimately improve the way finance tackles these tasks.

Evolving Expectations of Customers

As Millennials pass Boomers as the largest generation in the U.S. and Generation Z enters the workforce in larger numbers, it also means that companies will have a broader set of customers or purchasing managers with whom they will work. Globally-minded, well informed, and passionate, they will push businesses to operate with greater transparency and create more sustainable products.

Further, these customers will have different expectations in the delivery models and customer service requirements, and organizations will need to explore new ways to embrace this group of customers.

Better Technology

Finance has continued to embrace better technology. This has presented finance leaders the opportunity to free themselves from the struggles of manual processes and the poor control or visibility, contributing more to the strategic decisions of the business. In 2019, businesses will continue to leverage more data, building a ‘culture of data.’ 2019 will mark a time when companies become smarter about how they use data, the data itself is also becoming smarter, with AI and machine learning providing instant intelligence and enabling automated processes.

More Uncertainty

2018 was a year with great uncertainty, and trends suggest that 2019 will be no different. From financial regulations, tax changes, and trade policy to Brexit and data protection, finance leaders will once again be forced to navigate through great uncertainty in a turbulent, highly-politicized environment.

New Generations in the Workforce

While Millennials and Gen Z will represent a bigger part of your customer base, they will also play a more important role within companies. As businesses face an increasing skills gap in 2019, they must seek new ways to fill critical roles, including re-training older employees, seeking foreign labor, and tapping the emerging gig economy to meet temporary labor demands.

New Challenges and Risks

As discussed in point one, finance will be focused more on risk management. However, it goes beyond the basics of technological risk, as organizations face additional regulatory risk as well.

Be Ready for 2019: Dynamics 365 Business Central & Acumatica

If you are looking to continue driving your business further in 2019 and beyond, you can’t afford to be held back by manual processes and lack of visibility. Be ready with the next generation solution like Dynamics 365 Business Central or Acumatica. For more details, please contact us