Sarah Okonkwo

Before joining NorthRadar, I spent five years on the operator side — first as a financial systems analyst at a manufacturing company, then as an ERP implementation consultant working with mid-market finance teams. In both roles, I evaluated software. A lot of it. And in both roles, I found the available research frustrating.

The comparison content that existed for finance operations technology was either produced by vendors, written by generalists who had never closed a financial period or touched a chart of accounts, or hidden behind analyst paywalls that my clients could not afford. When I came across NorthRadar, I wanted to be the person who fixed that for finance ops professionals.

I cover the finance operations vertical on FinanceOpsClub, with a focus on AP automation, ERP evaluation, and financial close technology. I also cover portions of the IT operations vertical, particularly infrastructure tooling that overlaps with finance systems. My research draws on my implementation background — I know what actually breaks during ERP go-lives, what AP automation promises versus what it delivers, and where vendor demos diverge from production reality.

I bring the same scrutiny to research that I brought to procurement decisions. If I would not have trusted a piece of content when I was on the operator side, I do not publish it.