For over a decade, cryptocurrencies have occupied a strange spot in the marketplace’s collective psyche. Some say they’re the future of both trade and currency, while others argue they’re a dead-end investment for digital speculators only.
Most importantly, cryptocurrencies have been something of a hard sell for the general public—and for good reason. Buying, storing, and accessing Bitcoin, for example, isn’t the easiest task in the world. But recent pushes from big tech companies may be changing the accessibility of Bitcoin more than initially anticipated.
The Challenges Faced by Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies have long represented a kind of digital dream: easy to access and cryptographically secure currencies that can be acquired by, and traded to, anyone. But while the allure of a sovereign, universal digital currency—like many postulate Bitcoin to be—is high, so are the challenges.
Historically, most people haven’t used cryptocurrencies due to their challenges and investment risks:
For starters, all investors have previously needed to trust payment processors or remittance services that lack in UI/UX, security, and overall user trust.
Alternatively, would-be investors could invest in cryptocurrencies using cash or peer-to-peer cryptocurrency marketplaces. But this requires industry know-how and connections, and most average folks still don’t really know how Bitcoin works or what it means
Lastly, cryptocurrencies are not accepted at the majority of retailers, particularly outside of tech hubs (paying for a pizza with Bitcoin in Silicon Valley doesn’t really count). This clearly limits the utility of digital assets.
But where there’s a will, there’s a way. The big “four horsemen” of the tech world are looking to bring cryptocurrencies into the public eye in ways never imagined before.
How Tech Giants are Integrating Cryptocurrencies into Their Platforms
Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are each working on proprietary payment services that, due to developing those services in-house, are each designed to offer cryptocurrency integration.
We’re already seeing these developments play out in the real world. For instance, there are many popular merchants that accept payments through Google and Apple Pay: both companies’ respective payment services.
But Google is probably doing more in fintech than any of the other big tech giants so far. In another brilliant move to progress its fintech developments, it has recently allowed users to add Coinbase’s Visa debit card to their digital wallet. That’s right: users can now use cryptocurrencies to pay for items in stores that accept Google Pay.
Yet it’s more than just Google behind Bitcoin’s current momentum. Now retailers and various payment processing software are giving smaller businesses the tools they need to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency payments. It’s clear that things are indeed heading in a certain direction.
A Global Blockchain Race
The race isn’t likely to end with just offering cryptocurrency payment services. For example, Amazon already offers a blockchain-as-a-service platform called Amazon Managed Blockchain. In this way, Amazon is clearly maneuvering to link itself directly to growing cryptocurrency markets.
Then of course there’s also Facebook and its controversial blockchain-based token, Libra. While we’re not exactly sure what it will lead to, seeing the world’s largest social media platform create its own digital asset says something.
It’s clear that, with all four big companies pushing for cryptocurrency acceptance to some degree, they’re preparing for the future. And thus far, they’ve been pretty good at that.
PayPal’s Latest Development
More recently, the San Jose-based company PayPal has announced that all customers will soon be able to hold Bitcoin and other types of digital cryptocurrencies in its online wallet. Even more importantly, customers will be able to shop using those same cryptocurrencies at over 26 million merchants shared throughout the cryptocurrencies network.
This development’s importance cannot be understated. With this one move, PayPal has made cryptocurrencies a viable alternative for digital transactions, particularly for freelancers and internet-based workers who may deal with cryptocurrencies more often than not. PayPal has also boosted its share price from a recent September dip.
Furthermore, throughout the last months of 2020 and into the first half of 2021, all US PayPal account holders will progressively be able to sell, buy, and hold various types of cryptocurrencies. In the first half of 2021, the service is expected to expand to Venmo (a peer-to-peer payment app) and a few other countries.
Why this push for cryptocurrency acceptance? According to PayPal, the company hopes that doing this will encourage the global use of all these digital coins. It’s easy to imagine why – being an electronic and digital wallet service, PayPal stands to benefit more than many other companies from the adoption of digital wealth rather than wealth based in physical currencies.
But this maneuver is just one part of PayPal’s efforts to get Bitcoin and other digital currencies accepted. Cryptocurrencies’ historic volatility may be attractive to certain speculators, but regular shoppers are (understandably) more hesitant for these same reasons. They see real risk instead of potential profits.
PayPal has accordingly announced that it intends to adopt responsibility for managing price fluctuation risk. This is an unprecedented move, but it’s one that may even be matched by centralized banks also looking to adopt cryptocurrencies over the next few years.
The Future of Cryptocurrencies
All in all, it’s not clear how much longer it’ll take before cryptocurrencies are as widespread or accepted as physical currencies. Perhaps these digital assets will never truly reach the utter ubiquity of, say, the USD. But a lot of that might depend on the USD more than Bitcoin.
One thing’s for sure: The time of digital assets has yet to come. But, in all fairness, the world’s largest tech giants are getting ready.
Today, reporting methods are truly being tested. With a shift to work from home, management cannot just pop into finance departments for the updates they need; they are reliant on generated reports.
Excel sheets are known for being difficult to interpret into actionable insights. Many financial analysts have made careers out of deciphering the endless abyss a cornucopia of spreadsheets can create. The majority of finance professionals waste their time with manual processes and version comparisons. Still, their value isn’t in their ability to catch a mistake; it is in their ability to interpret the data, and this is where analytics platforms come into play.
What is an Analytics Platform?
An analytics platform integrates with all the various software types and data silos to consolidate and analyze data for a clear interpretation of a business’s health. The right platform can automate processes, update inputs in real-time, generate reports on a whim, and reveal actionable insights for any department, as well as decision-makers.
The Issue
Finance teams have multiple data sources spread across the entire company. Consolidating this data, ensuring it is mistake-free from all the manual inputs, and then compiling it into actionable data for management takes time. It leaves a lot of room for error. In the report, ‘Transforming Finance’ by Wayne Eckerson, he explains ‘In the process of producing all these reports, finance teams create information silos, using spreadsheets and other low-cost tools, that interfere with top executives’ ability to obtain a consistent view of enterprise performance.’
This Top-Executive view of enterprise performance is vital for the health of an organization, and small spreadsheet errors have led to decisions that cost companies millions. For finance departments, the adoption of analytics platforms has been a taboo issue as the majority are unable to work with current reporting methods. These solutions cannot assist in finding mistakes, which leads to beautiful charts and graphs that reveal inaccurate information based on unreliable data.
Data Analytics Solutions
One company that has created a platform for data interpretation is Qlik. Qlik is a cloud data integration and analytics solution that helps to ‘close the gap between data, insights, and action.’ It provides solutions for multiple departments and promises to ‘turn raw data into remarkable outcomes.’ Qlik offers solutions for many industries and departments regardless of the size and scope, even offering pipeline automation to get you the data you need when you need it.
Tableau, a data visualization company, is another great contender for understanding raw data, that allows people to see and understand raw data sets through automated updates, smart dashboards, and fast analytics. They have multiple business intelligence platforms for individuals, teams, and organizations, even offering embedded analytics for flexibility, security, and the ability to scale. Tableau focuses on analytics and provides solutions for any type of business, from education facilities to government entities, to help find the opportunities in raw data.
Popular analytics solutions such as these have been made to compile company-wide data sets into one unified interface but they are not known for finding small inaccuracies in the details. This has been the issue with the adoption of such technologies for finance departments. When it comes to financial analytics software, data sets need to be reviewed and checked for errors that can occur during manual inputs. Solutions need to offer the ability to compile, review, and find the mistakes; this is where excel-based analytics software takes center stage.
An Excel-based Financial Analytics Solution
The majority of errors occur within the exchange of information, and when reports are Excel-based and shared, it exacerbates the issue. It is no secret that 90% of businesses are still using Excel, and the only way to share this data is to send entire workbooks. These workbooks contain assumptions, formulas, and other information that is usually not relevant and may even be confidential. Providing permissions, editing, and updating creates multiple versions of the same spreadsheet, which then require time-intensive version comparisons.
Analytics solutions are generally not Excel friendly and are known for their limitations when it comes to interpreting and visualizing excel content. DataRails saw this need and created a solution to transform local excel files into dynamic, real-time reports. DataRails allows you to upload all spreadsheets into one platform, with options to define different users, roles, and responsibilities, with a click of your mouse. Upload data from any source to create spreadsheet graphs, charts, and tables on a web-based dashboard for easy sharing with management and other teams. Create permissions showing each user data relevant to them and ensure that any changes they make are instantly detectable on a web-based dashboard.
Make sure to adopt an analytics platform that works with your existing interface. Finally, get an accurate 360-degree view of your company without needing to revise your day-to-day processes. With the modern options available, it is time to embrace the trend sweeping the nation and finally implement a financial analytic and reporting platform for your finance department.
