Introduction
CFOs today have several work dimensions to which they are directly responsible or accountable – Executive / Corporate roles which includes Planning, Budgeting and in some cases managing IT as well, Controllership, Audit, Taxation, Treasury & Corporate Finance, Business Finance & Costing, Compliance, Governance, Secretarial, Investor relations etc. to name a few. Most of these activities go well beyond traditional number crunching and naturally involve dependence on diverse technology. Let us look at some of these technologies that go beyond the world of spreadsheets….
Basic technology: Financial Operations
Financial Operations includes Controllership functions (Accounting, Payroll, Financial reporting, policy support), Audits, Taxation, Compliance, Governance & Secretarial responsibilities. Depending on the industry and domain complexity, technology solutions vary and are geographically unique especially for small and mid sized businesses – e.g. QuickBooks and Peachtree in the US, Sage in UK and Tally/Profit in India. Products & solutions for larger businesses are either custom built or are available as part of ERP platforms such as Oracle Financials, SAP etc. ERPs extend functionality of financial software. Industry specific ERPs are even more refined and include built in metrics or decision support algorithms.
Payroll solutions are very regional even within countries owing to government policy impact and unique nature of businesses. Financial reporting systems and standardized and are built as per statutory norms (e.g. GAAP) and require customization for internal MIS and controls. Business finance is a very specialized area that could include solutions for manufacturing accounting, statutory and regulatory calculations especially for global business transactions. In India, companies such as Udyog Software focus on unique regional needs for excise, sales tax and other commercial compliance requirements. However with mainstream taxation moving to international standards such as VAT, standalone systems would give way to global financial management software with inbuilt document creation/management & computational models.
For audits and business continuity, companies consider document management & workflow solutions (traditional players include EMC Documentum & Xerox while Indian vendors include Newgen, SRA and MMCS who offer domain specific document management & workflow solutions). Emerging technology companies combine content management / digital asset management with the above (e.g. Onbase from Hyland Software, OPTIX’s scanning, workflow and screen generation, Nextpage for document collaboration etc)
Mid range technology: Compliance, Governance & Secretarial
Given that most business are going global, business controls, compliance and governance assume paramount importance since most financial transactions today between companies and their branches, subsidiaries, governments and banks are online. Compliance and governance systems are available either as standalone systems or bundled with ECM (enterprise content management), document / workflow systems.
Compliance and Governance have become more critical as legislation across the world (e.g. SOX, Basel II etc and several capital market related compliance measures) have been brought under tightly controlled processes, timelines and audits. Since these areas need customization, in house tools are more popular.
Some offerings available for these areas include IDT Complete which combines ECM and Compliance, Esstech offers Basel II compliance software, Cartesis offers financial reporting & compliance tools.
High end technology: Financial planning, analytics, risk management & CPM
Financial decision analysis, risk management and corporate performance management are areas which are a key component of CFO responsibility. Today off the shelf solutions are available both as standalone systems and as extensions of financial ERPs or financial analytics software. Risk management solutions are more specialized and corporate performance management leverage metrics, decision support, data analysis and forecasting. Most of these solutions need organization discipline for data gathering, process clarity before implementation and executive sponsorship.
Key providers include SAS for financial intelligence solutions; FRx software for comprehensive analytics; PROPHIX software for financial planning capability; COGNOS for CPM (Corporate Performance Management); EGIP for financial risk management, M&A & Fast close solutions; and ISG Novasoft for Enterprise risk management solutions)
Summary
So where is the catch? Well, for starters, all of the above needs CFOs to be technology savvy, balance operational and strategic needs, fund, own and drive technology initiatives / ROI and be involved in critical phases of implementation. When all of the above does not work and you do need to meet that deadline, there is always the ubiquitous spreadsheet!!
Ranganath Iyengar

Introduction
Information technology related products and solutions have vastly evolved over the last few decades. While several path breaking ideas have matured, technology is still in a catch up mode with business needs. This article examines the causes and how technologies are now evolving to be more near real time with business changes.
The technologist’s viewpoint
The technologist always looks for fundamental changes that could be – evolutionary (databases, operating systems etc.); revolutionary (internet, embedded technologies etc); pervasive (email, networking, mobile technologies etc); utilitarian (cheaper hardware, storage etc); portable (laptops, handhelds etc) and so on. The technologist’s challenge has been to deal with frequent changes and making technology transition painless for end users as well as satisfying a wider range of users.
The end user’s viewpoint
The end user always looks for cheaper, faster, better, flexible, simpler, reliable, resilient and longer lasting solutions / products. However, in most cases, the end result only partially satisfies user needs since it is not possible to involve a majority of users in the design process. We therefore end up with technologies are either not fully utilized, evolved, tested or almost obsolete in terms of the idea. We experience this regularly with early versions of software, new generations of first products (e.g. first generation iPod docks etc)
Need for business to technology mapping
Technology is measured by the end users in terms of ease of use, featured, cost of procurement and ownership. Business to technology mapping is an important step in the pre-design/ideation phase and if done in a structured manner will result in significantly better payoffs for both the technologies and end users. The tools and methods are however complex or expensive. While R&D in a lot of organizations is inward looking or controlled for intellectual property reasons, business to technology can be an effective input into R&D programs.
Methods, challenges and pitfalls
Classical and contemporary software engineering / hardware design provides for techniques and tools that cover different dimensions of business to technology mapping (sample key elements are Features, Usability, Performance, Metrics, Use Cases etc) at the end user level and other engineering elements (e.g. portability, compatibility, data management, security, interface capability, storage etc) as well as physical elements for hardware (e.g. weight, size, ergonomics, electrical safety, communication standards etc)
To balance several of the above elements into a device, software or utility program is a designer’s challenge and does not need user acceptance / involvement. The earlier this comes into the process, the better the end result. Modern methodologies like Agile, Software specification, Scrum, PDM, PLM etc have brought in fresh thinking and aided by collaborative tools for the above methods focuses the design closer the user needs (quicker, near real time and cheaper).
The pitfalls of high user involvement are that a product may get over engineered and heavy (e.g. PDA phones) or over-simplified (e.g. a one button scanner) or end up being very expensive. The designer’s challenge is to balance user needs and stakeholder expectations (read costs, price and profits).
In summary…..
Business to technology mapping is an iterative task and helps bring in different stakeholders to buy into the concept or technology being created (e.g. the automotive industry uses this very effectively). It also reduces the change of a product / solution to be guessed and left purely to the designer’s thinking / fantasy all of which may not be practical at that time (e.g. Apple’s Newton). A good example of where business to technology mapping is working is in the area of SDR which deals with technologies that can upgrade the software of a mobile phone without having to change a handset (still early days!)
There is no single formula or tool that works to anchor the business to technology process seamlessly and needs to be evolved / customized keeping the organization and market needs in mind. The technique that works best is a war room approach with set boundary conditions (Price, Features, Dimension etc) and involvement of business leaders/strategists to guide the focus groups. Now, maybe that is a new career option that some of us could aspire for….the Techno-business-evangelist-futurist !
Ranganath Iyengar