3 reasons why healthcare companies should switch to cloud-based FP&A

Over the past year and half, healthcare companies have dealt with the worst of the pandemic and adapted to constant disruptions and changes. Business practices in the healthcare field are evolving and cloud-based FP&A can help health organizations manage their uncertain and evolving future. Regulations will change, competition will intensify and pandemics like the one we’re experiencing now will happen again. Cloud-based FP&A software, like Limelight, is optimized for the planning and forecasting abilities that healthcare organizations need to optimize their resources in the uncertain future.

Here is a look at some of the ways cloud-based FP&A software can help:

Automatic Real-Time Updates

Cloud-based FP&A systems integrate with your organization’s ERP such as Sage Intacct and can update data in real time. Budgeting and forecasting processes need to become more dynamic and resilient to reflect the uncertainty of the health market. Rather than budgeting once a year and leaving it untouched, changes need to happen continuously, and organizations should use the latest data to react appropriately. New regulations, new competition and new health shocks need to be accounted for in a company’s planning and this can be done with scenario planning features built into these solutions.

Real-time updates produce more realistic portraits of organizational health and can help build resilience in the face of upcoming crises. Automation features help detect and manage errors, making their impacts less prevalent compared to using traditional spreadsheets and the limited financial planning they allow. Cloud FP&A platforms provide finance leaders with up-to-date information when faced with a challenge, helping them respond in a more informed and confident manner.

Ease of Use & Collaboration

One of the biggest challenges facing healthcare organizations is the management and unification of their data. Cloud-based FP&A helps to manage this issue by enabling collaboration between team members, cutting operational costs, and improving the efficiency and impacts of decision-making.

Cloud-based FP&A programs are easy to understand and use for everyone inside the organization from the finance team to shareholders. Solutions such as Limelight preserve the Excel experience finance teams are used to while improving power features so there is no need to learn a new platform. It’s important to look for solution providers that understand the ubiquity of structured data and provide different, more specialized products that take inspiration from the positive features of Excel while expanding usability. The software gives you the best of both worlds, the ease of Excel and the expansive, interconnected world of the Cloud.

Better Data Management

Data Management is only going to become more important in the world of business, so it is imperative that organizations get a firm grip on it as soon as possible. Data improves decision making by backing it up with material facts, it removes the uncertainty of human decision-making and gives the individual viewing the data a direct line to the objective health of the organization.

Cloud-based FP&A solutions manage and organize data for business purposes – leveraging raw financial data from a HIPAA-compliant healthcare cloud accounting system like Sage Intacct and then transforming it into actionable insights so stakeholders can take action. It is an inevitable component of an economy-wide re-thinking of data-based decision making that will affect the healthcare sector directly.

Conclusion

Cloud FP&A speeds up the budgeting process and helps healthcare organizations use their data in a more strategic and organized fashion. Excel is a useful product, but it is not suited for the demands of growing organizations in a rapidly changing, crisis-prone field. Healthcare organizations can use a solution like Limelight to optimize their data-management processes and better plan and budget for a future that is always changing.