Information technology has changed everything in this world. The role and façade of Chief Finance Officer (CFO) has also gone under a revolutionary transformation with the advent of computer, the internet and visual tools. It is strange because CFO never valued IT so much and always considered their jobs tougher than that of IT managers. But today, every action of a CFO needs IT, be it tracking data, supervising a firm’s actions and operations or carving out a business model or plan.
Twenty years back, when computing and information technology had emerged, no CFO depended upon them. But today, CFO’s do the mere job of presenting what data computers already collect, observe and analyze. They have become a displayer of data and models.
This has expanded the role of IT department in any company or organization. In many case data control is in the hands of CFOs and this makes them directly connected with the IT department as all data collected, computed and treated is reported to the CFOs by Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and CFOs then give them to senior management officials.
[restrict userlevel=”subscriber”]
Digital revolution thus has changed the hierarchy of corporate world and intra-organizational relations. Today business technology is the backbone of any organization on the basis of which it operates and not a mere back office work as it used to be 20 years back. In fact most of the organizations used IT to make their websites and represent themselves in virtual world. In this regard, IT had least value for real world operations.
The second digital revolution commenced with ability to offer 24/7 service to customers through the help of IT. This changed the entire working setup and processes. E-business models emerged and soon they became vital for every sales person and marketing. E-business brought a strategic change in the role of CFOs as their work expanded beyond financial management. Now, with the use of IT, online information and told, they get better business understanding and can formulate more effective plans.
This also increased need for efficiency for a CFO. Now only flair for accounts and records was not enough to be a good CFO, rather need to be adept in resolving issues, communicate effectively and formulate risk strategies. They need to assess budgetary impacts of a firm’s operations and stakes and need to carve out long term plans.
Social media became a part of Information that CFOs need to encounter. Since social media is used as a business platform, to reach people and organizations, many of PR responsibilities also fell on the shoulders of a CFO as they need to manage funds and resources for investing on social media tools and formulate marketing strategies with cooperation of CTOs. Nonetheless legal issues associated with online world also emerged in front of CFOs and they need to understand and tackle those issues too.
In IT world, information security is a big issue. Since all internal data is now recorded, tracked and used through computers and the internet, CFOs responsibility also expanded in handling safety of financial records and plans.
Thus, today CFOs work not just as accounting officers rather they work at the confluence of IT and business management. They have to adopt defensive strategies in order to retain company’s position in the market competition and look for IT-enabled alternatives that can give their company an edge over others.
[/restrict]
