This thesis researches the digitalization of finance functions as a part of the “Digital Technology in Finance” -project. The project offered the possibility to write a thesis as part of a student group that investigates the way technology affects operations in Finance. As part of the project, this study takes the approach of researching digitalization progress in the finance function, with an additional focus on different phases of digitalization.
Digitalization is approached with the role and development of the finance function in the literature review, to give organizational context as to why digital transformations are a relevant topic in the finance function literature. Next, the benefits and challenges of digitalization, as well as technologies used in the finance function are presented as a background for the analysis part of this study.
The analysis of this study was conducted using survey results from 108 finance functions from the “Digital technology in Finance” -project. The first part of the analysis looks at the state of digital transformation in the sample and analyzes the progress by comparing the results to previous literature. Categories researched include digital tools, digital strategy, application areas of digital tools, business partnering, decision-making influence, information systems, employee skills, function objectives, and the digitalization culture. The second part of the analysis looks for predictors for digitalized finance functions using a linear regression model with the aforementioned categories.
The results showed that finance functions are still in the early steps of digital transformation, but considerable progress has been made towards a modern digitalized function. The predictors for a digitalized finance function were found to be company size, employee skills, business partnering activities, as well as application of digital tools. Driving major organizational change was found to have a negative association with digitalization.
