Are you in tune with your CIO?

• Position: Relations between chief financial and chief information officers - Includes related article on working with CIOs - Information Management - Panel Discussion

It hasn't always been easy for finance and information technology to work together, acknowledge the CFOs and CIOs at a recent roundtable discussion. But as the two areas have begun shedding their "bean counter" and "techie" labels, finance has become more of a model for information technology departments and less of an impediment, these executives say. Now they just need to convince everyone else. Read how they hammer away at the ivory towers in their organizations.

RAJAJI: Please describe how your management information systems organizations get involved in setting corporate strategy.

VERDOORN: Land O'Lakes is a $3-billion company with two separate businesses. The information systems function usually works with the finance function, and that's true across all of our divisions. I have information systems responsibility in the dairy foods organization as vice president of finance. Mark is part of the corporate organization and reports to the CFO. So across the company, information systems has historically reported to the finance organization.

I've found over the past three to five years that it's much more important for information systems to be involved strategically, partially because of what we've been going through as an organization in determining which technology we want to put in and how we can apply it. We want a consistent approach to technology and a platform to use across all of the businesses, because over the long haul, that leads to the lowest-cost information systems function.

RAJAJI: Do you have a centralized information systems strategy, in terms of both applications software and networks?

WlLBERTS: Three years ago, we consolidated into corporate all of the technology and operations functions. Each of the business units is supported by a decentralized application support team. We coordinate the technology strategies across the organization and work closely with the business units on the applications side. Between the two businesses, we have about 140 people in information systems.

RAJAJI: Here's a question for the financial executives. Do you find it's difficult to get your CIOs to think strategically, in terms of the business as a whole?

FESLER: I don't know if Ray and I have the perfect relationship, but we see eye-to-eye on most things, and we try to get our technology people right in the middle of strategic issues. In fact, in some cases, they're probably the driving force for change, because sometimes the user doesn't recognize there are better ways of doing things.

RAJAJI: What happens if user groups have conflicting priorities? Do you have a steering committee to decide on the best course of action?

FESLER: We have an executive steering committee that meets twice a year - sometimes more frequently, depending on the issues - to thoroughly discuss the priorities in information systems. The executive committee is made up of the eight major players in our company, all the way from our president to the vice presidents of all the major functional areas. That helps us determine what the priorities are and gives Ray clear marching orders, and it makes things clear to the entire organization. Last year, for instance, one of our major projects was an improved finance and human resources system. Everybody knew there were certain resources committed to that endeavor, and other projects had to fall in line behind it.

HAGEDORN: The system isn't perfect, but it works, and it takes a lot of pressure off the information systems person trying to decide what to work on.

RAJAJI: Does management information systems' reporting relationship to the CFO cause any problems from the user perspective?

FESLER: I give Ray a long rope, and he knows how far to go.

RAJAJI: Tom, give us a window into information technology at Ethicon.

FOWLER: Ethicon Endo-Surgery is a division of Johnson & Johnson, an $18-billion corporation. At J&J, the information management organization has historically reported to the vice president of finance. Over the last few years, that's begun to change slightly in certain areas of the corporation. Information management is beginning to have a higher profile, with the top information executive holding a board seat or a vice president's title. But the reporting relationship is still the same, and I believe that's because the president doesn't necessarily have the understanding or the time to have the information technology organization reporting to him or her.

Three or four years ago, J&J, which is very decentralized, decided it needed an information technology office at the corporate level. It's an office of six people from each of our consumer, professional and pharmaceutical sectors. Gregg reports to me, but there's a strong dotted line into the corporate structure.

Right now, Gregg's dealing with a lot of our standardization issues. Our company is three-and-a-half years old, and we've been fighting US Surgical for the market. Gregg's putting the infrastructure and base systems in place, although the two of us spend a great deal of time transforming the information technology organization from a technical resource to one that is truly a business partner. We're also trying to determine our potential returns from sales force automation and how much we need to invest.

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES

LITCHFIELD: In the past few years, finance has moved beyond the accounting function to being a business partner by helping the organization with its financial issues. The information technology organization needs to make that same shift. We need to get out of the technical-support and programming-support roles; we must become an organization that delivers strategic value to the company. Our relationship with finance will help us do...