The Covid-19 crisis is making a big impact on the efficiency of the UK’s finance departments, with 66% of financial professionals reporting that they are working more efficiently since the onset of the pandemic in March of this year. The results from a recent survey into the impact of the pandemic on the sector by fintech company Onguard revealed that this increased efficiency is primarily due to the obligation to work from home and rapid digitisation during this period.

Changing attitudes to digital transformation

71% of financial professionals agree that their department was able to rapidly adjust to home working within just a few days, with 21% reporting that their organisation has invested in specialist software in order to do so. This has resulted in just under three quarters of those surveyed believing that they are able to perform their work well from home, with only 35% still in need of specialist software to collaborative effectively.

Alongside the implementation of new technology, changing attitudes to digital transformation have played a role in the successful move to remote working. Research conducted earlier this year prior to the Covid-19 outbreak in the UK highlighted employees’ resistance to digital transformation as a major challenge, however now only 11% of organisations view employee attitudes as a barrier to change.

Working from home is the new norm

Looking ahead, 61% of financial professionals would like the flexibility to keep working from home permanently, thanks to the benefits provided by new technology.

Marieke Saeij, CEO of Onguard: “It is certainly admirable how English businesses have adapted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic, digital transformation initiatives within many organisations was a multi-year plan, but the events of this year meant that businesses could not wait to implement further strategies. Almost exclusively, colleagues now update each other digitally. Because of this, its crucial that organisations have the right software in place to keep everything running effectively.

Due to the challenge of finance professionals communicating via digital tools, it is important that data is kept up-to-date and contains real-time insights so professionals can make the correct remote decisions in an efficient and collaborative way. With the help of the right software, the finance professional can be sure they always have the correct data to do their job and assist both the organisation and customer moving forward.”