Skip to main content

Savvy CFOs Invest in Strategic Digital Transformation

Your Digital Transformation depends on strategic investment in business technology that drives profitability and growth. Given the current global economic outlook, will your Chief Financial Officer (CFO) deny your next request for IT project funding? Think again.

Seventy-eight percent of CFOs plan to maintain or increase their enterprise-wide digital investments in the next two years, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner.

The findings come even as CFOs indicate they are planning cost reductions in other areas of the business if inflation persists this year.

Digital Transformation Market Development

"Companies that drive the right digital investments have 2.7x higher customer retention, 1.6x higher customer satisfaction rates, and 1.9x higher average order value," said Alexander Bant, chief of finance research at Gartner.

Leading digital-enabled companies are also 3x more likely to achieve above-industry revenue and margin growth. Gartner has also found that 67 percent of consumers will pay more for a great digital experience.

Gartner asked CFOs about their intentions for technology spending through 2023, both within their function and across the enterprise. At the enterprise level, 46 percent of respondents said they are scaling up their digital spending plans, while 32 percent said that no changes were planned.

The survey data indicates that CFOs plan to accelerate the momentum in Digital Transformation investments that were launched in earnest at the start of the pandemic, in line with Gartner’s IT Spending Forecast of an overall increase in worldwide IT spending in 2022.

According to Bant, inflation is a new catalyst driving CFOs to increase digital business project investments with the aim of lowering the cost of doing business, plus identifying new sources of profitability and growth.

"CFOs know to never waste a crisis or downturn. It’s a time to reinvent, make better investments, and reduce inefficiencies," said Bant.

According to the Gartner assessment, winners on the other side of this cycle will have continued to accelerate the right digital initiatives across their organization -- even as there are mounting pressures on profitability.

Within their own departments, CFOs plan to spend even more aggressively on business technology, with 52 percent of CFOs scaling up digital investments, while 38 percent said they intend to protect their current investment levels.

Furthermore, CFO's increasing focus on automation as an inflation mitigation strategy aligns with findings from Gartner's other related survey, which polled finance leaders on their investment plans for specific Finance Technologies over the next two years.

The data indicated a planned increase in investment in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), reporting automation and process mining, technologies critical to streamlining routine processes, and freeing up staff to focus on higher-value activities and increased productivity.

Outlook for Employee Digital Transformation Apps

Enterprise CFOs are striving to meet the rapidly evolving needs of all key stakeholders, while also navigating rising inflation, supply chain constraints, a digital talent shortage, and ESG demands.

The rising needs of these stakeholders and macro business pressures act as a catalyst for CFOs to elevate and deliver more real-time, predictive, error-less, always-on support to drive profitable and sustainable digital business growth.

That said, I believe CFOs will also focus more on the 'employee experience' benefits of their IT investments. A case in point is the modernization of Digital Workspaces that enable a distributed workforce to excel. Modern employee experiences are proven to also enhance customer value.

CFOs must fund IT's flexible working platform roadmap that transforms employee workflows toward a superior future state. Qualified IT vendors will help CFOs advance their organization's digital business growth journey by sharing what the most successful industry peer groups are already accomplishing.

Popular posts from this blog

Global Digital Business and IT Consulting Outlook

Across the globe, CEOs and their leadership teams continue to seek information and guidance about planned Digital Transformation initiatives and the most effective enterprise organization change management practices. Worldwide IT and Business Services revenue will grow from $1.13 trillion in 2022 to $1.2 trillion in 2023 -- that's a 5.7 percent year-over-year growth, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The mid-term to long-term outlook for the market has also increased -- the five-year CAGR is forecast at 5.2 percent, compared to the previous 4.9 percent. Digital Sevices & Consulting Market Development IDC has raised the growth projection despite a weak economic outlook, because of vendor performances across 2022, growth indicators from adjacent markets, increased government funding, and inflation impacts. The actual 2022 market growth was 6.7 percent (in constant currency), which was 87 basis points higher than forecast last year, alth

Why Instant Issuance Payment Cards Evolved

The global financial services sector continues to grow as more progressive organizations seek to gain a meaningful competitive advantage from their digital transformation initiatives. Across the globe, many regions are seeing a significant rise in 'instant issuance' activity from a physical and digital perspective, from both traditional and emerging innovative banking institutions. Digital Payments Market Development Customers increasingly demand instant access to banking services, with physical instant issuance enabling them to leave their branch equipped with a ready-to-go payment card. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the market for instantly issued physical payment cards will increase from 243.2 million shipments in 2022 to a forecast of 471.1 million in 2027. "Critically, instant issuance of payment cards is no longer limited to the physical," said Sam Gazeley, industry analyst at ABI Research . Indeed, the growing digitization of p

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul