Tablets Get Down to Business

Our suggestion a mere six months ago that businesses might find some productive uses for the iPad, Apple’s much-hyped tablet computer, already looks like a decided understatement.Although seemingly designed to appeal mostly to consumers, and less than perfectly compatible with most corporate comp...

By David McCann • Nov. 1, 2010

Finance as a First-Mover, Literally

As U.S. companies restructure their finance departments in pursuit of greater efficiencies (see “The Incredible Shrinking Finance Department“), the experiences of one European health-care/pharmaceutical company might be worth a closer look.Like other companies, Copenhagen-based Novo Nordisk was d...

By Janet Kersnar • Nov. 1, 2010

Explore the Trendline➔

The CFO Strategy for Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence’s impact on the office of the CFO continues to evolve, and finance chiefs must be aware of the opportunities it will create for growth. 

By CFO.com staff

Finance as a First-Mover, Literally

As U.S. companies restructure their finance departments in pursuit of greater efficiencies (see “The Incredible Shrinking Finance Department“), the experiences of one European health-care/pharmaceutical company might be worth a closer look.Like other companies, Copenhagen-based Novo Nordisk was d...

By Janet Kersnar • Nov. 1, 2010

18,000 Errors and Counting

An initial assessment of XBRL-tagged financial statements reveals thousands of errors traceable to multiple causes, yet both the Securities and Exchange Commission and XBRL US (the consortium of accounting firms, software companies, and consultants that develops the taxonomy, or digital dictionar...

By David McCann • Nov. 1, 2010

Attack of the Apps

The success of tablet computers (and smart phones before them) has been driven by the fact that people increasingly prefer that information and communications capabilities be available at the touch of a button rather than at the end of a Web search.Having been told endlessly that “there’s an app ...

By David McCann • Nov. 1, 2010

Tablets Get Down to Business

Our suggestion a mere six months ago that businesses might find some productive uses for the iPad, Apple’s much-hyped tablet computer, already looks like a decided understatement.Although seemingly designed to appeal mostly to consumers, and less than perfectly compatible with most corporate comp...

By David McCann • Nov. 1, 2010

Sensors, Sensors Everywhere

If you think of yourself as a good driver — and doesn’t everyone? — you might have the chance to prove it, and save money in the process. Progressive Insurance’s MyRate program, available in eight U.S. states, outfits your car with a sensor that tracks speed, acceleration, braking, and other driv...

By David McCann • Nov. 1, 2010

Attack of the Apps

The success of tablet computers (and smart phones before them) has been driven by the fact that people increasingly prefer that information and communications capabilities be available at the touch of a button rather than at the end of a Web search.Having been told endlessly that “there’s an app ...

By David McCann • Nov. 1, 2010

Spreadsheets: Rein In the Dueling Pivot Table Problem

Editor’s Note: If you would likek Bill Jelen to answer your Excel question in an upcoming column, send an e-mail note to billjelencfo.com. If he chooses your question as a topic for his column, you’ll win a book from CFO and MrExcel.comDipesh M. will receive an e-book copy of Learn Excel 2007-201...

By Bill Jelen • Oct. 28, 2010

Software Blunders Trip Up Businesses

A gathering plague of glitches in software code that is threatening the financial health of many companies will only worsen as reliance on technology inevitably accelerates.So says Jeff Papows, former CEO of two big software companies that are now IBM business units, Lotus Software and Cognos. In...

By David McCann • Oct. 22, 2010

How Well Do You Decide?

No executive would argue with the notion that a company’s ability to effectively make and execute decisions is a cornerstone driver of performance.But most, when asked just how adept they are in this area, admit they simply don’t know, says Michael Mankins, a partner with management-consulting fi...

By David McCann • Oct. 7, 2010

Round-Trip Cost Control

In these days of aggressive cost control, the 1% to 2% of revenue that a typical company spends on travel and entertainment (T&E) looks riper than ever for scrutiny.Simply eliminate unnecessary travel? Sure. But a more lasting payoff from travel-expense management hinges on understanding what...

By David McCann • Oct. 1, 2010

CIOs Called Clueless about Extra Costs

To avoid big overspending by chief information officers, CFOs should order forensic-accounting audits of large information-technology projects, an advocate for data-center efficiency says.Often unaware of finance and accounting considerations, CIOs frequently fail to include the majority of the t...

By David Katz • Sept. 27, 2010

Tech Spending to Jump Next Year

The number of information-technology executives who are expecting budget increases for 2011 is reminiscent of prerecession days, a new survey from the Society of Information Management suggests.Thirty-eight percent of respondents said their budgets will be up next year, a leap from the 27% in las...

By David McCann • Sept. 21, 2010

Smart Phones Pose a New Risk

Employees are increasingly using their personal mobile devices on the job, often with the explicit approval of their employers. But while that permits more work to be done outside the office and at odd hours while sparing companies from paying for the devices, it doesn’t add up to a pure win-win ...

By David McCann • Sept. 9, 2010

Software Safety Zone

It may comfort CFOs who sign off on technology expenditures to know that, regardless of the recession, software vendors are likely to be stable, healthy, and good bets for survival.While it is perhaps no surprise that the software sector, with its potential for delivering efficiencies to customer...

By David McCann • Sept. 3, 2010

The Truth About SAS 70

SAS 70 certification validates that Sabrix operates as a certified and trusted outsourced tax research provider that meets the rigorous operational controls associated with Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.That declaration, which resided at press time on the Website of Sabrix, a tax-management software-...

By David McCann • Sept. 1, 2010

Trouble Looms for Company Websites

How would you like it if customers had to log in at your e-commerce site over and over during the same session? Or if you couldn’t tell where site visitors were from? What would you think if you sounded as if you had a speech impediment during a streaming-video press conference?Those are just a f...

By David McCann • Aug. 16, 2010

Six Costly Cloud Mistakes

The chance to cut costs is one of the chief reasons companies turn to cloud computing, but how much is saved may depend on avoiding some common mistakes and misperceptions.On the surface, moving to the cloud seems like a can’t-lose deal. When third parties (such as Amazon.com, Google, Hewlett-Pac...

By David McCann • Aug. 12, 2010

The Cloud’s Legal Lining

Everyone, it seems, is weighing in with opinions on how the evolution, or revolution, of cloud computing will play out, and attorneys are no exception.Reed Smith, one of the nation’s largest law firms with more than 1,600 attorneys, is planning a series of white papers exploring legal and regulat...

By David McCann • Aug. 10, 2010

Your Cloud or Mine?

Unless you’ve been on a very long sabbatical, you have no doubt heard about “cloud computing” as the future of information technology.But the conversation is quickly morphing from a discussion of “the cloud” to a potentially confusing choice between “public clouds” and “private clouds.”Definition...

By David McCann • July 15, 2010

Internal Auditors Target Spreadsheets

Last month the Institute of Internal Auditors plugged a gap in its guidance for members by issuing recommendations for the auditing of “user-developed applications,” which generally are spreadsheets and databases developed by end users rather than by IT personnel.User-developed applications, or U...

By David McCann • July 8, 2010

The Cost of Social Media Phobia

Many executives may remain skeptical that the use of social media in the workplace is anything other than a distraction from the work at hand. But companies that forbid or severely restrict the modern communications technologies may miss out on assorted opportunities.To assess the business value ...

By David McCann • July 2, 2010

Why IT Should Be a Snap for CFOs

Charlie Feld has a message for CFOs: when it comes to information technology, chill out. It’s no more difficult to get your arms around what you need to know about IT than it is for any other important company function.CFOs, of course, often don’t see it that way. And many have grown jaded over t...

By David McCann • June 24, 2010

The Cloud Casts a Shadow

The proliferation of cloud-computing services is enabling many companies to lower information-technology costs and the capital risk associated with innovation. But there is a darker consequence of the cloud: a rise in “shadow IT.”Shadow IT is the purchase or development of technology services out...

By David McCann • June 15, 2010