PERCIPIENT
5 Ways you’re wasting money with your old finance system Jo Fuller examines five ways you’re wasting money with your old hospitality finance system.
U
ndoubtedly, 2020 has been one of the hardest years for the hospitality industry, with the global pandemic bringing the sector to a standstill almost overnight. Steps to reopen are still tentative, with the looming threat of local lockdowns ever-present. In light of this, the industry is under increasing pressure to make real cost and efficiency savings in an effort to not only offset the negative impact of 2020 but to build a more agile, sustainable business, ready to weather any future storms that might come its way. One area which is often overlooked is that of back-office systems, particularly finance systems, which can be a hidden source of cost inefficiencies, with outdated, inefficient systems not delivering anywhere near the levels of value they should. With this in mind, we’ve identified five ways that many hospitality businesses are actually wasting money with their finance system, looking at how this can be remedied.
1. Numerous Offline Workarounds Many legacy systems simply can’t cope with business growth, unable to scale flexibly to meet the changing needs of a growing business. Inefficient, labourintensive solutions can actually prevent growth, with costly mistakes the result of human error and the inevitable consequence of trying to manage a growing business with a tangle of systems that aren’t fit for purpose.
14
THE OVERVIEW | OCTOBER 2020
2. Inefficient Reporting Disparate, disjointed systems mean that it falls to someone to spend an inordinate amount of time pulling together information from across the business to secure a comprehensive view of the entire organisation. Not only does this result in errors but it’s time-consuming meaning that key information is not only inaccurate but often out-of-date by the time it reaches key decision makers.
3. On-premise Problems Maintaining on-premise solutions is not only costly but resource-heavy too. After
the initial investment, it’s an ongoing commitment to maintain the solution itself, not to mention the cost and effort required to keep hardware working effectively, while taking care of data security, disaster recovery and other business-critical issues.
4. Paper Overload Many incumbent financial systems are very admin-heavy, involving a hefty paper trail which is not only difficult to manage but error-prone and nigh-on impossible to search effectively and in a timely manner.
