I wont kid anyone. Upfront I need say that I’ve known about FinancialForce.com’s Chatter integration for a little while. If you are interested in understanding breakthrough business value coming from a co-mingling of finance and sales activities then this is a huge deal. If you understand I have been highly skeptical about social computing then my giving this a huge thumbs up is an even bigger deal. If you understand the role of finance has to change as compliance based work becomes commoditized then this announcement should be something in which to immerse yourself.
I have long held the view that finance needs re-inventing. Being locked into Pacioliesque thinking is mind numbingly constraining. My sense is that Chatterbox represents the first iteration of a game changing opportunity for finance people to become central in delivering business value. At a stroke, Chatterbox destroys the notion that departmental silos cannot co-exist without significant friction. Here are some of the business case scenarios that FinancialForce.com has identified:
- When an outstanding credit on a customer account goes over 90 days – finance and sales professionals linked to that account can be immediately alerted, then they can quickly identify the reasons for non-payment and act to try and solve the problem to help cash flow and prevent further sales to that client being held up.
- When a specific supplier has been paid or a new supplier engaged – to help procurement and marketing departments better manage their suppliers and improve relationships.
- Customer accounts that show no activity for a specified length of time – may indicate service deficiencies and help ensure customers are contacted regularly.
- New sales over a specific size or won against a key competitor – to keep management and marketing abreast of sales trends.
As I said on ZDNet:
One off surgical help is useful, but the larger opportunity comes in activity pattern discovery where what Sigurd Rinde might call Barely Repeatable Processes are captured and become actionable in the context of business processes that matter.
Does this excite you or is it a huge yawn? I know where I am placing my bets.
