Cost-effective tech upgrades: Keys to a better relationship with your CIO

How’s your relationship with your CIO? In some cases, CIOs don’t see things eye to eye with their CFOs, but it’s important to make sure you’re both on the same page. This is especially true when you need to make tech upgrades in Finance or other areas of the company.

The CIO and CFO relationship is crucial to improving the viability of the company as a whole, according to an article from TechTarget.

CIOs and CFOs must “work together to translate business problems into concrete technology and funding plans,” said Chris Stephenson, the national managing principal and leader of product innovation at accounting firm Grant Thornton.

Because CIOs and CFOs both have a clear view of the company’s performance from the top, working well together is essential to making tech upgrades that are both cost-effective and have a positive impact on employees’ productivity.

Relationships declining

Due in part to financial stress from the pandemic, CFOs and CIOs aren’t currently in agreement at many firms. Nearly a quarter of CFOs (23%) reported that their relationship with their CIO has deteriorated over the past year, according to the Global CFO Survey from Rimini Street, a software company.

Per the survey participants, the major reasons for this divide were the CIO’s:

1. Lack expertise in key areas (33%)
2. Lack of flexibility (32%), and
3. Failure to provide return on investment (ROI) for upgrade plans (31%).

Talking about tech upgrades

Most of your peers support implementing new tech to improve the business. Digital transformation is one of the top five priorities of 80% of the CFOs surveyed. And 71% think that investing in tech is key to their company’s success.

In fact, 77% of CFOs would help their CIOs find ways to fund tech upgrades if the CIO could actually show that the investments would deliver maximum bang for their buck.

But the problem often lies in how the CIO presents tech upgrades. CIOs may focus more on why the investment is necessary than how it works with your company’s financials. And if you don’t discuss this directly, it could cause frustration on both sides.

There are ways to address the problem, however. Regular communication is essential to having a good working relationship with your CIO. Periodically schedule meetings with your CIO to pick their brain and discuss the need for tech upgrades that could improve the business.

When you’re discussing the benefits of a potential tech upgrade, your CIO should:

• Let you know about the business value of tech investments
• Provide you with a clear ROI for the upgrade, and
• Fit the planned tech upgrade into the IT budget.

If they aren’t doing so, it’s important to steer the conversation in that direction so you’ll both get the maximum benefit. This effort will help improve your company’s financial health and allow it to take full advantage of tech to improve efficiency.