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CFOs Fret: Data Quality and Information Integrity|
- By CXOtoday Staff, Jul 31, 2007 1410 hrs IST
- Tags : CFOs Fret Data Quality and Information Integrity
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According to 58% of respondents, improving data quality and information integrity is of main concern for chief financial officers (CFOs). These results have been declared at the Ninth Annual Technology Issues for Financial Executives survey conducted by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in association with Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) - the research affiliate of Financial Executives International (FEI) - and FEI's Committee on Finance and Information Technology (CFIT).
The survey also revealed that information security, which had held the topmost position for past 2 years, slithered to number 4, with nearly 46% rating it as critical.
Jerry Boltin, a senior partner and the Business Intelligence (BI) practice leader in CSC's consulting group comments that, in many organizations, poor data quality limits the ability to develop decision-quality information and analytics to improve business performance. He added that CFOs are realizing the impact on operations and performance hence they're increasingly investing in initiatives that will address their concerns. They've plans to improve their information integrity during the coming year.
The 2007 survey recognized that many respondents would continue significant levels of spending to improve their analytical information environments in areas, such as profitability analysis, performance measurement, and planning/forecasting. Its results state that the overall IT spending is expected to increase modestly in the next year, and roughly 25% of respondents expect the financial program/project share of total IT spending to increase.
Also unchanged from last year, CFOs reported that 3 areas where information technology (IT) organizations lack are project management, understanding the business/IT relationship, and communication.
Approximately 20% of organizations with more than US $1 billion in revenue anticipate outsourcing some aspect of its IT in the coming year. The direct use of offshore providers continues to increase, but at a modest rate with only 5% planning to enter into an initial offshore relationship in the near future. However, CIOs and CFOs are responsible to plan out the overall IT strategy. Skillful CFOs can drive the organization to derive return on investment (ROI) from IT spending, whether outsourced or insourced.
In the past several years, respondents are said to have reported constraint in their ability to develop or acquire new applications. The reasons cited vary, but the core issue is earnings pressure.
The survey also examined a variety of additional pertinent issues, including financial executives' views related to financial management, IT strategies, use of technology applications, return on technology investments, implications of mandates and legislation, systems integration, effectiveness of ERP implementations, and use of offshore resources among others.
Related links:
Solace for CFOs: Energy Star Shines
BAM: A Business Reality
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