Why CFOs Should Care About Big Data

The topic of “big data” clearly has reached a tipping point in 2012.  With plenty of coverage over the past few years in the IT press, we are now starting to see the topic of “big data” covered in mainstream business press, including a cover story in the October 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review. 

To help customers understand the challenges of managing “big data” as well as the opportunities that can be created by leveraging “big data”, Oracle has recently run and published the results of a customer survey, as well as white papers and articles on this topic.  Most recently, we commissioned a white paper titled “Mastering Big Data: CFO Strategies to Transform Insight into Opportunity”.

The premise here is that “big data” is not just a topic that CIOs should pay attention to, but one that CFOs should understand and take advantage of as well.  Clearly, whoever masters the art and science of big data will be positioned for competitive advantage in their industries or markets.  That’s why smart CFOs are taking control of big data and business analytics projects, not just to uncover new ways to drive growth in a slowing global economy, but also to be a catalyst for change in the enterprise.  With an increasing number of CFOs now responsible for overseeing IT investments and providing strategic insight to the board, CFOs will be increasingly called upon to take a leadership role in assessing the value of “big data” initiatives, building on their traditional skills in reporting and helping managers analyze data to support decision making.

Here’s a link to the white paper referenced above, which is posted on the Oracle C-Central/CFO web site, as well as some other resources that can help CFOs master the topic of “big data”:

White Paper “Mastering Big Data:  CFO Strategies to Transform Insight into Opportunity

CFO Market Watch article:  “Does Big Data Affect the CFO?”

Oracle Survey Report:  “From Overload to Impact – An Industry Scorecard on Big Data Industry Challenges”

Upcoming Big Data Webcast with Andrew McAfee

Here’s a general link to Oracle C-Central/CFO in case you want to start there:

www.oracle.com/c-central/cfo

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need additional information:  [email protected]

By John O’Rourke, EPM Contributor, from: https://blogs.oracle.com/epm/

John O’Rourke is Vice President of Product Marketing at Oracle Corporation, focusing on Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) applications. With a background in accounting and finance, John has over 25 years of experience in the software industry, and 15 years of experience in Product Marketing at Hyperion Solutions and Oracle. He has worked with many customers and partners on financial reporting and planning initiatives and has spoken and written on many topics in enterprise performance management. John has also held positions in strategic marketing and product marketing at Dun & Bradstreet Software, and Kenan Systems. John has a BS degree in accounting from Bentley University and an MBA from Boston College.