A recent survey of 1,900 finance leaders released by Oracle and Intel reveals that the CFO/CIO alignment is more important than ever as cloud is viewed as a key strategy to transform their business. The survey, included in a report titled Modern Finance: Driving Transformation from Within, found that:
“45% of finance leaders say they’re under increased pressure to raise company productivity.
44% say their company is placing more emphasis on driving business growth.
41% report they’re being asked to reduce operational costs (even while under pressure to drive more growth)”
The report finds that legacy finance systems impede the CFOs ability to analyze large volumes of data. These systems have been around often for decades and are so highly customized that trying to keep up with the current demands is next to impossible.
Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents felt they could respond to company demands and innovate more quickly with cloud-based financial software.
If legacy systems aren’t meeting current demands and survey respondents overwhelmingly see the benefits of cloud services, why aren’t CFOs leading the charge? “Some 45% of respondents cite increasing regulatory complexity, 37% say they’re still unclear on the benefits and ROI, and 30% blame a lack of alignment between finance and other business units.”
Digital transformation is never easy, especially when legacy systems are highly customized. How the benefits of moving to the cloud are still lost on more than one third of the survey respondents is eye opening. In a post written by my colleague Sharon Suchoval earlier this year, Hyperion Drives 80% Speed Improvement to Financial Close Process, there’s plenty of evidence to support the return on investment is very real.
