Gartner says Business Intelligence/Analytics is top area for CFO technology investment through 2014

Business intelligence (BI)/andalytics investment will address many technology gaps for the CFO, according to a joint study by Gartner, Inc., and Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF), the research affiliate of Financial Executives International (FEI). The study shows that 15 of the top 19 business processes that CFOs have identified as requiring improved technology support are largely addressed by BI, analytics and performance management technologies.

The survey results showed that the top business process area that needs technology investment is to facilitate analysis and decision making (59 %, up from 57 % in 2012), followed by the ongoing monitoring of business performance (50 %), and then collaboration and knowledge management (45 %, down from 52 % in 2012).

From an enterprise perspective, BI and business applications continue to dominate the CFO’s IT investment desires, although they are somewhat behind where they were in 2012. Gartner believes that this is due to the increasing importance of nexus technologies, as those selections have increased significantly in 2013.

“The survey findings would seem to suggest that the CFO prioritizes business applications higher than the CIO does,” said Bill Sinnett, senior director, research at FERF. “If the CIO does not understand this, then there’s a chance the CFO will sponsor his or her own initiatives, and not coordinate them with the IT organization. This demonstrates the trend that BI is becoming less of a CIO responsibility and more of a CFO and line-of-business responsibility.”

Corporate performance management (CPM) projects are the highest on the CFO’s BI initiatives list, according to the survey. The top four priorities in this area are addressed by CPM suites, including performance scorecard; budgeting, planning and forecast; financial consolidation; and profitability management.

The survey also found that CFOs’ understanding of the Nexus of Forces is impacting CFO investment priorities. Enterprises are being challenged to adapt as the nexus of social, mobile, cloud and information and the data that results from their adoption expand exponentially. Social scored low in terms of technology initiatives, but mobile, cloud (including software as a service [SaaS]) and information are priorities.

Although these nexus capabilities will be a concern more in 2014 and beyond, IT organizations must communicate how more-effective business platforms can be leveraged to deliver better architectures for business applications that are “top of mind” for the CFO. “The CFO’s influence over IT is consistent and, in many organizations, is growing. We have seen in the study that a large percentage of CFOs own the IT function. This year’s responses show that 39 percent of IT organizations currently report to the CFO,” said John van Decker, Gartner research vice president.