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CFO role living on borrowed time

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26th Jun 2012
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Among 10 predictions for the future facing finance teams, Simon Fowler of Advanced Business Solutions (Commercial) sees the traditional role of the CFO disappearing by the end of this decade.

Graveyard shifts, the rise of mobile, green accounting and the demise of the CFO will all form part of the financial landscape in 2020.

UK business has altered significantly in the past decade and will experience even more change as mobile technologies surge and on-demand culture takes an even stronger hold. Finance professionals will face constant change, with their roles and working habits looking dramatically different by 2020. Here are the 10 most significant factors they are likely to face:

  1. Mobile working and the demise of the PC – With 87% of the world’s population using a mobile phone, further advances in mobile technologies and more movement towards the cloud will encourage even greater mobile working by 2020. According to Gartner, mobile application development projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber native PC projects by 4:1 by 2015. By 2020, the traditional PC will be nearing the end of its life cycle and its place taken by mobile solutions.
  2. More graveyard shifts –24/7 access and remote working technologies will give people more opportunities to work flexible hours to accommodate their lifestyles. Flexible working, including graveyard shifts, will become the norm and be actively encouraged by government to ease traffic congestion and the 9-to-5 pressure on resources and utilities.
  3. On call 24/7 – We are already living in an on demand society and this trend will continue. Finance teams will be expected to be on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with little or no down time. Permanent cover will be enabled by flexi-time and mobile working.
  4. Finance will become green champions - Responsibility for carbon accounting will rest on the shoulders of the finance division in 2020, so the purse string holders will become responsible for the company’s environmental strategy. This will include measuring, recording and reporting carbon emissions using sophisticated carbon accounting solutions. Within ten years, every university accountancy course in the UK will have carbon accounting on its syllabus.
  5. More women in the boardroom – The percentage of women on the boards of FTSE-100 companies is only 12.5%. However, the number of women in senior management roles is on the rise in the UK, with higher numbers employed as CFOs or FDs. Expect this trend to continue in the future.
  6. Instant access to financial dashboards – As the economy recovers and IT investments increase, more and more businesses will recognise the importance of having an instant financial view to compete effectively. Harnessing business intelligence technology for instant financial insight 24/7 will have become the norm by 2020.
  7. Fraud detection will be key – Fraud, especially internal business fraud, remains the elephant in the room for many businesses. Fraud happens but no-one wants to admit to it and few want to talk about it. By 2020, the costs to the bottom line of fraudulent activities will be well documented, and ongoing losses due to fraud will be viewed as unsustainable. Fraud detection will be a key financial skill and all finance teams will be highly trained in detecting and preventing fraudulent activities (with the support of quality fraud detection solutions).  
  8. Finance becomes a strategic role – The days of finance as a transactional function will soon be gone. Vy 2020 transaction processing will be far more automated, enabling the finance team to focus on performance management and adding strategic value to the business. 
  9. Expansion of outsourcing and shared services – By 2020, financial processes, such as accounts payable and accounts receivable, will be outsourced to financial services providers who will manage these processes for a long list of organisations.
  10. RIP CFO – We are already seeing many chief finance offucer (CFO) roles merging into that of the chief operating officer (COO) as their perspective becomes more strategic and less focused on just the numbers. This will continue and by 2020, the CFO role as we know it today may no longer exist.

 Advanced Business Solutions predictions

The business terrain will have moved on rapidly by 2020 and technology will be a key enabler for the transition.  Technology will also be vital in supporting the 2020 finance function, from mobile devices, business intelligence solutions and fraud detection software through to software for automating an organisation’s financial processes.

Change is never easy. However a crystal ball isn’t needed to predict that financial professionals who are already adapting to these changes will become the business leaders of 2020.

Simon Fowler is managing director of Advanced Business Solutions (Commercial), a leading provider of integrated business applications and services for public, private and third sector organisations.

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ghm
By TaxTeddy
26th Jun 2012 14:12

Back to the Future

I loved this - it gave me a warm nostalgic glow for all those predictions that were made in the 1970s on how we would all have so much more leisure time when computers took over our workload.

Well, maybe.

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By mackthefork
27th Jun 2012 23:34

I could go on for ever about point one....

But to cut it short, if I have to give up my PC along with its 30 inch screen, in order to attempt to do my work on one of those hideous little things I will definitely kill myself (chances are less than 1% IMHO).  However if someone manages to design a phone with a 30 inch screen a keyboard and a mouse similar in size to existing PCs and with Windows on it I can see it taking off.  Oh wait we have this already, get ready for nothing to happen.

A lot of the rest what you say makes total sense, perhaps corporate governance will step in to prevent the loss of the CFO in listed companies, the move from focusing on the numbers to a more strategic role is usually what is at the core when things get f%^&ed up in a major way, stick to the knitting and less tilting at windmills is the true way forward, but I doubt my voice will be heard in this, maybe someone will Google this post after the world has ended in 2021.

The cloud is a massive security risk for data (is all data held locally or in the internetz?) if it is online no accountant should use these systems.  What happens to your data when one of these providers go out of business for example.  At least you have to admit there are massive issues that need resolving before these things are fit for purpose, anyone who argues with that I would say has an agenda of their own which goes against what is best for accountants and businesses in general.

Rant over.

Regards

MtF

 

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By mackthefork
27th Jun 2012 23:38

In 1978 my parents rushed out....

Change is never easy. However a crystal ball isn’t needed to predict that financial professionals who are already adapting to these changes will become the business leaders of 2020. 

....and bought a Betamax, I won't spoil the ending for you, but suffice to say, that history has taught us all that early adopters do nothing but pay for the lessons, so others who wait a while don't have to.

Regards

MtF

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By aburt01
28th Jun 2012 10:51

Data security

MtF claims that Cloud data security is not good enough for the Accounting profession.

Scary thought, but your clients' data on your PC is more likely to be hacked than a cloud computing solution.

Here is a thought-leader as to reasons why:-

The point of cloud is that the data never travels backwards and forwards over the internet - quite unlike an email from your PC to your client or vice versa - no, the cloud stores it all, and you just view the data. Access is the key here; and access to your PC through your open broadband connection or perhaps through intercepting your email or by stealing your PC, are all far more likely than unauthorised access to your data on the cloud system.

For some, the debate was over long ago.  

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Replying to johngroganjga:
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By mackthefork
29th Jun 2012 00:00

Okay but that still doesn't answer these questions....

aburt01 wrote:

MtF claims that Cloud data security is not good enough for the Accounting profession.

Scary thought, but your clients' data on your PC is more likely to be hacked than a cloud computing solution.

Here is a thought-leader as to reasons why:-

The point of cloud is that the data never travels backwards and forwards over the internet - quite unlike an email from your PC to your client or vice versa - no, the cloud stores it all, and you just view the data. Access is the key here; and access to your PC through your open broadband connection or perhaps through intercepting your email or by stealing your PC, are all far more likely than unauthorised access to your data on the cloud system.

For some, the debate was over long ago.  

 

1) What happens if someone else does get in your account like a hacked facebook account, changes passwords, deletes data, if the data hasn't moved offline then is there are backup? Anything to stop those being corrupted or overwritten for mischief?

2) More importantly, thousands of internet businesses start everyday, most of them swallow money like it is going out of fashion and eventually close down at the end of the week/month/year whatever, then you have no data no program to run it on if you did and absolutely no one to complain to.  If Sage close down I can happily carry on with no issues for the next 20 years, or until my HDD fails.  Or is this not a concern?

I am all for progress but not if it means reinventing the wheel in a square version just so you can look clever.

Regards

MtF

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