Talking to your CIO to get the data you need.

• Author: Cote, Joe
• Position: Workforce Optimization

IT departments often don't understand the finance area's need for delivery of quick and relevant information. CFOs should understand the data-delivery options.

Financial executives need data, and lots of it. They need to have that information in a spreadsheet or other format, so that they can analyze it to make strategic decisions.

However, as most CFOs have discovered, getting data on demand and in a familiar format is far from easy. In most cases, the information technology (IT) department controls access to the information, and CFOs wait for batch reports to be run. If they need more data, or need the data in another format, they have to wait for a (probably overburdened) mainframe staff to prepare that information. All this can be inconvenient and time-consuming, and potentially result in lost opportunities.

One basic thing to understand is that CFOs and chief information officers (CIOs) live in different universes. CIOs do not concern themselves with quantitative analysis, pivot tables, regression analysis and correlation. If they do "what-if" calculations at all, it is infrequently.

The finance department needs data no one else cares about, and probably no one else appreciates how important the data is. In the post-Enron world, the finance department is undergoing unprecedented scrutiny, but the IT department is affected little, if any. And the IT department is not required to have instant answers to questions from the CEO and board that might range from the impact of changing the accounting method and restructuring the sales force to determining the ROI on some new purchase.

In short, financial executives deal with content, while CIOs deal with processes and keeping the infrastructure going 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Their world consists of protocols, operating systems, applications software and infrastructure requirements. Understandably, they prefer to have as many things scheduled as possible, and they like doing regular reports on a regular basis. Ad hoc requests represent one more disruption in their day.

Both departments are often overworked, but their duties are so different that there is often a gulf of understanding -- even suspicion -- between them. It is pretty safe to assume that the CIO might not understand just how important getting timely data, in an appropriate format, is to the financial operation.

The IT staff might not realize how dynamic the financial environment is, and how important ad hoc requests can be. In their minds, regularly scheduled batch reports should satisfy the financial department, which should be responsible for integrating data from various sources. In most cases, they are probably right, but in today's environment, financial executives must deal with the unexpected, as well as with routine matters. Such situations require non-routine responses.

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