INTHEBLACK November 2026 - Magazine - Page 35
or reveal where multiple suppliers are being
used for similar purchases.
The value is in what finance and
accounting professionals can do with that
information. Why are several vendors being
used? Could purchasing be consolidated?
Are rebates or savings being missed? Is there
a wider issue behind what initially looks like
an isolated transaction?
“Where you previously had a sample
population that you were testing for an
upcoming audit, there is now the ability to
enable continuous assurance, enhancing the
entity’s governance framework,” she says.
For La Fontaine, this is where technology
can change the contribution that finance
makes to the wider organisation. “Finance is
really the glue that holds the organisation
together, because we get a very good view
of the organisation end-to-end,” she says.
That view gives professionals access to
information from across the business, and
the value lies in interpreting it.
“How do we deal with all this data?” she asks.
“How are we going to manage and synthesise
it and be able to harness that to tell the story
about what is behind the numbers?”
Automation can help with the collection
and processing of information. The finance
team’s role is then to understand what it means,
identifying risks, spotting opportunities and
helping the organisation decide where to focus.
“We have that unique ability to be able
to collect the data and hopefully we get
help through automation to collate it more
efficiently,” she says. “That enables the team to
spend more time analysing the information
to not only tell the story behind the numbers,
but also partner with business leaders to drive
future strategic initiatives and opportunities.”
A GUIDE THROUGH AMBIGUITY
After UiPath, La Fontaine moved to
recruitment consultancy firm LHH, advising
on talent, skills and career transition, and
later to telecommunications company NTT,
where she worked with large corporate and
government clients on digital acceleration
and technology transformation.
Those experiences reinforced something
that had already become clear to her:
transformation is never simply about the
system being introduced. “At the heart of any
transformation is people. I love connecting
with people and helping them journey through
ambiguity and change,” she says.
If automation disrupts the work professionals
do, organisations need to think about redefining
the roles and skills of a hybrid workforce.
Employees may spend less time processing
transactions and more time analysing exceptions,
solving problems and working with the rest
of the business. However, that transition
requires leadership.
For La Fontaine, this is increasingly part
of the CFO’s job. Technological literacy
matters, as do cybersecurity, governance
and an understanding of AI’s limitations.
Equally, so do innately human skills such
as communication, trust and the ability
to help people adapt.
Her interest in the people side of
transformation is reflected in the many
individuals she has managed and mentored
throughout her career. La Fontaine speaks
passionately about investing in mentee
development and says that watching them
move into new roles and “seeing them
blossom is fantastic”.
La Fontaine believes she would once
have been surprised to find herself working
so closely with technology and transformation.
Her career was not intentionally pointed in
that direction, but she became increasingly
interested in being involved when organisations
were changing.
“Through experience, I learned that I would
rather be leading or driving the transformation
than sitting on the sidelines,” she says.
That instinct has taken her through several
generations of technology, but the underlying
question has remained much the same: how
can organisations work differently, and what
does that mean for the people inside them? ■
READ
an article on whether
AI agents should be
treated as colleagues
LISTEN
to a podcast
episode about
how AI integration
is reshaping
performance
EXPLORE
CPA Australia’s AI
Ethics for Modern
Professionals
micro-credential
intheblack.cpaaustralia.com.au
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