Chief monetary officers are searching for to tech up their departments, with upgrades and investments taking on a big portion of their checklist of priorities for the longer term.
That is in keeping with a survey not too long ago carried out by analysis and consulting firm Protivity, which polled 1,064 CFOs and vice presidents, administrators and managers of finance the world over in June and July. Amongst different questions, the researchers requested them to put out their most important priorities going ahead and located that a lot of them contain expertise. Of the 10 objects listed, tech-related objects appeared greater than every other sort of class.
The No. 1 precedence was listed as safety and privateness of knowledge. Second was profitability reporting and evaluation, which regularly includes software program. Third was blockchain and good contracts, adopted by cloud-based purposes. Then, after monetary planning and evaluation (which may additionally contain software program), and altering calls for and expectations of inside prospects and management (inside the group), got here course of mining in eighth place and automation in ninth. Finishing the checklist was the altering roles of human sources, management, improvement and recruiting.
One tech space the place CFOs see barely decrease priorities, although, is in cryptocurrency. In comparison with final yr, fewer finance leaders say they’re fascinated about utilizing cryptocurrencies, NFTs and different digital property (47% this yr vs. 54% final yr). Additional, fewer are itemizing themselves on markets primarily based on cryptocurrencies, NFTs and different digital property (32% in 2022 vs. 45% in 2021), and fewer are reporting buyer demand for consideration in these areas (23% in 2022 in comparison with 30% in 2021). The one cryptocurrency-based space that grew from final yr to this one was these really investing or transacting utilizing them (51% in 2022, up from 49% in 2021).
The survey additionally made word of the rising variety of finance leaders utilizing environmental, social and governance methods and reporting: At this level, 40% of finance organizations are incorporating ESG elements into extra of their sourcing choices, contemplating not solely sustainability however social points as effectively.
“This yr’s survey findings verify that CFOs proceed to increase the worth they ship to the group far past the boundaries of conventional finance and accounting actions, as they reimagine their roles and embrace tasks tied to provide chain, automation, analytics, ESG, management expertise and extra,” mentioned Christopher Wright, international chief of Protiviti’s enterprise efficiency enchancment observe, in an announcement. “By way of current tumultuous years, CFOs globally have been introduced with alternatives to determine and stress-test their increasing strategic roles in actual time, which has helped them contribute to the dialogue within the C-suite and boardroom.”