Subscribe
  • Home
  • /
  • Enterprise
  • /
  • Is your financial leader a technology-appreciating CFO?

Is your financial leader a technology-appreciating CFO?


Johannesburg, 22 Sep 2020

It’s been more than a decade since digital transformation became the defining ingredient for a company’s resiliency and ongoing success – at least half of such ventures fail.

Pieter Bensch, Executive Vice-President, Sage Africa and Middle East
Pieter Bensch, Executive Vice-President, Sage Africa and Middle East

Much has been written and debated about solving the problem. The most pervasive challenge is to link digital transformation and business value. The CIO can only do so much, and digitisation should be an agenda shared by the C-suite. Yet, other than articulating the CEO’s role in creating a transformation vision, it’s not been easy to spot the people who can drive that agenda.

Certainly, few thought one of those roles would be the CFO. Traditionally seen as the gatekeeper of finances and thus opponent to expensive and elaborate technology projects, the CFO instead appears to be a rising champion of technology.

According to research from Sage and World Wide Worx, CFOs are quite involved in technology decisions: 87% of CFOs play a key role in their organisation’s digital strategy, with 15% being fully responsible for digital transformation.

“The research enabled us to drill down into how CFOs saw their roles evolving and how, in particular, they saw technology changing and improving that role in the years to come. The research is also telling us that digital transformation is not a tech issue per se; it is, in fact, a business process issue, and this is where the CFO has been integrally involved,” said Arthur Goldstuck, World Wide Worx CEO.

An eye for digital’s value

On reflection, this makes sense. CFOs are often promoted into CEO roles, meaning they’ve had to cultivate the broader skills of leadership, championing all levels of the business and keeping a very strategic eye on the future. Such individuals cannot be blind to digital technology’s role in their business progress.

For Lerato Nkabinde, CFO at FutureProof SA, collaboration is key to success: “Our role as CFOs has grown into a value-adding, value-driving business partner. To do this, we need collaboration among all stakeholders in the C-suite to understand what’s happening in the business and to provide valuable insights for the future.”

Yet CFOs are also growing closer to technology for their own purposes. Data, in particular, is teaching CFOs how technology can generate value. The same applies to process mapping, efficiencies and putting the right tools in the hands of their teams. It’s worth noting that one of the first business technology behemoths, the ERP, has its roots in financial management. It turns out CFOs were never Luddites, but rather cautious adopters.

In the past decade, this attitude has bred an appreciation for more technology. Nine percent of senior financial decision-makers in South Africa have adopted emerging technologies in some form, and 64% of CFOs spend more time analysing data than they do gathering and processing it. Many cited automated compliance reporting and real-time decision-making as specific advantages they expect from digitisation.

Rise of the CFO 3.0

The report defines such leaders as CFO 3.0: forward-looking, forward-thinking senior financial professionals who analyse data in the moment using automated finance processes, financial management technology, and sophisticated data sets. They also leverage robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML).

The trend isn’t isolated to CFOs. According to PwC’s State of Compliance report, 70% of dynamic compliance officers use technology and instant access to data to monitor employees’ policy compliance. One could argue that operational technology is on the rise, with the CFO leading the charge.

This loops back to the initial point: CFOs can help see the real value of a technology and help reduce the number of digital project failures. Sage and World Wide Worx’s research clearly indicates that they are walking the line between business and technology with growing confidence.

It’s apt to ask: is your CFO involved enough with technology choices, and are they getting the technologies they need? There is even cause to argue that kickstarting digital transformation around financial functions may be the best choice for ultimate success. However you look at it, the impact of a technology-appreciating CFO in an integrated organisation is a massive advantage.

Pieter Bensch, Executive Vice-President, Sage Africa and Middle East, said it’s encouraging to see the level of collaboration and communication happening in the C-suite: “We’re seeing collaboration overlaps at the C-level, across HR, finance, technology, and marketing. It’s becoming a discussion around strategy; how do we go to market? And how can we optimise the business?”

Share