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The accounting and finance industry is evolving. As digital automation, A.I., and other technologies transform our workplaces, the role of the CFO has changed too – but for the better. According to John Orlando, EVP and CFO of Centage, technology has opened up the CFOs’ time to be involved in all facets of a company, allowing for more strategic outcomes. I connected with John this month to learn more about the crucial role CFOs play in the company and why together with the CEO, they can be the foundation for which all other executives are supported.
Jeff Thomson: Centage specializes in automated, budgeting and planning software for small to medium-sized organizations. How can finance teams use this software to play a larger role in driving the direction of a company? Is it just about the software or are finance teams developing the necessary analytical skills to bring insights to the organizations they serve?
John Orlando: First, because there is financial logic and operational logic built into Centage’s budgeting and planning tool, Budget Maestro, finance team members don’t have to spend their time thinking about the calculations and the validity of the numbers like income statement, balance sheet and cash flow. Those three main financial reports are synchronized by transaction to give the finance team correct and immediate insight into the business. That means the team can spend more time driving the business to its stated goal.
Second, it’s never only one thing that drives productivity and increased insights. Finance teams today have much more technological and technical acumen than ever. When you combine that knowledge with an advanced product, they can serve the company better from an analytical standpoint. That is the reason we developed the Maestro Suite, to streamline collaboration between departments, open up data access and provide easy-to-use analytics that tells finance teams, or any user, how well the business is performing, as well as forecast and report on its future health.
Thomson: How has technology and digital advancements impacted how your finance team approaches their work? How as the CFO do you ensure that advancements in the accounting and finance industry actually drive better decision-making tactics for the business?
Orlando: Finance employees today need to understand much more about business than just the financial aspects, and there’s always more technology available that is designed to increase efficiency in those arenas. At Centage, our finance team is responsible for invoicing and collections, payroll, financing, transactional accounting, budgeting and forecasting, and financial analysis of all kinds. As a team, you need to have the latest technology at your fingertips, and we are always on the hunt for new programs to help make our work more productive.
For example, Salesforce has become the predominant player in CRM solutions that help companies understand all about their sales transactions; companies like Centage specialize in budgeting and forecasting; those such as Xactly have commission software packages that make it easier to drive sales production through compensation models. These types of technologies streamline processes for finance teams and make the data transparent and accessible. With that access, decision-making is less guesswork and more data-driven, especially coupled with the expertise of a CFO that understands the financial impact of each possibility.
Thomson: Broadly speaking, in what ways has the CFO’s role evolved from your start in the finance and accounting industry? How much of that do you feel is tied to technology vs. companies finally understanding the CFO’s strategic value?
Orlando: The role of a CFO has changed drastically from when I started in this field, and I attribute a lot of that evolution to technological advancements. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine that the “advanced technology” for accounting departments was rudimentary payroll and general ledger applications. Most everything was done with a spreadsheet application like Lotus 123 or Excel. That meant that the role of the CFO was strictly an accounting function. As companies have realized that more budgeting and forecasting is needed in order to make accurate business decisions, the CFO has had to step in and get involved with every arm of the organization in order to fully understand the financial implications of each decision made. This is especially true with the addition of technology.
Today’s CFO needs to be involved in the interactions among every aspect of the company—sales, marketing, manufacturing, development, accounting, etc. Technology certainly makes it more practical and time-efficient to become involved in all facets of a company, and companies have come to recognize that the involvement of a CFO is vital to their success.
Thomson: You have written about the importance of the CFO-CIO relationship. With the rapid pace of digitization and new and evolving roles within companies (i.e. Chief Digital Officer, Chief Customer Experience Officer) how do you support these functions?
Orlando: I strongly believe that the CFO and CEO should be the foundation upon which all other executives are supported. Because every business requires a certain level of financial savvy to be successful, the CFO should be involved in every single business decision. My role, among ensuring the financial success of the company, is to ensure that every other department chief understands the financial metric of their respective departments’ work. As technology is advancing and CFOs have more access to data than ever before, I’ve seen how the CFO and CIO roles are becoming more intertwined. Both executives are now charged with transforming data into a competitive advantage, enabling innovation across all customer touch points -- all the while ensuring the security of the organization along with its partners, suppliers and customers.
This sort of collaboration will also apply to the new roles that are developing from the need to sort, analyze and act upon all the customer data metrics that are received. Centage has a VP of Customer Experience, and I work closely with him to ensure that our goals are aligned and our efforts are concentrated to drive profitability. Because these roles are becoming more about creation of a customer “experience” that fosters loyalty in every customer, the CFO needs to work with the executive to identify behaviors that signify both a positive and negative experience. For instance, do certain customers call into the help center more frequently than others? What is the impact of those interactions on customer lifetime value (LTV)? Are specific products or product categories returned more frequently? If so, what’s the impact of such purchases on customer sentiment?
Thomson: You offer a number of solutions designed to support a variety of industries. How do you make decisions around what solutions to invest in? How do you know which industries to expand into?
Orlando: In its infancy, we knew we wanted to build a better budgeting product, so we started with a blank slate. Once we had the budgeting product we wanted to build, we immediately broadened our scope to build a suite of solutions that allowed for collaboration and speedy decision-making between executives. You could say that the act of constantly expanding and growing is in our company’s DNA. Our executive team meets regularly with product development staff to discuss how we are evolving our functionality to meet the specific needs of any new vertical we are looking to approach and target.
That said, we aren’t looking to build a product that does everything for everyone. As CFO, I’ve always been of the mind that building the right product well is better than building a product that does a lot of mediocre things. So, we have to ask ourselves: are we adding/changing this functionality for the right reasons? Is this an industry that really needs us? Will this accomplish our goals of making the finance department’s tasks easier and help drive collaboration in all departments? If I’m confident that my answer to these questions will serve the prospect industry well, then I know we are on the right path.
As far as what to invest in, we are big proponents of listening to our customers. We’ve never shied away from hearing criticism, in fact, we see it as a path to growth. If we are hearing that a solution would be incredibly helpful for multiple clients, we will put it in place. Or if we get feedback that a client in a new vertical is benefitting from our product, we will look to target more in that vertical. Our end goal is to make the user experience easier and more productive and to ensure our products are valuable for our customers.
