Technology hot spots.

• Position: Information management responsibilities of chief financial officers

CFOs are taking on more and more IT responsibility. So how do they know where to focus their attention - and the company's dollars?

How has today's financial executive arrived at the forefront of information technology leadership, innovation and insight? Because fiscal responsibility rests with the CFO. As guardian of the corporate assets, he or she must mediate various business and budgetary alternatives ant conflicting priorities to make sure resources are allocated to the most promising investments and programs.

In an IT context, this means ensuring that technology investments yield business value, and that IT decisions are aligned with the company's business strategy and operating model.

For the second consecutive year, Financial Executives Institute and Computer Sciences Corporation took the technology pulse of FEI members. Over 50 percent of 1999 respondents head the "very critical list" with the same four top financial management issues as they did in 1998:

* Prioritizing technology investments.

* Establishing and maintaining an effective dialog between information services and users.

* Ensuring Y2K compliance.

* Identifying the appropriate level of technology investment.

But at least half of this year's respondents add two "very critical" issues:

* Identifying how IT can improve or influence business processes.

* Upgrading or replacing legacy systems.

Is there a discernable link? Obviously, Y2K concerns are paramount as the immovable compliance deadline looms. The survey was circulated in November and December of 1998. Returns indicate only about 30 percent of respondents had completed their preparedness activities at that time - and about 20 percent are "in the danger zone": either assessing or renovating, largely irrespective of company size or industry.

Then, too, no industry allocates less than 8 percent of total actual IT spending to Y2K - and overall, spending averages 13 percent. These are dollars that, in other years, might have been classified as "discretionary spending." Thus, cost alone could elevate Y2K to critical status.

And finally, Y2K concerns must loom large for all companies that interact electronically within a trading partner network. Despite their own readiness, how can companies be sure a customer, supplier or other partner won't disseminate "date-impaired" information?

The millennium bug has also stung respondents' consciousness over upgrading or replacing legacy systems. Clearly, the shortcomings of legacy...