CFO Priorities: Balancing Technology and Talent, Outlook for 2022 and Beyond

San Francisco —The vast majority of chief financial officers say deteriorating macroeconomic conditions will not affect their departments' established digital transformation projects. However, the demand for skilled talent to mine insights from new data streams has put senior finance leaders in a talent war that keeps them up at night.

New research conducted by Tradeshift in partnership with CFO Dive reveals a range of challenges facing finance leaders as they navigate an expanding scope of responsibilities and strategic duties that, until recently, were not part of the finance function. One highlight of the study is that nearly half of CFOs (45%) say talent acquisition and retention is their top concern for the remainder of the year and beyond. Other major concerns include rising costs for goods and services (42%) and technology adoption (39%).

The research also found significant contradictions in CFOs' attitudes toward their departments' technology strategies. Although respondents are generally positive about recent technology investments, more than half (59%) admit they would have taken a different approach had they known what the past few years would bring. This contradiction suggests that CFOs, like other senior leaders, are adapting to the sudden evolution of their roles and responsibilities brought on by major events of the past few years.

"The disruptive changes of the past few years have put the evolution of the CFO role into overdrive, and they are now navigating an expanding scope of strategic responsibilities," said Mikkel Hippe Brun, co-founder of Tradeshift and general manager of payment automation. "Finance leaders recognize that technology is decisive in helping them address a growing range of business strategy challenges, from supply chain risk mitigation to ESG. They also recognize that any technology investment requires an equal investment in human capital to extract value from new data sets."

Other key concerns for CFOs revealed by the research for the remainder of the year and beyond include:

• Companies are lagging in adopting the latest technologies to improve departmental efficiency and effectiveness.Only one-third (35%) of CFOs say their latest technology projects have reached the implementation stage or later, with most still in the planning or proof-of-concept phase.
• The vast majority of CFOs plan to increase their departments' digital transformation budgets.More than one-third of respondents (36%) say they plan to increase technology spending by more than 26%, and one in five CFOs report increases of more than 50%. Only 6% of respondents plan to cut new technology investments.
• CFOs generally believe they are performing well, but shifting from efficiency to value creation is key.Nearly all CFOs (93%) are at least satisfied with their company's finance function, and more than one-third (38%) consider their performance excellent. Despite this, 49% of CFOs cite providing a more detailed view of business cash and liquidity, and 41% cite using intelligent automation for process automation, as high-priority areas for new technology investment.
• CFOs believe their teams can meet future challenges but worry they are not fully performing in the present.While the vast majority (88%) of CFOs express strong or some confidence in their current teams' ability to meet evolving business needs, more than one-third (37%) also admit to lacking internal expertise to properly analyze financial data.
• CFOs lack the resources needed to help their teams perform better.To improve their teams' current performance, CFOs acknowledge the need for better data integration (56%), better training (48%), and more advanced technology (42%).
• Three key skills will be needed for the finance function of the future.To survive in the future, CFOs anticipate needing technical finance expertise (59%), followed by data and technology acumen (50%) and enterprise strategy expertise (38%).
• Technology investment is critical, but...CFOs give high priority to several technology investments, but also acknowledge numerous major concerns their companies have in adopting new technologies, including implementation costs (46%), ease of integration with existing technology stacks (41%), and training or hiring employees who can fully leverage the technology (38%).
• CFOs struggle to balance shifting priorities.The largest proportion of CFOs (28%) say they spend too much time on finance function capabilities that have traditionally been core to the job, while the largest proportion (35%) also say they spend too little time on talent development.

As the role continues to evolve, CFOs may need to toggle between old and new priorities to find the right balance. To learn more about how they are leveraging technology to confront emerging challenges and elevate the finance department's standing, read the full survey report:Building for Change: How CFOs' Priorities Are Shifting From Efficiency to Creating Long-Term Value.

Survey Methodology

Tradeshift, in partnership with CFO Dive, conducted an online survey of finance leaders, including CFOs, vice presidents of finance, and chief accounting officers. The survey was conducted from July 13 to August 3, 2022, with 150 respondents. Qualified respondents were senior finance professionals at companies with global revenue exceeding $100 million. The survey was conducted on the Verint Survey Platform. Demographic data is available upon request.

About Tradeshift

Tradeshift is a market leader in e-invoicing and accounts payable automation, and an innovator in B2B marketplaces and supplier financing access. Its cloud platform helps buyers and sellers digitize invoice processing, automate accounts payable workflows, and scale quickly. Headquartered in San Francisco, Tradeshift's vision is to connect every company in the world, creating economic opportunity for all. Today, the Tradeshift network has a rapidly growing community of buyers and sellers, operating in more than 190 countries. To learn more, visit:Tradeshift.com。