* CIO who began life as an accountant urges proficiency in technology and finance
IT pros hear all the time about the importance of having both business and technology skills. But few people, perhaps, have taken this ideal to heart more than Ron Box, who is the CFO and CIO of Joe Money Machinery in Birmingham, Ala.
Box has an unusually varied set of skills, holding a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) designation and CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) certification.
“I’m just as much an IT geek as I am a finance geek,” Box told me. “Even the finance geeks think I’m boring when I talk to them about IT.”
Box started his career as an accountant, getting his CPA in 1991. He came to Joe Money 14 years ago in strictly a financial role, but felt like he needed a bigger challenge and took on the CIO role a half-dozen years ago. Box added the CITP (Certified Information Technology Professional) designation, designed specifically for CPAs, and recently completed his CISSP, sometimes considered the CPA of the IT security world.
The diverse skills have served him well, and Box urges his own IT employees to become more proficient in finance. But he thinks businesses haven’t done a good enough job offering opportunities to people skilled in both finance and technology.
“There has been a much larger emphasis on technology people having a business background,” he says. Yet “when you look at online job postings, it seems to me that it’s an IT person they’re looking for or a finance person. Maybe the jobs are still categorized too clearly as IT or finance without a mind toward really converging those two.”It’s undeniably beneficial for a technology expert to become proficient in finance, though, says W. Hord Tipton, acting director of (ISC)2, the nonprofit that maintains the CISSP certification.
Tipton, who holds a CISSP and CISA (Certified Information Security Auditor), was CIO of the U.S. Department of the Interior from 2002 to 2007. When the department was building a major financial system, Tipton and colleagues attempted to recruit people who were skilled in finance and technology.
“I always preach to my people if you want to progress in your career, you’ve got to know something beyond information technology,” Tipton says. “If you’re a CPA and a CISSP, you have some pretty powerful credentials.”
Box started out in the accounting world, and notes that people who grew up on the technology side would face a tough road trying to get a CPA. When he obtained his, he was required to work in public accounting for two years before taking the test, he says. The requirements have been loosened, but you still need many hours of class work before you can sit for the CPA exam, he says.“That doesn’t mean you can’t get one, it would just be difficult if you didn’t work in the financial world,” Box says. “If I was an IT person wanting to demonstrate business proficiency, I’d try to do one of those online MBAs.”
We mentioned in a previous newsletter that an MBA can boost your salary more than any non-business degree. While a CPA is the “crowning credential” of the finance world, an MBA or any type of undergraduate degree in finance or accounting would demonstrate a strong financial background, Tipton says.
Tipton happens to be married to the CFO of the Department of the Interior, which has helped him gain insight into the finance world. This is important in an age when government and industry regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) have forced IT people to build financial systems that can withstand scrutiny.
The CISA credential shows you can build systems that can survive financial audits, Tipton notes. But it’s not as in-depth as true finance and accounting credentials, which really give someone a leg up.
“I think this is an area that it’s hard to find talent for,” Tipton says.
Many IT pros simply don’t seem to be interested in pursuing financial expertise, even if it would benefit their careers, Box says.
“They’re proficient and they have a good work ethic … [but] they like to do what they do,” he says. “They’re just as happy as they can be working with the servers and the network. That’s fine, but it doesn’t address the larger [business] issues.”
Let’s hear from you now – how important is it for technology pros to be proficient in finance? Anyone have recommendations for their colleagues on how to become experts in both the technology and the finance sides of the business? Feel free to post comments below.
