With 2025 just around the corner, your CFO/controller is taking a hard look at where to steer investments for the upcoming year. These financial leaders are looking beyond the numbers— they’re strategists who know that CFO technology investments drive business success. Increasingly, technology is one of the most high-impact decisions that can be made – positively or negatively. But as tech options have multiplied, the selection process has become more complex, making it tough to cut through the noise and pick solutions that really add value and reduce risk.
At the same time, Information Technology (IT) resources have gotten scarcer and more expensive. Changes in the role of internal IT have often created gaps in organizational knowledge as well as broken trusted relationships upon which CFO’s have traditionally leaned when making technology decisions. CFO’s must bridge these gaps to make savvy tech choices that support long-term growth, all while keeping an eye on cost and effectiveness.
CFO’s Struggle to Keep Up
Even as CFO’s embrace the fast-evolving world of technology, many find it tough to stay on top of all the options. A recent Gartner survey found that 91% of CFOs adopting emerging tech feel it’s challenging to keep up with the latest innovations (Gartner 2024 Finance Technology Bullseye). With new vendors and options popping up almost daily, the process of gathering and sorting through the latest tech insights is anything but clear-cut. CFO technology investment options increase every year. This information flood makes it hard for CFO’s to systematically identify which technologies will genuinely benefit their organizations. And what CFO has the time to listen to multiple vendor presentations or sort through marketing materials for countless IT products?
What if we told you there was a simpler way to select the best technology investment for your company? What if every CFO could simply pull out a checklist and select the IT partner that met most or even all the criteria on that list? Your CFO and Controller already have a checklist, and guess what? It’s likely the same checklist that your CEO uses to make investment decisions that guide your overall business strategy. That’s right: the core business objectives that drive your entire organization are the same objectives that can be used to make CFO technology investments.
Core Business Objectives
There are core business objectives that most organizations share today, and all are critical when it comes to achieving growth and cost effectiveness:
Risk Reduction
Organizations are always on the lookout to minimize any exposure that might hurt operations, reputation, or finances. This could mean tightening up security, financial risk reduction, sticking closely to regulatory guidelines, or planning for unexpected bumps in the road. A strong risk-reduction strategy doesn’t just prevent losses—it also builds trust with stakeholders, ensuring both the company’s stability and its growth potential.
Attracting and Retaining Talent
In an increasingly competitive job market, creating an attractive workplace environment isn’t just beneficial—it’s essential for sustained success and adaptability. Organizations focus on offering competitive compensation packages, opportunities for career development, and work that is engaging and fulfilling. By investing in technology that makes their employees’ work easier, organizations can reduce turnover, improve productivity, and create a workforce that is motivated and aligned with company goals. Milennial workplace technology and Gen Z workplace technology are all about working smarter, not harder, so as to maximize productivity while allowing for a work-life balance.
Artificial Intelligence
There has been a digital transformation in finance. AI is more than a buzzword; it’s a tool that helps companies work faster and smarter. From predictive modeling and automating repetitive tasks to analyzing mountains of data in record time, AI helps organizations to make faster, data-driven decisions, enhance customer experience, and gain a competitive edge. In today’s digital economy, AI in finance is not just a competitive advantage but a necessity for growth, providing the tools for organizations to scale efficiently while adapting to rapid technological changes.
Reduced IT Dependence
Reducing reliance on traditional IT infrastructure can drive down operational costs and simplify processes. This objective encourages organizations to shift toward more flexible, scalable technologies that allow teams to access tools and resources from anywhere. As organizations move away from on-premises hardware and software, they can allocate resources more effectively, foster innovation, and improve overall agility.
Timely Execution
The ability to execute initiatives on time directly impacts an organization’s efficiency, profitability, and ability to capitalize on market opportunities. In a fast-paced business environment, executing on schedule helps organizations respond to customer needs, adapt to market changes, and deliver consistent value, enhancing their competitive advantage.
When a CFO or Controller is evaluating investment opportunities and technology products, those core objectives remain top of mind. But it’s important to remember that the objectives in the list are not exclusive to one another– you can and should look for IT partners that help your organization meet multiple objectives from the list. In fact, it’s possible that some IT solutions could help you meet all your core business objectives.
Maximizing Investments While Meeting Objectives
Instead of narrowing decisions down to specific products or vendors from the start, organizations can gain a strategic advantage by aligning their choices with core business objectives and seeking partners who can address multiple goals. This approach leads to high-impact investments, essential for thriving in today’s fast-paced, competitive environment.
Take Accounts Payable Automation (APA) technology as an example: hundreds of vendors offer similar solutions, and a standard feature-by-feature comparison between all the possible vendors is not only a Herculean task but also doesn’t typically reveal a clear winner. To make better decisions, leading organizations are shifting their evaluation strategy, focusing on providers who can align closely with key organizational objectives. By first identifying providers who meet the most core needs, decision-makers can create a more focused list of options for deeper evaluation, increasing the chances of finding a solution that best fits multiple business priorities.
Going back to the example of APA, let’s demonstrate how the right vendor could help you meet all your core business objectives:
Risk Reduction
The visibility AP automation provides into the payment process creates an easy-to-follow audit trail that ensures financial risk reduction and allows you to prevent fraudulent payment requests. Additionally, automation enforces strict adherence to business rules and forces you to standardize your processes, which is a huge step toward preventing fraud. APA’s state of the art technologies empower organizations to detect potential risks and suspicious activities, enhance compliance, and improve security within the payment process.
Attracting and Retaining Talent
With tech-savvy Millennial and Gen Z employees making up more and more of the American workforce, they are looking for job opportunities that offer innovation and access to technology that allows them to work smarter, not harder. Automation reduces the frustration and monotony associated with manual tasks by simplifying and streamlining the accounts payable process. APA also enables remote collaboration so teams can easily work together regardless of their physical location.
Artificial Intelligence
The right APA partner will not just put AI in charge of all your decisions, because some tasks need to be optimized for the best possible solution, which may take the judgement of a human. The best partners will use AI in finance to minimize stress and maximize productivity by making it easier for your team to adhere to best practices, reduce human error, have more real time access to your data, and allow your valuable people to have the freedom to focus on important decisions.
Reduced IT Dependence
Select a provider who offers APA technology that reduces IT dependence by being cloud-based, which takes software maintenance off your IT team’s plate, and by using user-friendly interfaces that let AP teams make adjustments themselves. And be sure to choose an APA solution that comes with easy integrations for ERP and accounting software, so you don’t need a lot of custom IT work. The best APA solutions are also scalable, which means IT doesn’t need to constantly adjust as invoice volumes grow. This way, IT can focus on strategic projects rather than routine AP workflows.
Timely Execution
APA technology speeds up invoice processing by automating time-consuming manual steps like data entry and matching, which helps invoices move through approval workflows much faster. With built-in reminders and real-time tracking, it reduces bottlenecks and errors, keeping everyone on schedule. The right APA partner will ensure that payments go out on time, avoiding late fees and improving relationships with suppliers, all while giving your team more time to focus on strategic work.
By using the list of your organization’s core objectives as a checklist, your CFO or Controller can evaluate all potential IT investments. And, yes, it is absolutely possible to find a partner that helps you meet all of those objectives. We hope you will reach out to us when you are ready to learn about how APA can meet your organizational objectives and maximize your return on investment.
