Advice for CFOs: what you don't know can hurt you!(TECH STRATEGY)

• Author: Seewald, Marc

For several years, financial executives have experienced an uncertain and tumultuous recession. With the tide apparently turning, now those executives are articulating phrases such as "long-term strategic plan," "investing in company growth" and "seizing new business opportunities."

While each industry presents its own unique challenges, there are a number of common trends all executives should know and for which they can plan appropriately.

As the line between finance and technology continues to blur, financial leaders are increasingly expected to have the tech savvy to understand the implications and opportunities associated with those trends.

So's here's a primer that highlights particular areas where technology trends have the potential for driving progress: financial governance, extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), tax provisions, International Financial Reporting Standards and integrated enterprise productivity tools for finance.

FINANCIAL GOVERNANCE

Currently, financial governance is driven largely by the need to comply with government and industry regulations, and as such is top of mind for chief financial officers and the finance and accounting staff. At its core, financial governance is intended to deliver better visibility into financial information and more credible reporting.

To bring much-needed transformation to financial governance--an area that is still largely spreadsheet-based with many manual processes--software vendors are introducing automation solutions that promise to reduce cost and improve efficiency and accuracy across processes, including:

* Consolidation;

* Reconciliation management;

* Intercompany transaction management;

* Financial controls and compliance;

* Close management; and

* Financial statement generation.

Close management applications, for example, not only automate many labor-intensive and time-consuming tasks but also ensure that all required tasks are completed as prescribed, with comprehensive workflow management. John Van Decker, research vice president at technology research and advisory company Gartner Inc., claimed in a recent report that in addition to improving the accuracy of financial information, close management applications can reduce closing costs by up to 25 percent.

Although these technologies are initially being introduced as individual point solutions, financial governance applications are a highly effective way to augment corporate performance management (CPM) suites to...