CFOs and senior finance executives are dealing with a growing number of responsibilities and demands as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report.
The report, from consulting firm Protiviti, found that the pandemic has been a wake-up call to finance departments that weren’t already investing, or weren’t investing enough, in cloud-based systems as they have struggled to shift to the remote work environment. Eighty percent of the 1,057 finance leaders surveyed ranked security and privacy of data as a top priority, while 78 percent cited enhanced data analytics, and 72 percent cited cloud-based applications.
John Hoben is an ambassador at QR1.
Pierre du Rostu has been CEO of the AXA Digital Commercial Platform since June 2022. In this role, he leads a team dedicated to delivering innovative global solutions to AXA's B2B customers. AXA Digital Commercial Platform's ambition is to support businesses beyond traditional insurance contracts, using technology to help them better manage a very complex risk environment.
Pierre started his career in consulting in 2011 before joining the AXA Group in 2015, where he first held several senior positions in Commercial P&C. He then joined AXA XL as Head of Integration before taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer - International P&C and then Global Head of Innovation & Business Architecture at AXA XL.
Joep Leussink is the head of growth at AddEvent, a San Francisco-based software company creating calendar, appointment and event management solutions that empower over 250,000 companies globally to enhance their event and appointment management and engagement. As a partner to accounting firms and small-practice CPAs across the U.S., he and AddEvent advise clients on issues related to client engagement, deadline management and documentation workflows on a regular basis.
Of those respondents who are CFOs and vice presidents of finance, 72 percent ranked cloud-based applications as a top priority to address over the next 12 months. Seventeen percent ranked cloud-based applications as the most important finance priority for their organizations to address, signifying a big jump from the 8 percent of respondents who indicated so in a similar survey by Protiviti last year.
“Having the right technology infrastructure and cloud capabilities is now considered a baseline in order to operate effectively and efficiently and will continue to be as organizations move into a hybrid work environment,” said Chris Wright, managing director and global leader of Protiviti’s Business Performance Improvement practice, in a statement. “COVID-19 disruptions underscored the critical nature of a truly digital finance workforce and companies without advanced technologies and digital processes faced a difficult transition to remote work. We’re now seeing an increasing number of boards and CEOs tap their finance leaders for guidance about whether their organization is allocating enough resources to their technology infrastructure.”
Labor models are changing, in part as a result of the pandemic, with 18 percent of the finance leaders surveyed saying their organizations are relying on managed services providers, while 29 percent are augmenting their staff to handle financial planning and analysis with greater speed and agility.
