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.
Bridget Haile is the chief customer officer at Summer, a fintech startup and certified B corporation on a mission to simplify student debt repayment and forgiveness. After years spent at the intersection of finance, tech, and human advice, she is passionate about using technology and empathy to make complex financial systems more accessible and understandable for everyone. Previously, Bridget led the Client Experience team at Ellevest, an investment platform designed to get more money into the hands of more women, and she is a graduate of Harvard University.
McKinsey will speak at the 2024 edition of American Banker's flagship event and help shape the conference's Bank of the Future experience.
Megan Smith is the head of human resources for SAP North America. Over the past five years, Megan has been deeply involved as an HR leader in SAP's acquired cloud businesses in North America, the Head of HR for SAP Canada, and in 2022 expanded her responsibilities to assume the role of Head of HR for SAP North America.
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.
