New Oracle and Accenture study declares CFO a technology evangelist
Monday, 24 March 2014 00:01
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To define and benchmark the key attributes of modern, technology-enabled finance, Oracle and Accenture co-sponsored a global study with Longitude Research, entitled “Empowering Modern Finance: The CFO as Technology Evangelist.”
“Empowered by data insights and collaborative new ways of working, modern finance organizations are no longer content to focus on containing costs and instead are looking at new ways to deliver insight and value to the rest of the business,” said Karen dela Torre, vice president, ERP Application Business Group, Oracle. “While the study highlights how finance executives are increasingly leveraging operational knowledge and analytical expertise to provide data-driven insight and forward-looking guidance on where to drive innovation and growth, an important gap still remains between aspirations and reality.”
Respondents included 1,275 CFOs, senior finance executives and line business executives from organizations around the world of varying sizes and industries -- 300 of whom were senior non-finance executives -- and found that:
nThe 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;
nFinance 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
nTo 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. For example, too many companies still rely on outdated data for key decision-making, not least due to the challenges of consolidating numerous disparate systems.
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.
Key Findings “New Oracle and Accenture Study Declares the CFO a Technology Evangelist”
CFOs are seen as technology evangelists, but a gap remains between ambition and reality
New skills and analytics capabilities are needed to execute on modern finance’s mandate
CFOs are embracing the cloud to modernize finance
CFOs continue to focus on automating processes, consolidating system and real-time reporting to drive operational excellence, but more progress is needed
