Modern CFO is a technology evangelist: Study

BANGALORE, INDIA: The modern CFO is a technology evangelist who recognizes the value of digital and cloud technologies for the finance function and the business as a whole, but a gap remains between CFO ambitions and reality, according to the study done by Oracle and Accenture.

Finance departments recognize that cloud capabilities will be useful for budgeting, planning and forecasting as they fulfill modern finance's mandate to be a strategic partner and help drive business growth. And to act as a strategic partner to the business, forward-thinking finance teams are using sophisticated analytical tools, modern applications and the latest social, mobile, cloud and collaboration tools to stay closely linked to the vision, strategies and activities of their peers across the enterprise.

While the study found that many CFOs are making major strides toward creating a more productive and efficient technology-enabled finance function, it is clear that much work lies ahead. This report demonstrates that CFOs over the past year have made progress since an earlier Oracle and Accenture study, The CFO as Catalyst for Change, which found CFOs across the world wanted more strategic engagement but instead were focused on battling costs, economic volatility, and organizational complexity.

Over two-thirds of respondents agree the CFO is a strong evangelist for the transformational potential of technology and nearly three-quarters of finance executives believe new technologies such as the cloud, mobile technology and social media will change how finance is structured and run.

However, only 20 percent of C-suite executive respondents believe that their finance organizations have adopted leading-edge technologies, in contrast to sales organizations, in which 43 percent of C-suite executives view as already having done so.

Nearly half of respondents saw an increase in the number of finance analysts hired over the past two years, reflecting the growing need for finance talent with a deeper and broader range of business and analytical skills.

Survey respondents clearly see the potential for the cloud to deliver new insights through advanced analytics and business intelligence. More than a quarter of respondents (28 percent) are already using the cloud to support budgeting, planning and forecasting, and another 34 percent plan to move them into the cloud within the next year.