CFOs lead the pack in IT investment
Gartner research suggests that CFOs are increasingly taking on IT investment roles
IT INVESTMENT is increasingly becoming the responsibility of the chief financial officer, research suggests.
Out of 255 CFOs, 44% said their technology decision-making role has increased on last year, said a survey by technology analyst Gartner and Financial Executives Research (FERF) Foundation.
The results also highlighted that 41% said they were the leader of responsible IT investment, 41% were part of the group that made the decisions in this area, 16% provide advice and 1% were the sole decision makers.
“While CFOs certainly appreciate reduced cost through the more efficient delivery of IT, organisations need to understand that CFOs want technology investment that they can see business value from in the form of improved business processes. Therefore, their priorities are largely focused on analytics and business applications,” said Bill Sinnett, director of research at FERF.
The most popular IT investment for CFOs is creating systems that allow easier analysis and decision making (57%), closely followed by collaboration and knowledge management (52%).
About 39% of CFOs hope to maintain IT budgets at 2010 levels in 2012, while 44% forecast an increase.