Accenture Plc : Chief Financial Officers Extend Strategic Influence and See Technology As Increasingly Important, Study from Accenture and Oracle Finds

NEW YORK; REDWOOD SHORES, CA - May 23, 2013 - The role of the CFO has gained strategic influence over the past three years, according to 71 percent of CFOs, and converging technologies such as big data, cloud computing, mobile and social media are increasingly important to their ability to deliver cost savings and growth, according to a new report from Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and Oracle.

Of the 930 global CFOs surveyed for the report, "The CFO as Catalyst for Change," nearly two thirds (65 percent) said they had an increasing responsibility for setting and determining strategy. Almost half (47 percent) said their role in business transformation efforts had increased.

As their roles expand, CFOs are turning to technology in order to meet new expectations. When asked where they could improve their skills and capabilities to execute on cost and growth agendas, CFOs ranked technology knowledge as second only to industry knowledge. Seventy nine percent of respondents indicated that access to information is an important driver of organizational agility, and 57 percent believe investments in big data and analytics could provide a competitive advantage. Finally, 84 percent of CFOs noted that cooperation with their CIOs had increased during the past three years.

"As CFOs see their zone of influence and responsibilities expand, they can also be under increasing pressure to fuel their corporate growth engines, as reconfirmed in this study," said Donniel Schulman, managing director of Finance & Enterprise Performance at Accenture. "As the CFO agenda broadens, finance officers are leveraging back office processes, controls and analytics to provide insight and priorities for transformation. This can allow them to successfully step up and fulfill their role as agents of change."  

Despite the growing value of technology, CFOs say that a number of obstacles are hindering their ability to reach their full strategic potential. The top three, according to the report, are the challenging economic environment (identified by 37 percent of respondents), a shortage of time (35 percent) and lack of integration between the finance function and other parts of the business (31 percent).

Meanwhile, CFOs also say that their priorities are changing. For instance, some worry that further cost cutting could endanger growth, according to the report. Top priorities for the past three years have been profitability, cost management, cash flow and working capital. And while these continue to be the priorities, the report notes that "the cost levers that worked in the past may be less effective in the future because the easy wins have already been earned." 

In this respect, the role of technology in the CFO agenda seems likely to change. The report reveals that CFOs see a need to shift away from IT maintenance and integration issues to focus on technology as an innovation enabler that can drive strategic, operational and professional objectives. Still, CFO's greatest reported concern about technology was the cost of maintenance and integration, as well as the lack of integration between systems and data quality.         

"CFOs have always played a critical role in successful businesses, but what we have seen over the last few years is that the role has expanded beyond traditional finance disciplines to increasingly include a broader business strategy and transformation initiatives," said John O'Rourke, vice president of product marketing, Oracle. "As this study shows, CFOs realize that while their role has evolved, there is still scope to expand their influence within the business and further utilize their unique skillset. Technology can play an important part in helping CFOs realize this potential and we hope the insights delivered in this report can help facilitate that process." 

"CFOs are increasingly recognizing the importance of robust analytics capabilities that deliver the insights to underpin performance management, inform senior leaders and foster innovation to stimulate growth," said Scott Brennan, a managing director in Accenture Finance & Enterprise Performance. "This report suggests that further integration should occur across silos to enable CFOs to succeed and it is here that mobile, social media and other technologies can also make a significant difference."

Methodology
Oracle and Accenture co-sponsored the study with Longitude Research to examine the changing role of the CFO. The findings, published in "The CFO as Catalyst for Change," are based on survey responses from 930 CFOs working for organizations of varying sizes in multiple industries. Half of the respondents represented companies with annual revenues in excess of US$1bn, and the remainder had revenues in excess of US$250m.

Thirty percent of the respondents are based in Western Europe, 22 percent in North America, 17 percent in Eastern Europe, 16 percent in the Asia-Pacific, 10 percent in the Middle East and Africa, and 5 percent in Latin America.

To augment the findings and gain deeper insights into the evolving role of the CFO, Longitude Research conducted a series of in-depth, one-to-one interviews with CFOs from leading organizations based in every major geographic region. Their comments are also reflected in the report.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 261,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$27.9 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2012. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Accenture is a Diamond level partner in Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).

About Oracle
Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center. For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.


Contacts:

Barbara Lyon
Accenture
+1 (703) 947-1838
barbara.d.lyon@accenture.com

Danielle Cormier-Smith
Oracle
+1 (610) 766-3463
danielle.cormier@oracle.com