Corporate leaders are beginning to face the facts: The key to marketing and innovation is successfully harnessing the power of digital information.
Over the last few years, harnessing the power of information has presented itself as Big Data and accounting analytics. Big Data describes data sets that are so large and complex that traditional data management systems have difficulty processing them.
One question remains: Who within the organization has stepped up to take businesses into this digital frontier? You’d think this was the responsibility of chief information officers. After all, the initiative involves information technology. That’s their job, right?
But according to a recent McKinsey study, an increasing number of chief financial officers — a whopping 70 percent of them, in fact — are the ones supporting digital initiatives such as Big Data and accounting analytics.
A recent article on CFO.com outlined the results of the 2013 study, which shows that financial executives are becoming more involved in these digital information ventures and in accounting analytics technologies. Of this group that supported the initiatives, 37 percent of financial executives are directly involved with the projects, which are geared to “improve budgeting, forecasting and planning.”
According to the study, CFOs also want to use this data to target new customers, sell more to existing customers and better manage the supply chain.
While Big Data supports budgeting, forecasting and planning, the McKinsey report states that more companies are using Big Data analytics to identify how to grow revenue. Where once companies needed to rely on the gut feelings of client engagement managers and marketers, organizations can now use data to determine how to better manage and grow their businesses.
Here’s the big question: How does the CFO gain access to such robust data sets, databases and analytical tools?
Let’s go back to the role of the CIO. The McKinsey report also states that 30 percent of respondents have established a chief digital officer, or someone whose mission it is to create “a unifying digital vision [that] energizes the company around digital possibilities, coordinates digital activities, helps to rethink products and processes for the digital age, and sometimes provides critical tools or resources.”
“In an increasingly digitizing business world, most companies need better digital leadership and coordination,” according to the article. “You need to create a compelling digital vision, coordinate digital investments, drive appropriate synergies, build a clean technology platform and foster innovation.”
At the end of the day, corporate leaders, especially financial executives, are embracing the power of digital information and accounting analytics.
By involving someone who is responsible for establishing a cohesive digital information strategy companies can not only capitalize on technology advances in Big Data analytics for driving competitive decisions, but also prepare the organization for a dynamic future in the digital age. This might be a new responsibility for the CFO in the future.
By Whitney Vickrey, from:Â http://www.gcecloud.com/blog/business-analytics-and-financial-reporting-blog/should-cfos-oversee-big-data-and-accounting-analytics