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.
Gary Hallgren is president at Arity, where he leads the development and implementation of Arity's strategy and operations.
Gary has extensive experience creating next-generation telematics solutions and Software as a Service (SaaS) business models, managing mergers and acquisitions of public and venture-backed companies and leveraging data and analytics to create breakthrough business opportunities.
Prior to joining Allstate in 2015, Gary served as senior vice president of Corporate Strategy at Telogis, where he negotiated four strategic acquisitions related to fleet management, insurance telematics, routing and logistics and commercial navigation. Previously, he was CEO of Remote Dynamics Inc., where he led a turnaround and positioned the company as a leading telematics supplier to the construction industry.
Earlier in his career, Gary served as president and CEO of WirelessCar North America, Inc., which provides telematics services to the fleet management industry and vehicle manufacturers. He also served as vice president of operations at Volvo Technology of America, which provides telematics solutions for cars, trucks and marine products.
In its 22nd year, the program is celebrating both veteran honorees achieving new levels of success and first-time honorees representing a fresh wave of leadership
Mark Detrick co-founded Capio in 2008 and has been the chief executive officer since 2013, previously serving as the chief financial officer.
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.
