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.
Anastasia Su is a marketing specialist at Synder. As a content creator and Synder expert, she focuses on integrations between accounting software such as QuickBooks and Xero, and various payment platforms and online marketplaces, including Stripe, Shopify, and Amazon.
Kathleen Greer is the founder of KGA, Inc., a leading provider of Employee Assistance and Work Life Programs. Kathy's career has been dedicated to reducing the stigma of mental health by delivering innovative wellbeing programs that address the challenges faced by employees and managers. As a senior advisor to the National Behavioral Consortium, Kathy continues to champion the work of top-tier EAPs across the country.
Stephen T. Romano is the founder of Romano Strategic Communication and has more than 25 years' experience developing branding, messaging, and marketing communications programs for American Express, Honeywell, Keurig, MIT, Texas Medical Center, KGA, Cleveland Clinic, Hewlett-Packard, the Smithsonian, and other leaders. His articles have appeared in Newsday, The Boston Herald, People Magazine, EBN, and various trade and industry publications.
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.
