Proformative, a leading online community for finance and accounting professionals, recently conducted a survey to measure attitudes toward cloud(opens in new tab) and SaaS accounting software(opens in new tab) applications amongst financial executives.
The results once again reinforce the growing momentum of the move from traditional on-premise applications to cloud financials(opens in new tab), while shedding some light on what finance executives feel are the positives and risks related to this increasingly adopted technology.
A few key findings from the report:
- A majority, 55%, of the accounting leaders polled said that cloud computing(opens in new tab) and SaaS(opens in new tab) will be “very important” to their companies over the next two years, while another 32% recognize a need to be more educated on the subject
- Of companies already operating in the cloud, 69% report higher ROI, 77% report reduction in capital expenditures, and 71% increased collaboration.
- Other areas where accounting pros see cloud and SaaS helping their business included: Better scalability without additional infrastructure, reduction in IT expenses, providing a lower cost alternative to on-premise accounting software(opens in new tab), consolidating accounting and CRM systems across borders, increased ability for company to respond quickly, and reductions in IT risk and downtime.
However, financial leaders also had concerns with these technologies that must be proactively addressed by SaaS and cloud vendors including, greater risk to company and customer data, integration with legacy systems, and increased business and IT risk.
You can access full details of the report here(opens in new tab).