Gartner survey of CFOs says "IT needs to get closer to the business"

A recent Gartner survey suggests that most CFO's believe that IT aren't providing clear business benefits (70%) and are not seen as a strategic partner (68%). Given that 42% of CIO's report to the CFO, according to the survey, this is not a good reflection of the understanding between IT and Finance.

John Van Decker, an analyst at Gartner, points out:

"The IT priorities of CFOs may be about improving business processes, efficiency and using IT to gain competitive insight. The CIO, by contrast, may be less focused on business intelligence, and more interested in projects that advance cloud computing and virtualization".

With these different agendas for IT and Finance, CIOs should note that CFOs are taking an increasing role in shaping the future of IT in their organisations, with 26% 'authorizing' IT investments, an increase of 15% on the previous year.

"There is a message in the study that IT needs to get much closer to business," Van Decker said. "If they (CIOs) don't do that I think what you are going to see is more of the control being taken away."

The CIO's job is unlikely to disappear, but clearly they need to work more closely with the business to regain control and ensure that the CIO is driving IT development to meet the needs of the organisation as a whole - and that includes Finance.

This survey involved the Financial Executives Research Foundation, and the Committee of Finance & IT of Financial Executives International. It included responses from 344 qualified respondents, with 46% working at companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

Van Decker includes a caveat in this survey, namely that it reflect the bias of CFOs and what they believe is occurring in organizations.

Source: Gartner July 2011