From the position and extent of financial background Vietnam today, from the perspective of the future of financial background and career in financial management, "portrait" of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in the new era has changed a lot. The leading CFOs now have to do more of their traditional roles and reversal in the digital world. Technology is being applied more and more in all business activities of enterprises.
According to a survey published by Forbes magazine's Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business 62% of CFOs say the pace of change and innovation in their industries has accelerated, spurring their companies to increase capital spending an average of 76%.
The following 5 technology-oriented areas will be critical:
1. Start Deploying Emerging Technologies
As artificial intelligence becomes part of the fabric of business activity. In the near term, AI tools will enable finance organizations to eliminate many routine tasks, freeing finance professionals to focus on more strategic areas and changing the skill sets that finance organizations pursue.
Of course, AI technologies also usher in new business approaches that weren’t possible even a few years ago—enabling businesses to optimize their supply chain, marketing, customer support, sales, and manufacturing operations as well as identify new opportunities. On the horizon, CFOs must consider the implications of the blockchain, both for its potential to disintermediate certain transactional processes and reduce costs (or perhaps reduce revenue if your business benefits from transactional fees that blockchain eliminates).
2. Close Security Gaps
Not a day goes by without a report of a business dealing with a cyber attack or security breach. Large or small, any organization is a potential target, whether the hacker’s goal is to steal confidential company financial data or demand a ransom.
Facing increasingly complex and ever-evolving security threats, more and more CFOs are realizing that the security safeguards in their current financial systems aren’t enough.
Predicts that by 2020, 60% of organizations engaging in mergers and acquisitions will consider the target company’s cybersecurity posture as a critical factor in their due diligence process.
3. Enable Better Insights
Data is a valuable asset to any business, they also developed at the same time as the business grew. The top CFO needs to push the advantage to reduce operational costs and make the strategic decisions.
Get the proper technology to CFO not only access data from across the organization that provides the insights into the role as a strategist for the members of the Board, senior managers, and others.
4. Create a Modern Work Environment
CFOs must keep abreast of consumer technology trends, as employees expect the kinds of modern applications and tools they use in their private lives to be available at work.
To review & evaluate the effectiveness of the tools being used in the operation of the Accounting Department - Finance and CFO can through the following questions:
- Do they help achieve our latest business objectives?
- Do they make the finance team more productive?
- Do they enable the level of analytics and scenario planning needed?
- Do users default to spreadsheets because they think they’re easier?
5. Be Ready to Shift and Grow
The engine of any company’s business is its financial systems. But if those systems make it difficult to shift gears into new business models or expand into new regions, your company will find itself further and further behind competitors.
The CFOs need to create the conditions for businesses to have the ability to adapt to the change and tendency of modern technology. The important thing is to turn hope for sustainable enterprise development into reality.
While it’s fairly easy to change your IT infrastructure, it’s much more challenging to try to change the culture of a company.
The most important thing is that the CFOs possesses vision and be prepared to ensure that they keep up with technology trends and changes in the digital world, both present, and future. Solutions, such as Cloud solutions, is one of the useful tools to help businesses increase performance and achieve success.
Source Forbes