LAS VEGAS-Wednesday 28 April 2021 [ AETOS Wire ]
(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq:
RMNI), a global provider of enterprise software products and services,
the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software
products and a Salesforce partner, today revealed findings from a recent
global survey of more than 1,500 CFOs and senior financial leaders
across 13 markets covering most industries. The survey was conducted to
identify CFO’s perceptions of digital transformation, their IT spending
priorities, how they measure the ROI on technology investments and their
viewpoints on the CFO-CIO partnership. According to the survey report,
when it comes to digital transformation and its significance amongst
other corporate priorities, 80% of CFOs globally cite it is within the
top-five of their list of priorities, 71% of CFOs surveyed believe that
digital transformation investments are key to their company’s success
and 77% said they would help the CIO find a way to fund a new digital
transformation project if the initiative delivered strong ROI. In
addition, 67% of CFOs say they “refuse to waste precious dollars on IT
investments that don’t move the needle.”
CFOs Are Bullish About Digital Transformation
Today’s
modern CFO’s level of understanding of technology and its potential for
delivering returns is higher than ever. When it comes to digital
transformation, it is more than a buzzword for CFOs and definitely on
their priority list. In addition to the large majority who cite digital
transformation as a top-five priority compared to other corporate
initiatives, 59% cite it is actually in their top three priorities. In
addition, of the 80% of CFOs who expect their technology spending to
increase in 2021, almost half (46%) say this growth in spending is being
driven by new digital transformation investments.
Due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers shifted dramatically to online
channels and businesses responded by increasing digital investments.
Although digital transformation was on the roadmap for many companies
prior to 2020, the global pandemic removed internal barriers, aligned
corporate teams and accelerated the adoption of technology to support
new business critical requirements, from remote work to digital customer
interactions to supply chain resourcing. Almost three of every four
(73%) CFOs indicated that the global pandemic increased their digital
transformation investment, and the vast majority of survey respondents
(95%) agree that technology investments are key to recovering from the
business impacts of the pandemic.
CFOs See Clear Business Value and ROI from Optimizing Existing Technology Investments
CFOs
expect their CIOs to present technology investment proposals that
demonstrate business value and strong ROI. When asked about the type of
IT projects they personally want to see more of from their CIO because
they see clear business value and strong ROI, “optimizing existing
technology investments” topped the list with 44% of survey respondents.
CFOs also cited “revenue-generating technology initiatives” (40%) and
“process improvements and employee efficiency” (39%) as their second and
third choices respectively.
CIOs
that continually optimize their IT operations are in a strong position
to create and secure new funding for strategic IT investments that are
aligned with business priorities. As a result, IT resources – including
time, money and personnel – can be reallocated to critical new revenue
generating initiatives that create competitive advantage and growth for
their organization.
CFOs Refuse to Waste Precious IT Resources on Low Value Projects
One
of the CFOs’ primary considerations for IT spending is prioritizing
those projects that yield positive business outcomes – 67% of CFOs
surveyed agree that they “refuse to waste precious dollars on IT
investments that don’t move the needle.” In addition, 70% of respondents
say they want to cut spending on non-essential IT investments. When
asked about the type of IT projects they personally prefer to cancel
when they don’t see clear business value or strong ROI, responses
included “next-generation disruptive technology initiatives” and “major
ERP reimplementation and migration projects.” When there is not a strong
ROI, technology for technology’s sake or forced by major ERP vendors
does not satisfy CFOs that want to see strong business value for IT
investments.
Large
technology investments that may not have a clear business case, such as
some vendor-forced ERP migrations and upgrades, may be better deferred
or avoided and instead ERP systems can be optimized through strategies
like third-party support, enabling the CIO to free up IT resources to
help accelerate digital transformation programs.
“The
CFO has an expanded role today and should always be part of the
technology agenda decisions including how digital transformation
initiatives can improve and impact the business moving forward. As CFO
for Usina Coruripe, I am always looking at our technology investments
through the lens of ‘will this project move the needle for our business
and provide competitive advantage and growth.’ And the innovation we
need will not come from any ERP, but from business-driven applications.
As the CFO survey respondents emphasized in the report, I needed a
solution that could better optimize what we had and improve operational
efficiency,” said Thierry Soret, chief financial officer, Usina
Coruripe. “Partnering with Rimini Street to take on ERP support is a
great lever for both the CFO and CIO to enable their organization to
free up time, money and resources and to help achieve those strategic
innovation goals while maximizing their current software investments.”
CFOs Expect Short ROI Timelines for Technology Investments
In
addition to providing a clear business case on new transformation
projects, CFOs also expect the ROI on technology spending to be swift,
with 46% of CFOs expecting to see ROI on their technology investment
within two years, and the vast majority (82%) within 3-5 years.
Timing
is also very important in terms of when the CIO should engage the CFO
on a major new IT initiative. Most CFOs (88%) prefer that the CIO
involves them before the business plan is fully crafted. In particular,
47% of CFO respondents would rather have the CIO engage as the business
plan is being developed, and 41% want IT to partner with finance when
the idea is fully formed but before the business plan is completed.
The
CFOs growing acceptance of digital transformation initiatives, coupled
with their willingness to support projects that have clear business
outcomes means that they are increasingly willing to lead funding
efforts for projects that demonstrate business value. When asked how
they would respond to their CIOs digital transformation proposal
requiring additional investment that would likely deliver a strong ROI,
77% of CFOs said they would help the CIO find a way to fund the project,
and 28% of CFOs would even go to bat with the board to help the CIO
secure needed funding.
A Strong CFO-CIO Partnership is Critical to Success
Technology
is expanding the role that CFOs and CIOs play in an organization, as
well as the need for a close collaboration between IT and Finance.
Today’s CFO and CIO must have a solid understanding of customers and
markets and technology’s role is connecting them. If both roles
collaborate, they can be a productive, powerful team for the business –
92% of CFOs agree that “a successful CFO has a great relationship with
their CIO counterpart.” The survey also revealed that 69% of CFOs have a
favorable view of their CIOs, with 47% stating that their CIO is a
partner “that helps connect the dots between technology and business
decisions” and 22% stating that their CIO is an “innovative change-agent
that drives business strategy.”
In
addition, more than three in four CFOs (77%) shared that last year’s
challenging business landscape served to strengthen their relationship
with their CIO. CFOs primarily attribute this change due to an increased
focus on security, compliance and risk (52%), the urgent need to
collaborate to make nimble technology decisions (50%) and the CIOs
proactive engagement with them (42%).
For
those CFOs who noted a worsening relationship with their CIO last year,
a few reasons cited include the CIOs lack of flexibility on identifying
ways to cut costs (32%), the CIOs plans did not demonstrate adequate
ROI (31%) and the CIO did not welcome attempts to engage proactively
(28%).
While
the CFO/CIO relationship is interconnected, sometimes these roles can
be divided as both may speak different “languages” about the same topic.
According to the research, 92% of CFOs say that the CIO needs to be
more business savvy now than they were two years ago, and 94% agree that
CFOs need to be more technology savvy than they were two years ago.
“This
report highlights the heightened importance of digital transformation
for CFOs but reinforces that IT investments must have clear business
value to receive CFO support. It’s not surprising that CFOs want to
cancel IT projects that lack a strong ROI, like many software
vendor-forced ERP reimplementations and migrations, given that resources
can be liberated for new technology investments that accelerate
achieving the businesses digital goals,” said Seth A. Ravin,
Rimini Street CEO. “By switching to Rimini Street Support, our clients
are uniquely enabled to take back the control of their IT roadmaps,
maximize the lifespan and value of current ERP investments and free up
significant funding and internal resources to help fund those critical
digital transformation initiatives that create competitive advantage and
growth.”
The
report is based on a global online survey conducted by Dimensional
Research and sponsored by Rimini Street. More than 1,500 CFOs or
equivalent top finance professionals from 13 countries, representing
companies with at least $200 million (US$) in annual revenue,
participated in the survey.
To download a copy of the report, “CFO Peer Insights: Digital Transformation and IT Spending Priorities,” click here.
About Rimini Street, Inc.
Rimini
Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI) is a global provider of enterprise software
products and services, the leading third-party support provider for
Oracle and SAP software products and a Salesforce partner. The Company
offers premium, ultra-responsive and integrated application management
and support services that enable enterprise software licensees to save
significant costs, free up resources for innovation and achieve better
business outcomes. To date, more than 4,000 Fortune 500, Fortune Global
100, midmarket, public sector and other organizations from a broad range
of industries have relied on Rimini Street as their trusted application
enterprise software products and services provider. To learn more,
please visit http://www.riministreet.com, follow @riministreet on Twitter and find Rimini Street on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as
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the current expectations of management and are not predictions of actual
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statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties regarding
Rimini Street’s business, and actual results may differ materially.
These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the
actions of the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock and the terms and
impact of Rimini Street’s remaining outstanding 13.00% Series A
Preferred Stock; the duration of and economic, operational and financial
impacts on Rimini Street’s business of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well
as the actions taken by governmental authorities, clients or others in
response to the COVID-19 pandemic; catastrophic events that disrupt
Rimini Street’s business or that of its current and prospective clients,
changes in the business environment in which Rimini Street operates,
including inflation and interest rates, and general financial, economic,
regulatory and political conditions affecting the industry in which
Rimini Street operates; adverse developments in pending litigation or in
the government inquiry or any new litigation; Rimini Street’s need and
ability to raise additional equity or debt financing on favorable terms
and Rimini Street’s ability to generate cash flows from operations to
help fund increased investment in Rimini Street’s growth initiatives;
the sufficiency of Rimini Street’s cash and cash equivalents to meet its
liquidity requirements; changes in taxes, laws and regulations;
competitive product and pricing activity; difficulties of managing
growth profitably; customer adoption of Rimini Street’s recently
introduced products and services, including its Application Management
Services (AMS), Rimini Street Advanced Database Security, and services
for Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud products, in addition to
other products and services Rimini Street expects to introduce in the
near future; the loss of one or more members of Rimini Street’s
management team; uncertainty as to the long-term value of Rimini
Street’s equity securities; and those risks discussed under the heading
“Risk Factors” in Rimini Street’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on
March 3, 2021 and as updated from time to time by other filings by
Rimini Street with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition,
forward-looking statements provide Rimini Street’s expectations, plans
or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this
communication. Rimini Street anticipates that subsequent events and
developments will cause Rimini Street’s assessments to change. However,
while Rimini Street may elect to update these forward-looking statements
at some point in the future, Rimini Street specifically disclaims any
obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking
statements should not be relied upon as representing Rimini Street’s
assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication.
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