Reframing Financial Management’s Focus

Date: May 2, 2018

Leaders across the government are starting to shift their focus toward understanding the impact of standardization and innovation on agencies. Between talks of robotics and analytics, top agency officials want to understand new technologies and collaborate on ways to implement them government-wide.

To help agencies streamline processes, FIT proposed at its April Financial Management Standards Committee Advisory Board meeting a new FM (Financial Management) Innovation Program to promote emerging technologies that improve efficiency in the FM community.

Many agencies run their own pilot programs, but partnering with FIT would allow them to expand their programs and have a forum to share best practices. This knowledge sharing would prevent agencies from duplicating work and allow them to concentrate on projects that add the most value.

The Advisory Board also dove into discussions about the President’s Management Agenda and how their agencies can move away from manual, burdensome tasks and transition to high-value activities. Treasury’s own David Lebyrk (Fiscal Assistant Secretary) presented Treasury’s 10 year plan, highlighting data analytics, thought leadership, and performance monitoring and management.

The reframing of how agencies look at standardization and automation was addressed throughout the meeting. Standardizing definitions and guidance can bring clarity and consistency in the FM community.

Recent trends in robotics show opportunity for bots to perform routine tasks faster and more accurately than humans through automation. Introducing bots across the government could lead to cost savings, improved financial services, and giving CFOs more time to focus on strategic matters.

This Advisory Board meeting exemplified the benefit of collaboration spurring innovation. As agencies move toward reframing how they look at standardization and automation, collaboration will be integral in empowering agencies to reach their common goals.