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.
Don Okolie is the global head of underwriting at Genpact, where he leads the growth, development, and market penetration of the practice globally. He has over 20 years of experience in claims adjudication, pricing and analytics, finance and accounting, operations, reinsurance, underwriting operations, project management, change, and transformation. Genpact is the Agentic Operations company helping over 300 insurers across the globe with AI-powered transformation.
Neycho Tepavicharov is co-founder of Flashcloud, a web hosting company. He has spent nearly two decades in the hosting industry and co-founded and sold a hosting company before starting Flashcloud.
David Seider is the Chief Commercial Officer of TheZebra.com, the company simplifying the insurance shopping experience. In this role, David oversees a broad scope related to revenue-generating activities, partner relationships, agency initiatives, and corporate development efforts. He is an excellent source on discussing auto and home insurance industry trends, the impact of macroeconomic factors on insurance rates, M&A activity and more.
Prior to joining TheZebra.com, David was a Partner at Weatherford Capital, a growth equity firm with over $1 billion in committed capital. He led the firm's investment analysis, transaction execution, and portfolio management activities. During his time at Weatherford Capital, David served on the board of directors of SOMA Global, Branch, HDVI, Stellar, and TheZebra.com. In past roles, he has also led merger and acquisition execution and capital raising efforts.
David earned his B.S. in business administration from the University of Florida and is a member of the Florida Blue Key leadership honorary. He earned his M.B.A. degree from Duke's Fuqua School of Business and graduated with highest honors as a Fuqua Scholar.
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.
