CFOs are willing to increase IT budgets, but they want to see ROI and business value first;
THE Rimini Street (Nasdaq: RMNI), a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support, products and services, a leading independent support provider for Oracle and SAP software, and a Salesforce and AWS partner, announced the findings of a global survey “C-suite Imperatives: Evolving IT and Enterprise Investments”. Sponsored by Rimini Street, the survey was conducted between March and April 2024 by Censuswide and interviewed 2,937 CFOs and CIOs of medium and large-scale global industries in the sectors of manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, energy, public and financial services.
The survey highlights the challenges faced when CIOs and CFOs share projects and budgets. Despite this, the bond between Finance and IT executives has strengthened due to their shared goals. Among these, the survey highlights that there is a greater connection between the two areas, especially when it comes to promoting more robust security measures, the need to make agile technological decisions, how to deal with the demands of other executive leaders or intelligently cut IT costs.
It is worth noting that only 201% of CFOs are satisfied with the impact that technology has had on their businesses. In addition, CFOs have a greater say in deciding what the organization's investments will be, prioritizing and focusing on ROI and business impact.
Another important point is that, for finance executives, ERP upgrades/migrations delivered the lowest added value (23%). CIOs, on the other hand, have been looking to emerging technologies to solve their challenges, aiming to gain agility, increase productivity and efficiency, support growth and reduce business risks.
The main conclusions of the research are:
- Financial organizations are becoming increasingly involved in IT decisions;
- More C-suites are transitioning to a subscription model, but 58% of them are being impacted by higher upfront IT costs. Most are showing interest in a hybrid model;
- CFOs recognize the importance of IT to the company's mission and financial goals, but are dissatisfied with the results of some technology investments to date;
- Of the CFOs interviewed, only 20% are satisfied with the impact that technology investments have on their business;
- CFOs are willing to increase IT budgets, but to do so they want to see ROI and business value;
- The main areas of investment are revenue-generating initiatives and customer-facing and security-focused projects;
- Security is a key factor driving IT investment decisions;
- Both CFOs and CIOs believe the other needs to become more proficient in their field (business knowledge versus technical knowledge);
- CIOs are dealing with rising IT costs due to investments in emerging technologies (44%), SaaS and other cloud services (42%), and outsourcing of application support (36%);
- CFOs want CIOs to focus IT initiatives on revenue (28%), risk management (27%), and next-generation disruptive technologies (25%);
- ERP upgrades or migrations (23%) delivered little added value for CFOs.
“To succeed in the modern business environment, technology and finance are learning to share a common, cohesive vision of success, rather than merely coexisting as separate roles. CFOs and CIOs must find a balance between innovation and revenue, customer outcomes and business outcomes, working in harmony and sharing long-term goals, strategies and objectives,” said Mark Coggin, VP of Portfolio Product Marketing at Rimini Street.
Access the full survey: “C-suite Imperatives: Evolving IT and Enterprise Investments”.
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