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CFOs vs. IT – Bad blood but finding common ground

CFO vs. CIO? Doesn't has to be that way.

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“I was hoping there would be blood on the floor. There’s a lot of animosity between finance people and IT people.” – An IT veteran

Note: The Skinny blog is written by Rick Smith, editor and co-founder of Local Tech Wire and business editor of WRAL.com.

DURHAM, N.C. – So how do information technology executives best deal with chief financial officers? As the quote to open this article states quite clearly, there’s often bad blood between these C-level counterparts when it comes to justifying and authorizing IT “spend.”

Local Tech Wire’s Executive Exchange event on Wednesday featured a panel of three veteran CFOs who shared opinions and answered some pointed questions from the audience about decorum – or lack thereof – when talking budgets.

No blood flowed; no fists flew. In fact, CFOs Matt Petzold of Bandwidth.com, Pettra Weishaupt-Smith of DigitalSmiths and Mark Hahn of Athnetix asked for teamwork, involvement and avoidance of IT speak so everyone could do their jobs better.

Did their message get through?

Winning IT project support is like selling, Petzold said when talking about the best “sales pitch” he had ever heard.

“I’ll save you a penny,” the sales person told the CEO.

As in a penny earnings per share.

So, as one attendee noted, his takeaway was that sales/pitch model: “Save a penny.”

The Skinny asked attendees to provide their takeaways from the event, so here are some of their thoughts. Notice how often one theme emerges – communication – and how important the art of selling not gadgets, toys and the next best thing but projects based on rewards, risks and costs.

The takeaways:

“Like any good sale, identify rewards, risks and costs – Those are what CFO cares about.”

“[Remember], CFO is a key decision maker in all tech issues.”

“CFOs are much more than just finance executives.”

“Start with the CFO” in planning. “Speak the language” of the CFO.

“Talk CFO language”

Don’t overlook the “importance of security and risk w/IT”

“Compliance and risk is trending across lines between IT and financial. [This] impacts policy and procedure.”

[Respect] the CFO’s perspective on IT.”

“The role of CFO has changed to be more of a business partner.”

“Communicate in the language of the business unit.”

“Consensus [is] that IT needs to plan and communicate – which I have not always seen.”

“Issues around data availability and data security are topics that keep CFOs up at night.”

“Don’t use an IT steering committee, particularly at [firms] under $250 million revenues.”

“Make sure to articulate the risk/reward of the particular technology you are trying to implement along with the ROI.”

“Keep it simple. Costs, benefits, risks.”

Expectations of the CFO [are] pursuant to investment decisions.”

“Communicate potential for risks clearly of inaction.”

“Plan ahead.”

“[The discussion] gave good insight for me as an IT professional on how to ‘sell’ IT projects to the CFO and company.”

“Provide benefit.
Provide cost
Provide risk”

“It’s complicated – Roles and responsibilities vary greatly with the size and stage and industry in which the company operates.”

“Justify IT spend with clear communication of:

• Risk
• Benefit
• Cost”

“[Explain] how can your product or services make my life easier.”

“Sell in ways based on rewards, risks and costs.”

“Keep CFO informed early and often on IT projects.”

“The back office belongs with the finance team.”

“[The discussion] reaffirmed that CFOs are mostly interested in operating in a standard best practice environment.”

And a couple of points on IT trends as seen by CFOs:

“CFOs generally in favor of software-as-a-service model”

“All three CFOs were advocates of SaaS solutions – further evidence that this will be the future platform for business delivery.”

Planning. Teamwork. Communication. Selling. Sounds pretty simple. And no blood shed as a result.

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The Skinny

WRAL Local Tech Wire Publisher and Editor Rick Smith dishes out tidbits from the local technology sector. Read more articles…