The 2011 IBM Global CIO Study, “The Essential CIO,” reveals that CIOs are very involved in the efforts of their organizations to simplify operations, business processes, products and services and increase competitiveness as they try to cope with increasing complexity. In fact, of the 3,018 CIOs from 71 countries and 18 industries interviewed, 83 percent indicated that they have visionary plans that include business intelligence and analytics, followed by mobility solutions (74 percent) and virtualization (68 percent).

These CIO efforts and plans are not that different from those of CFOs. From the 2010 IBM CFO Study, we have learned that CFOs are frequently involved in company conversations about forecasts, profitability, risk management and strategic decisions with an emphasis on analytics, information integration and people, all of which can be tied to the CIO plans. The study also introduces the idea of a CIO having a specific mandate, which is how the CIO’s enterprise directs the use of IT to help realize overall organizational goals. The study has identified four distinct mandates for CIOs, and IBM has assigned names to these mandates based on varying organizational needs and goals: leverage, expand, transform and pioneer.

Interestingly, CFOs can also deliver on these mandates as they transform the role of the office of finance to that of value integrator. For example, the principal goal of the leverage mandate is streamlining operations and increasing organizational effectiveness. CFOs can deliver on this mandate with finance efficiency and business insight—two characteristics of the value integrator. Finance efficiency can be achieved with process and data consistency and access to timely and accurate data. Business insight helps CFOs drive operational efficiency, spot market opportunities, react faster and ultimately predict changes in the business environment.

The principal goals of the expand mandate include refining business processes, enhancing collaboration and turning data into insight to grow the business. CFOs can act on this mandate by eliminating duplication and streamlining processes, which helps reduce costs and increase organizational efficiency. When costs are taken out of ongoing finance operations, greater investment in innovation initiatives is possible. In addition, with easier access to information and by working with others in the business, CFOs gain valuable insight into business performance and are able to make smarter decisions for better business outcomes.

For the transform mandate, the objective is changing the value chain with improved relationships. For CFOs, the challenge of this mandate is extending collaboration, process alignment and simplification beyond the finance organization to the entire enterprise and even further to their industry’s value chain partners. Here the aim is also to streamline operations and increase efficiency but on a much greater scale, which means a greater emphasis on enterprise risk management. Risks have a direct impact on finance.

The pioneer mandate is unique in that it focuses not on improving what is already there, but on developing new and innovative business models, inventions and client relationships. Advanced analytics is the key to acting on this mandate. Sophisticated analytics can help CFOs uncover correlations between seemingly unrelated pieces of information and find patterns nearly impossible to detect manually, all of which contributes to significant enterprise value creation, which is the ultimate goal of the pioneer mandate.

By acting on these mandates, you can help focus your enterprise on making timely decisions while mitigating financial risks with access to the right information and insight-driven analytics.

Questions to consider:

What can your finance organization do to streamline operations and organizational effectiveness?

How is your finance organization currently refining business operations and enhancing collaboration?

What are your plans for reaching out to everyone in your value chain?

What are you using as an impetus for developing new business and relationships?