Finance Transformation at MAS Legato: A Journey of Progress, Innovation, and Continuous Evolution
The Finance function has undergone a significant evolution over the years, moving beyond its traditional role of transaction processing, financial reporting, and compliance to become a more agile, insight-driven, and value-adding business partner. Within the Global Business Services (GBS) landscape, this evolution has been particularly important in meeting the growing expectations of stakeholders for greater efficiency, accuracy, scalability, and strategic contribution.
At MAS Legato, our Finance Transformation journey has been shaped by a commitment to operational excellence, process improvement, and the continuous adoption of digital capabilities. Through the initiatives undertaken so far, we have strengthened our ways of working, improved process efficiency, and established a stronger foundation for delivering consistent, high-quality finance and accounting services.
As part of this journey, we have explored opportunities to leverage robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline repetitive finance activities, improve process consistency, and strengthen back-office operations. These initiatives support a more efficient operating model while enabling teams to focus on work that requires deeper analysis and business engagement.
A key milestone along this journey was the implementation of BlackLine, which supported more streamlined, standardized, and digitally enabled Finance operations while reshaping how key Finance processes are executed, managed, and continuously improved. As we build on these achievements, we are now exploring the next frontier of transformation: embedding Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our processes to unlock further opportunities for efficiency, insight, and innovation.
Digital Transformation: A Critical Milestone in Our Journey
This has been much more than a technology initiative; it has been a key enabler of our broader Finance Transformation journey. By embracing digital solutions, process standardization, and automation opportunities, we have taken important steps towards simplifying operations, reducing manual intervention, strengthening process controls, and improving the overall effectiveness of Finance service delivery.
These efforts have helped us move away from selected traditional ways of working towards more standardized, digitally enabled processes. They have also created opportunities to improve data visibility, support timely reporting, and enable our teams to focus on activities that deliver greater value.
For MAS Legato, this shift has represented a fundamental shift in how we approach Finance operations. Rather than focusing solely on completing transactions, we have increasingly emphasized process efficiency, service quality, continuous improvement, and the needs of our stakeholders.
Most importantly, the progress made through over the years has established a foundation on which we can continue to build, innovate, and evolve.
From Operational Excellence to Greater Business Value
As a GBS organization, our transformation has been about more than improving individual processes. It has been about strengthening the way finance and accounting services support the wider business.
Through our transformation initiatives, we have focused on creating more efficient ways of working, improving consistency across processes, and enabling our teams to deliver services with greater effectiveness. These improvements have reinforced the importance of standardization, governance, collaboration, and a continuous improvement mindset.
Our journey has also highlighted an important principle: technology delivers its greatest value when it is supported by well-designed processes and capable people. By combining process improvements with digital enablement, we have created opportunities to reduce time spent on repetitive activities and redirect our efforts towards problem-solving, analysis, and stakeholder engagement.
This evolution reflects the broader ambition of Finance within GBS—to move beyond transactional delivery and make a more meaningful contribution to business performance.
People Remain at the Heart of Transformation
While technology has been an important driver of our transformation, our people remain central to its success. The progress achieved so far has reinforced the importance of collaboration, adaptability, capability development, and a willingness to challenge established ways of working.
As we move towards greater AI adoption, these factors will become even more important. Equipping our teams with the knowledge and confidence to work alongside emerging technologies will be essential to realizing their full potential.
The future of Finance will require a combination of financial expertise, process knowledge, analytical thinking, digital fluency, and human judgment. By continuing to develop these capabilities, we can ensure that technology enhances our people’s contribution rather than simply changing the tools they use.
A culture that embraces learning, experimentation, and continuous improvement will enable us to navigate this next phase of transformation with confidence.
Looking Ahead: Building on Progress and Shaping the Future
Our Finance Transformation journey at MAS Legato has already delivered meaningful progress, with digital transformation serving as a critical milestone in our evolution. The foundations established through process improvements, standardization, and digital enablement have positioned us to explore the next wave of opportunities.
Access to accurate and timely reporting will remain a key component of future transformation efforts. Solutions such as Power BI reporting and interactive dashboards have the potential to convert large volumes of financial data into actionable insights, enabling faster decision-making and improved visibility across operations.
As we work towards incorporating AI into our processes, our focus remains on translating innovation into practical business outcomes. This means identifying the right opportunities, strengthening our capabilities, maintaining robust governance, and ensuring that every transformation initiative contributes to improved service delivery and sustainable value creation.
Transformation, however, is not a destination. It is an ongoing journey of learning, adapting, and finding better ways to work. Our achievements to date provide a strong platform for the future, while our continued investment in digital and AI capabilities opens new possibilities for the Finance function within GBS.
