It's become a cliche in the compliance universe that companies need to automate. The vendors truly believe this; they have to. But cfo.com poses a troubling question: If automation is so great, why are finance departments spending so much time processing transactions? A recent study has found that CFOs say their departments spend 46 percent of time on transactions and 18 percent on control. That leaves little for anything strategic, which is where they can add the most value. The problem lies not so much in the technology but the implementation. It may be that off-the-shelf software doesn't work all that much against the particular complexities of your companies. And customization may not be so simple. This is a reminder that automation can be a panacea but it may not come easy.  

For more:
- here's the cfo.com article [1]

Related articles:
- Preaching to the choir on automation [1]
- State of compliance: Automation catching on? [2]