CFOs and senior finance executives are dealing with a growing number of responsibilities and demands as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report.
The report, from consulting firm Protiviti, found that the pandemic has been a wake-up call to finance departments that weren’t already investing, or weren’t investing enough, in cloud-based systems as they have struggled to shift to the remote work environment. Eighty percent of the 1,057 finance leaders surveyed ranked security and privacy of data as a top priority, while 78 percent cited enhanced data analytics, and 72 percent cited cloud-based applications.
Lee M. Shavel is Verisk's president and chief executive officer. He brings over 30 years of experience advising and leading publicly traded companies to Verisk—determining strategies and policies, overseeing financial performance and furthering company culture.
Samantha Russell is chief evangelist at FMG, where she helps financial advisors create digital marketing strategies that produce exponential growth through channels such as content marketing, SEO, website development, social media and video. A prolific speaker and content contributor, she is an InvestmentNews 40 Under 40 award winner, a ThinkAdvisor Luminary and a WealthManagement.com "10 to Watch."
Milo Spirig joined Accrual in 2025. Milo spent more than a decade in fintech at Brex, Stripe, and Citibank. At Brex, Milo led product teams building corporate travel, accounts payable, and API products. Previously, at Stripe, Milo led strategic financial partnerships, focused on expanding the global footprint with card networks and financial institutions. Milo received his MBA from INSEAD and holds a BA in Financial Economics from the University of Rochester.
Of those respondents who are CFOs and vice presidents of finance, 72 percent ranked cloud-based applications as a top priority to address over the next 12 months. Seventeen percent ranked cloud-based applications as the most important finance priority for their organizations to address, signifying a big jump from the 8 percent of respondents who indicated so in a similar survey by Protiviti last year.
“Having the right technology infrastructure and cloud capabilities is now considered a baseline in order to operate effectively and efficiently and will continue to be as organizations move into a hybrid work environment,” said Chris Wright, managing director and global leader of Protiviti’s Business Performance Improvement practice, in a statement. “COVID-19 disruptions underscored the critical nature of a truly digital finance workforce and companies without advanced technologies and digital processes faced a difficult transition to remote work. We’re now seeing an increasing number of boards and CEOs tap their finance leaders for guidance about whether their organization is allocating enough resources to their technology infrastructure.”
Labor models are changing, in part as a result of the pandemic, with 18 percent of the finance leaders surveyed saying their organizations are relying on managed services providers, while 29 percent are augmenting their staff to handle financial planning and analysis with greater speed and agility.
