The explosion in data that has launched the Fourth Industrial Revolution, an era when business will be transformed by cyber-physical systems, has enabled several technology trends to develop.
Every business can leverage these important trends and should pay attention to how best to use them, but accountants should really evaluate how these six technologies can be used strategically to achieve the company’s business strategy.
Big Data
Data is crucial to make business financial decisions. Today, data isn't just numbers and spreadsheets that accountants have been familiar with for years; it also includes unstructured data that can be analyzed through natural language processing.
This can allow for real - time status monitoring of financial matters.Data is the fuel that powers other technology trends that are transforming finance and accounting in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.Even the audit process has been digitalized.In the financial realm, data produces valuable insights, drives results and creates a better experience for clients.
Since everything leaves a digital footprint, the unprecedented digitalization of our world is creating opportunities to glean new insights from data that wasn’t possible before. These insights help improve internal operations and build revenue.
Increased Computing Power
Just as it is for other companies, all the data created by our digitalized world would be useless or at least less powerful if it weren't for the advances in computing power.These changes allow accounting and finance departments and firms to store and use the data effectively.
First, there are the cloud services from providers such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft that provide scalable systems and software to leverage that can be accessed wherever and whenever it's needed. Edge computing has also grown. This is where the computing happens not in the cloud, but right where the data is collected. The adoption of 5G (fifth generation) cellular network technology will be the backbone of a smarter world. When quantum computing is fully adopted, it will be transformative in a way that cannot even be predicted at this point since it will catapult our computing power exponentially.
Quantum computers will be able to provide services and solve problems that weren’t possible with traditional computers. There will be tremendous value in the financial world for this capability.