CFOs will play a very important role in enabling these new on demand business

models. As the traditional stewards and caretakers of a company’s financial

information, going forward they will be counted upon to assume a similar role for
all of the key information assets (e.g., customer, supply chain, employee, etc.) of
their organizations. This is important in helping to ensure the consistency, accuracy
and timeliness of the information that is key to monitoring and improving business
performance. This includes financial and nonfinancial information about past
performance, as well as predictive and planning information to enable better
decision-making. As the nexus of business strategy, process and information, CFOs
and their finance organizations must take a leadership role in standardizing, central-
izing and governing the definition, analysis, and dissemination of the information
that measures the drivers of corporate performance.

In the Fourth Quarter of 2003, IBM Business Consulting Services conducted a

global survey to better understand the state of finance today and where CFOs
believe they are headed in the next three years. We surveyed 450 CFOs from 35
countries. They represented global enterprises with average annual revenues of
US$8.4 billion. More than 77 percent of the interviewees were enterprise-level CFOs.
The rest represented large business units, regional and country perspectives.

Recent research by IBM Business Consulting Services indicates that CFOs

and finance organizations are poised to deliver this new level of sophistication,
competence and value to their companies. However, despite the significant oppor-
tunities this presents for CFOs and companies overall, many challenges remain.
This paper summarizes the results of this CFO Survey, along with an approach
and set of best practices to address these challenges developed with some of the
leading and most innovative financial executives and companies in the world.

Tough challenges and new opportunities for CFOs

CFOs and their finance departments have made significant progress in managing
financial data and adopting adequate controls to verify the accuracy of this data
for their organization. While confirming the importance of compliance and controls
as related to Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulations, CFOs ranked “improving
performance management” as their top opportunity and challenge.

2 CFOs: Rising to the challenge of performance management IBM Business Consulting Services