In June 2013, TechTarget featured an  article by APQC's Mary Driscoll about organizations turning to Software as a Service (SaaS) for several finance operations, including processing for general accounting, disbursements, and payroll. Driscoll advises that organizations consider change management issues that could arise from a transition to SaaS—particularly when it comes to acclimation of new financial systems and customization by software vendors for each organization's needs.

Driscoll encourages organizations to consider the bigger picture when deciding how to manage change: is a transition in finance in line with the goals of the entire enterprise? Are financial decision makers prepared to assuage any fears of or resistance to these changes by employees?

This connection between change management disciplines and finance process improvement is now the subject of a unique research collaboration involving APQC's business excellence and financial management teams. They are working to uncover and explain the best practices that lead to a truly successful finance transformation effort. This study will explore the improvement methodologies most successfully applied to budding finance projects such as a transition to SaaS.