What CFOs Need to Hear about Cloud Computing, Consumer IT

The march of technology is starting to shake up one of the most important relationships that CIOs have-the one with the chief financial officer.

CIOs need to start changing the way they talk with CFOs, not just at budget time, but throughout the year, CIOs and experts say. Cloud computing and consumerization trends, especially, are changing the nature of corporate IT and, with it, the way CIOs structure their IT budgets.

This shift is in its early days, but forward-looking CIOs are beginning to think of themselves as providers of services rather than infrastructure. As such, they supervise operating expenditures, not capital expenditures, and they approach the CFO as partners, not supplicants, in business-investment decisions.

The march of technology is starting to shake up one of the most important relationships that CIOs have-the one with the chief financial officer.

CIOs need to start changing the way they talk with CFOs, not just at budget time, but throughout the year, CIOs and experts say. Cloud computing and consumerization trends, especially, are changing the nature of corporate IT and, with it, the way CIOs structure their IT budgets.

This shift is in its early days, but forward-looking CIOs are beginning to think of themselves as providers of services rather than infrastructure. As such, they supervise operating expenditures, not capital expenditures, and they approach the CFO as partners, not supplicants, in business-investment decisions.

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