SignUp Software CEO’s Insights on Overcoming CFO Challenges, Applying AI

Highlights


Current Challenges (00:48)


Manny names capital allocation as a major challenge for the
office of the CFO. They spend much time thinking about which
technologies and industry solutions are best to invest in. They
have to determine which investments take priority, such as
investing in tech that benefits the company’s back office versus
their customers. Value creation is also a key consideration. “Our
analysis on where do we invest those dollars has gotten a lot
more granular and a lot more scrutiny around those decisions,” he
says.


“Many of the CFOs face the challenge of doing more with less when
money has gotten a bit more expensive,” Hedin raises. Another
challenge he notes is regulatory aspects. The three C’s — cost,
control, and compliance — need to be as efficient as possible.
Determining how to leverage AI can be a challenge on the
technology side.


AI Impact (07:17)


When building out large language models (LLMs) and algorithms,
you have to ensure you have the right governance and controls
internally on the data to get the desired outcome. This is vital
when starting out leveraging new technologies to drive business
decisions and efficiencies. While this can be daunting, “there’s
a lot of value to it,” Manny notes. Once it’s tested and secure
internally, the next phase of an AI journey is to look at it from
a customer-facing perspective.


Hedin shares customer examples of applying machine learning and
AI. “In the financial process automation space, AI is definitely
saving a lot of time already today for a lot of CFOs,” Hedin
says.


CFO AI Concerns and Second Half Mindset (11:30)


Korakis says the biggest risk is that AI outputs don’t
necessarily align with the question an employee is seeking to
answer. If a person thinks they’re feeding the algorithm or LLM
all the right data points but they’re actually not, that’s a big
issue. His company is ensuring good data governance.


Microsoft has made Copilot actionable for ISVs like Signup; since
it’s embedded in Finance and Operations as well as Business
Central, there are actions that weren’t available before, Hedin
says. It’s one thing to get intelligent responses, but when you
can also start doing things such as generating a PO if one’s
missing, then you have an assistant that can do a lot more things
for you. It’s really exciting in terms of customer problems that
can be solved.


Korakis says in the first half of the year there’s been a lot of
disruption in the macro environment that followed supply chain
challenges: rising interest rates that created caution and the
need to be very thoughtful in using investment dollars has slowed
things down a bit. “I see that starting to phase off” and CFOs
are more willing to spend as the second half approaches.


D365 Trends (15:09)


Hedin says AI is one big, obvious trend with Dynamics 365. The
other is new regulatory demands. If you send an invoice to a
customer in Italy you need to go through their tax authorities
now so they can track it. A US customer asked to start invoicing
in Germany and needed guidance. It varies by country. That’s a
big challenge for the international companies as well – how to
handle that in an efficient way.


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