The financial function is one of the more respected, highly-trained, and revered departments of any business. Accountants (both management and chartered), actuarial professionals, and financial professionals of all disciplines generally take on several years of post-graduate studies that put them in line for a potential slot in C-suite management, if they choose to pursue that course.

Whether we’re creating or managing on the fly with microservices, serverless compute, or containerization and APIs, digital rules everything around us. From IT operations, service delivery and asset management to even the fundamental makeup of our company’s core products and services, it’s all gone—or going—to the cloud.

Let’s assume that the average Australian university graduate enters the workforce somewhere between the ages of 21 and 24, bringing with them a qualification (or two, or three), a fierce determination to establish a secure career, and a finely-tuned radar for what’s authentic and what’s fake news.

Many promising sprinters face a mental roadblock as they develop. Physical training and repetition propel them faster and faster, yet despite pushing their body harder each month, most still plateau. It often takes a wise coach to switch a sprinter’s mindset from simply moving quickly to moving their body with purpose, using better technique, and taking longer strides. Finance teams face a similar predicament with their monthly financial close process.

2019 was an exciting year for ServiceNow—not just in terms of business results, but in how we led a series of important conversations about the future of technology and work. On our Workflow site, thought leaders across the company weighed in on a range of timely issues, from a new manifesto for IT to a new sense of purpose for employees. Here’s some of the best thinking on Workflow from 2019.

Technology is helping enterprises simplify process and supercharge the everyday. A good employee experience (EX) is built on efficient ways of working, freeing employees from repetitive tasks to create a more rewarding workday – one that is spent on interesting, high-value projects. But for business leaders looking to deliver the experiences that employees now demand, where should they start? The short answer: good EX thrives on well-designed automation.