The Innovator Award recognises difference-makers who question the status quo, imagine a better future and then find new, more effective ways of doing traditional things. They are leaders who explore the boundaries of the possible and venture beyond the improbable.

As global process owner of General Ledger at EY Global, Anri Coetzee CA(SA) is responsible for harmonising the global GL processes and controls end to end, ensuring adoption of changes and driving optimised quality and cost of delivery through process automation and standardisation.

“My most recent project included leading the development of a new global journal posting solution, built on PowerApps, which integrates with SAP. This solution’s main objectives are significant operating efficiencies and cost optimization,” explains Anri.

Anri currently leads the project that reinvents the journal posting process for EY Global in SAP. She has also been involved in various finance transformation and offshoring projects across multiple countries in Africa and has worked very closely with large business process organisations.

She explains “we did not have a global standard for processing journal entries. The process between countries were very disparate, with instructions coming via email, offline templates as well as excel spreadsheets.”

The solution they had was also quite expensive in terms of licensing costs, platform and maintenance fees, thus limiting the number of users. On top of this, the users complained about a poor user experience, long processing times were having a direct impact on their efficiency, especially during a month-end close.

Anri had to find a solution to address this by putting a diverse, collaborative team together to determine the best low code software to use in order for them to develop a best-in-class solution with the finance controlling users as the client.

The PowerPost application was designed using the Microsoft PowerApps platform, which allows for a custom user-friendly interface, with additional functionalities such as a real-time dashboard, built-in approval workflow, onscreen validation and improved processing speeds. In contrast to the current solution, the cost efficiency allows for unlimited users, thus decreasing transactional processing costs.

The pilot regions for the project included the United Kingdom, Nordics, Africa, Singapore and Malaysia and Oceania. It went live on the 22nd of March this year and Anri is currently planning the global roll-out.

“PowerPost will deliver cost savings in excess of $4mil over a period of five years, due to reduced licensing, platform and maintenance costs as well as reduced transactional processing fees. The existing solution’s maintenance costs have, in fact, gone up more than 50% since I initially did the business case, so I am comfortable that the savings realised will exceed what was initially estimated,” Anri continues.

As with any project of this nature, it was not all smooth sailing and Anri learnt some valuable lessons along the way. “Amongst others, I learnt the importance of early and continuous stakeholder engagement, having an impactful change management plan, and being flexible, with the ability to respond rapidly to changing circumstances.”

Anri is proud that her team could deliver a tangible product with a global footprint, that optimises cost, results in significant savings, improves efficiency and provides an improved user experience, while also resulting in improved governance and controls, oversight and enhanced insights and transparency.

When Anri received the Innovator Award, she was filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride. “Pardon the cliché but I felt extremely privileged to be a finalist in the first-ever Difference Makers Awards in a category that I am so passionate about. To then be able to share a stage with such distinguished and respected winners was beyond my wildest expectations.”

“I am honoured and humbled by the award and it would be unfair to not acknowledge the unwavering leadership support as well as contributions of a high performing team, for an achievement like this is not an individual effort but relentless teamwork.”

By winning this award Anri hopes to inspire others to also follow their hunches. “Dare to dream big but also know that no idea is too small to make a difference. When in doubt, trust your gut and persevere.”

She plans to continue learning and empowering herself with the skills and knowledge to be future-fit in an ever-changing finance landscape. “I want to continue to make a difference where I am, in everything I do. Having a positive ROI by always contributing more than I consume and being able to build a better working world that is sustainable and inclusive gives me purpose.”

Anri is excited about actively exploring new ideas and continuous ways to improve, specifically looking at low/no-code technology that addresses a specific business need. “It is very easy to highlight the reasons why something can’t succeed, rather be the person looking for solutions and opt to ask what do we need to do to get this across the line?”

Her goal is to continue breaking down some of the barriers and obstacles to innovation. “We need to create an environment where it is safe to fail fast, fail cheap and fail safely. I believe collaborative teams with diverse skills and experience, atypical of your traditional finance profile paired with a culture that is agile, learning-oriented, and customer-obsessed will lead to success. This will cultivate a culture of innovation.”