CFOs should always be informed of the changes and innovations in information technology; mainly in those advancements that positively affect business processes and increase business efficiency, through faster information flows and lower operational costs. In many companies, IT departments or CIOs report to the Finance department. Regardless, CFOs should be a part of the IT strategy. In my opinion CFOs have to oversee IT functions.

Nowadays, there are countless business solutions. From the famous Balanced Scorecard, in order to measure and evaluate business strategy initiatives, to a large number of ERPs, CRM, Business Intelligence solutions, and dashboards to monitor KPIs. All of these solutions are well marketed worldwide. Depending on the size of the business, business growth expectations, and the type of problem the company is facing, Business Consultants can help the company define a solution. CFOs should be properly informed, depending on their industry sector, about which solution might fit their needs or resolve business issues. Recently, cloud computing is a popular term in all business books. Security implications and business continuity might be included as possible risks when evaluating cloud computing.

During my last ten years as a CFO, I have seen CFOs using Palms to check corporate mails, cellular phones to conduct conference calls, laptops to have video conferences or to continue working outside company premises at airports, hotels, customer offices, etc. Yes, the word is mobility. IT strategies tend to provide mobility to key company members. Centralization of key information in just one data repository and applications for data mining are much more popular. CFOs are demanding more mobility and centralization of key data under a secure environment. They need to have relevant information on their fingertips to answer inquiries from the BoD, CEO, Investors, Customers, Auditors, among other stakeholders.

It is very common that IT members are more literate in business processes than the super users of the different systems a company might have. Super users of software applications might understand the accounting and business processes based on their job experiences; however, the IT members know in much more detail the functionality of the software application. Working together with the super users might resolve business issues or help evaluate new software applications, increasing business productivity, business efficiency and reducing costs.