digital finance t a l e n t A GUIDE TO ATTRACTING AND RETAINING ERP, EPM & ANALYTICS TALENT The eu-solutions 2017 employment survey

Transcription

1 digital finance t a l e n t A GUIDE TO ATTRACTING AND RETAINING ERP, EPM & ANALYTICS TALENT The eu-solutions 2017 employment survey

2 Introduction to the DATA Welcome to our 2017 employment survey which examines the key trends affecting recruitment and retention of finance systems professionals today. Our annual online survey is open every year in January through to March and this year attracted over 1000 respondents. Additionally, we draw from interactions our experienced consultants are having with ERP, EPM and Analytics professionals every day and review all jobs posted in the sector to help with our summary. And new to this year s survey we have expanded our research to the Benelux region, a key market for eu-solutions outside of the UK and also offered some comparisons of salary and benefit data between consulting and industry organisations. We hope that this insight will provide a useful industry benchmark and help job seekers to plan their career and to help organisations to attract, engage and retain the right digital finance talent for their business.

3 The Digital Finance landscape Digital finance is higher than ever on the CFO agenda and the CFO is deploying more and more tech initiatives to drive organisational wide change. Finance and IT are no longer separate items and technology platforms are so deeply embedded into finance that without them there would be no finance. As a result, the ERP, EPM & Analytics market remains strong and demand for talent continues to grow. Organisations are searching for dedicated professionals to maintain business critical finance applications and to architect and lead finance change projects. And there is a premium for certain in demand skills (see our later section). Which also heeds a warning. With all technology markets, the landscape for accounting and finance systems professionals is rapidly evolving and finance systems talent must continue to evolve alongside to ensure skills remain relevant. FINANCE SYSTEMS TALENT MUST CONTINUE TO EVOLVE TO REMAIN RELEVANT 81% worked on change and transformation projects in 2016

4 KEY SCENARIOS AFFECTING DIGITAL FINANCE TALENT OUTSOURCING Outsourcing and the creation of near-shore and off-shore ERP or EPM centres of excellence for development and system maintenance is an ongoing trend VARIETY OF PLATFORMS An increasingly wide variety of ERP and EPM platforms to chose from. The Oracle 1st or SAP 1st policy is becoming a thing of the past meaning talent must broaden skills to stay ahead CLOUD FIRST A Cloud 1st policy is however certainly a thing of the present. The continuing growth of Cloud is impacting the deployment of infrastructure, technical and application resources FINANCE PARTNERING Digital Finance tools are used by finance but are also increasingly configured by finance. Finance partnering is no longer a nice to have. It is a must have skill specialist knowledge Coupled with tools skills, specialist knowledge of the regulatory factors affecting a particular industry (e.g. financial services) is sought after, especially within professional services DELIVERY Technology is being delivered via new subscription and pay as you use business models and finance applications are becoming easier to use (but not necessarily any easier to deploy - yet!) INNOVATION Digital Finance professionals must embrace new innovations to stay ahead, in particular around big data, data science, automation and visualisation, and (around the corner) AI and machine learning

5 80% Believe the Cloud will have an impact on their career in 2017 The technology landscape for finance is rapidly evolving and finance systems experts and talent linked to digital finance must keep skills relevant. Equally, employers must continuously review their recruitment strategy and innovate in order to attract the best digital finance talent to their business.

6 Skills IN DEMAND The positions and skills most in demand, and showing increases in salary and day rates: - Project Managers & Scrum Masters (Agile) - Solution Architects - Technical Architects - Business Analysts - Pre-sales and Product Management - Sales Executives - Consulting, especially industry specialists - Data integration (Cloud) - Master Data Management LOOKING INTO THE DATA Professional services and technology vendors 29% of respondents to our survey work in consulting and professional services, up from 19% last year, and the sector has overtaken financial services as the largest employer in our survey. The technology, digital and software sector has also seen a significant increase employing 12% of our respondents. Day to day we are experiencing increased demand for skills in sales, pre-sales, product / solution management and consulting as more and more technology vendors enter the digital finance market. And as finance applications are increasingly sold, deployed and supported using new end to end solutions we see demand for consulting skills to continue to grow.

7 interim partners Interims continue to be a vital resource in the finance systems market with companies and consulting partners continuing to turn to professional contractors to fill specialist positions. According to our survey, contractors are most often called upon for change and transformation work with the vast majority citing new implementations, upgrades or process improvement as the main reason for the client to hire a temporary resource. 68% of our survey cited lack of specialist skills in the host company as the main reason for hiring a contractor. We are seeing cloud skills (infrastructure and application) as the most in-demand for contractors and this is a vital path for contractors to ensure future bookings in the ERP, EPM and Analytics market. THE MOST POPULAR NEED FOR INTERIMS New systems implementation and upgrades Process improvement Change Management Project back-fill Training and business readiness 64% of our survey had a contract length of 6 months or more in 2017

8 ATTRACTION & RETENTION What is the market paying and what are the working patterns for digital finance talent today? Each year, our analysis offers a snapshot into the pay and benefit scales offered to finance / accounting systems professionals working in the ERP, EPM and Analytics sector, along with the most common sources of frustration within their working life. By getting pay-scales right and cutting off the most common reasons for leaving, you will start to increase your employee attraction and retention: BENEFITS Core benefits such as medical insurance, pension and life-insurance are standard issue for every professional that completed our survey and a high proportion received a mobile phone (78%) and had the flexibility to work from home (85%). It is certainly worth looking at innovative ways to incentivise employees: 30% of our survey respondents were able to trade benefits for additional holidays; 25% received gym membership; 25% travel insurance; and 16% enjoyed a cycle to work scheme. 35% had a fully flexible benefit scheme. 75% received a bonus in 2016

9 The Top 3 Reasons Candidates look For a New Role 1. Lack of training 2. Salary Not Competitive 3. Poor Management What are you doing to retain your talent?

10 Looking to the future innovation Demand for finance systems experts remains high but the market is moving at such a rapid pace that candidates MUST innovate or risk their skills becoming obsolete. Not least, into cloud disciplines related to infrastructure, platforms and applications. Equally, employers must continue to review their pay and working patterns to attract the best digital finance talent. They must also innovate and invest in robust pipelining and sourcing strategies to ensure they do not fall behind in the war for talent. Companies must invest in innovative & robust sourcing strategies cloud Our survey, once again, revealed the importance of cloud to the evolution of the finance systems landscape. One survey participants raised the emergence of release testing as a new category in finance systems management. As organisations move to a SaaS model, systems administrators will follow a new monthly cycle of reviewing changes, patches and upgrades, testing, and release of enhancements. 30% said their company is using a SaaS / Cloud finance application or platform

11 A year of innovation 2017 will be another year of innovation for digital finance and so we asked our survey what they thought would be the hottest topic for digital finance systems this year. the most important topic for digital finance in 2017 Data integration (across existing and new cloud platforms) Migrate to new pure SaaS cloud systems Visualisation & dashboards Data science Automation AI and Machine Learning 31% 19% 14% 10% 9% 7% most common finance use of saas / cloud applications Day to day finance operations 64% Financial Planning & Forecasting Management reporting Visualisation & Dashboards Financial consolidation & close management Regulatory reporting Sales Planning & Forecasting Profitability & Cost Management Reconciliation 56% 33% 30% 30% 28% 22% 20% 15% Source: eu-solutions employment survey Jan 17, respondents at clients currently using a SaaS / Cloud finance platform 43% plan to implement a new SaaS / Cloud based finance application or platform in 2017

12 Salary benchmark The following tables show our current salary benchmarks for a range of positions dedicated to the digital finance market, incorporating ERP, EPM and Analytics. We have drawn from our online survey and other research to build as accurate a picture as possible. There will be variations across regions and industries but we hope it will give a useful guide to job seekers and employers alike while planning their recruitment strategy:

13 UK Permanent Interim / Contract End user / Industry Programme Manager 75, , per day Project Manager 55,000 80, per day Business Analyst 45,000 70, per day Solutions Architect 70,000 90, per day Developer 55,000 75, per day Finance Systems Manager 65,000 85, per day Systems Administrator 50,000 70, per day Finance Systems Analyst 35,000 45, per day Consulting / Professional Services Senior Manager / Project Lead 70,000 90,000 NA Senior Consultant 55,000 75,000 NA Consultant 40,000 55,000 NA Vendor Solutions Consultant / Pre-sales 70,000 90,000 NA Direct Sales (Net new logos) 70,000 80,000 + OTE NA

14 BENELUX Permanent Interim / Contract End user / Industry Programme Manager 90, , per day Project Manager 75,000 90, per day Business Analyst 55,000 75, per day Solutions Architect 70,000 90, per day Developer 60,000 75, per day Finance Systems Manager 65,000 90, per day Systems Administrator 50,000 70, per day Finance Systems Analyst 35,000 45, per day Consulting / Professional Services Senior Manager / Project Lead 80, ,000 NA Senior Consultant 60,000 85,000 NA Consultant 40,000 55,000 NA Vendor Solutions Consultant / Pre-sales 70,000 90,000 NA Direct Sales (Net new logos) 80,000 90,000 + OTE NA

15 join the conversation contact the author James Porter Managing Consultant

16 about eu-solutions eu-solutions is a leading recruitment business specialising in the finance systems and digital finance market. We have been supporting the CFO office since 2006, providing project management, sales, functional and development professionals on both a permanent and interim basis. Our specialist focus and approach means that all of candidates go through a careful screening process ensuring that we deliver only well matched and qualified professionals to our clients, saving them time and money. We have delivered expert finance systems resources to over 200 end user, consulting and technology vendor customers across all major European markets and increasingly into North America. For case studies of successful search assignments and to learn more visit us at SEARCH INTERIM - OUTSOURCING