Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5766 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0484 (Online) Vol.8, No.20, 2018 35 New Technologies: Catalysts for Business Models and Finance Function Abel Aig. ASEIN Ishola Rufus AKINTOYE Timothy A. SOETAN * School of Management Sciences, Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria Abstract To bridge performance gap, improve operational efficiency, enhance competitive advantage and secure corporate assets, business entities have continued to embrace new technologies with profound positive impact on their bottom-line.As new technologies replace humans through automation in the emerging business models, the demand for professionals, including chartered accountants, who are not IT-savvy is fast declining, taking with it, wages, salaries and a high percent of income taxes. These problems are compounded by the huge costs of technology acquisition and inevitable investment inhuman capacity building in the face of increasingly mobile staff.Using secondary information, the study observed that many professional accountants dread the transition from manual to automation as it would eliminate repetitive finance-related jobs in the midst of high unemployment rate in the country, dissuade new entrants into the accounting profession and alter the human side of enterprise.It therefore recommends that the training curricula of professional accountancy organisations should be rejigged and skewed towards technology while existing professional accountants should hone their IT skills to leverage technology to deliver value online, real time to their diverse stakeholders. Keywords: Technology, Internet of things, automation, business models, artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning, finance function. 1. Introduction In the last fifty years, businesses and economies have been grappling with the critical issues of globalization and the wide dispersal of stakeholders of businesses across jurisdictions. Driven by technology, the emergent e- commerce has replaced physical markets with profound impact on the volume, value of business and the wealth created. In 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, the value of retail e-commerce worldwide amounted to US$1,336b, US$1,548b, US$1.845b and US$2.304b, respectively (Statista, 2018) representing a growth of 72.5% in 4 years. Thus, the assumptions of the subsisting business models are now been challenged by emerging technology, new production inputs, the nature and environment of work. For instance, with increased sophistry in technology, organisations no longer need to invest in huge information technology servers as cloud computing is the vogue. Also, finance is no longer the only capital needed for wealth creation. Intangible assets in the form of intellectual capital, human capital, social and relationship capital as well as the tangible assets of natural or environmental capital now play critical roles in value creation. As a result, the increasingly sophisticated and diverse stakeholders of businesses now need financial and non-financial information, online real time, on how values are created and destroyed by entities in which they have interests (Bhasin, 2017). The environment of business has changed. The quest for a green and paperless environment with optimal returns on investment has continued to raise issues about business models. The focus is no longer only on input, process and output, but also on outcomes and impact. For instance, the acquisition of resources by an organization to produce a given output is great. But how does its resource acquisition affect the environment in which it has its being? Who benefits? Who is negatively impacted and what remedial measures is the entity taking to address the externality? Here lies the propriety of integrated thinking which refers to “the conditions and processes that are conducive to inclusive process of decision making, management and reporting based on the connectivity and interdependencies between ranges of factors that affect an organisation’s ability to create value over time {Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), 2017, p.4}”. In the midst of the fierce competition for resources by entities and humans, the drive for innovation inclined to optimal efficiency is the new normal. As a result and as survival strategies, humans are adopting ingenuous communication strategies (e.g., social media) to reduce physical movements, to communicate faster and market their goods and services to mass audience while organisations are embracing technology and rejigging their business models as well as operational modalities to replace humans with more efficient machines. As sensor cards are used as door keys, payment modes and access rights, web-based encyclopaedias are replacing print encyclopaedias just as the cameras in various smart phones have altered the photography markets for Polaroid and Kodak. In the same vein, Google and related search engines have enhanced the access of students to learning resources but greatly diminishing the need for and use of physical libraries. Simply put, technology is disrupting age-long businesses and associated practices {Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA, 2013)}. The traditional book keeping functions which involve the manual recording, summarising and analysis of all transactions of monetary nature, consolidation of this financial information on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly bases to generate performance and financial statements, have been taken over by technology.