Sarbanes-Oxley and Information Management

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has led many companies to change how they manage information, according to a study conducted by AIIM — an industry association for enterprise content management — and Kahn Consulting.“The Current State of Information Management Compliance” addresses Section 404 of Sarbanes-...

By Stephen Taub • July 15, 2004

Exploding the Myths of Offshoring

With the digital revolution and the dramatic fall in international telecommunications costs comes the prospect that white-collar jobs — once insulated from global competition — can be performed offshore, in low-wage nations such as India, where labor can be hired for as little as one-tenth its co...

By The McKinsey Quarterly • July 14, 2004

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

Director’s Cut

Board membership may have its privileges, but in this era of increased regulatory scrutiny, it also has its risks. This is not to say that sitting on a board of directors is a bad gig. Serving on a board remains one of the most effective ways for executives to network. It can offer rewarding work...

By John P. Mello Jr. • July 13, 2004

Leasing Hardware Becomes More Common

A recent report from Forrester Research shows that, after a long dry spell, businesses are finally beginning to invest in IT equipment. With the economy on the uptick, and with many companies eager to replace aging hardware, the increased investment in technology is hardly surprising.What is some...

By Karen Bannan • July 7, 2004

It’s a Rental

Ah, America — land of the free and home of the 36-month lease. Truth is, leasing has become something of an obsession with American consumers, many of whom lease Cayennes and Beemers and Lexus SUVs they couldn’t otherwise get close to affording. Given the sometimes onerous terms of the contracts,...

By Karen Bannan • July 7, 2004

Head Games

Casinos may be glittering, neon-bathed temples to the cruel goddess of fortune, but when it comes to wringing money from wallets, casino operators leave precious little to chance.Consider Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., a Las Vegas-based gaming specialist with 26 hotel casinos in the United States. ...

By John Goff • July 6, 2004

Offshoring Financial Services

The number of global financial-services companies that moved specific functions offshore increased by 38 percent from a year ago, according to a survey by Deloitte Research.By 2010, according to the survey, more than one-fifth of the industry’s global cost base will have shifted offshore, resulti...

By Stephen Taub • June 29, 2004

Penguin Suits

When a young Linus Torvalds was working on his now-famous Linux operating system back in the early 1990s, the Finnish programmer no doubt envisioned the dawning of a new tech era — one in which ideas would be shared freely and everybody got along. A Linux world would be a softer, gentler one, muc...

By Karen Bannan • June 29, 2004

Words Fail Them

Even though computer security remains a rare growth area within IT budgets, the purse strings are tightening. And, according to Yankee Group, security budgets are becoming more influenced by lines of business, rather than being solely determined by IT departments.Consulting firm Meta Group goes a...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 23, 2004

Priority: Mail

As E-mail becomes the lifeblood of Corporate America, what happens when the blood stops flowing? A 2003 study of 850 IT managers by research firm Dynamic Markets for Veritas Software found that one-third of respondents thought a week without E-mail was more stressful and traumatic than either a m...

By John McPartlin • June 22, 2004

Offshoring and the Massachusetts Budget

The politically charged issue of offshore outsourcing is poised to play out in the home state of Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry. Tucked into the state budget is an amendment that would prohibit Massachusetts from hiring companies that outsource the state’s work to other countries, ...

By Stephen Taub • June 21, 2004

Will Tablets Take Off?

Americans may be a sedentary lot, but not, it seems, at work. How else to explain the many efforts computer companies are making to satisfy the needs of the “mobile workforce”? Laptops and PDAs continue to shrink and get more powerful, cell phones are turning into multifunction devices, and table...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 21, 2004

Time to Sign Up for Utility Computing?

The computer industry has a certain genius for turning its own excesses and errors into new business opportunities. Computer code written with no regard for a new millennium? What an opportunity for Y2K remedial work. The Internet as a playground for hackers and identity thieves? Let us show you ...

By Norm Alster • June 16, 2004

Are You Trapped in Spreadsheet Hell?

In a recent survey of 168 finance executives, CFO IT asked about the state of IT as used by corporate finance departments. Out of a list of 14 finance-specific technologies, we found that only 2 are widely used: spreadsheets and basic budgeting and planning systems. The others — from portals and ...

By Don Durfee • June 15, 2004

Seven Days in May

The hack stops here. So says a group of influential chief executives who want to elevate computer security to a board-level concern. The 150 members of the Business Roundtable released a report last month in which they said that computer security is a “shared responsibility” involving everyone fr...

By Scott Leibs • June 15, 2004

Spreadsheet Hell

Call it the “innovation gap,” a yawning space between two parallel universes. In one, companies operate more effectively than ever before, powered by a rash of new technologies that tackle every aspect of financial management, from the mundane (if complex) processing of invoices and payments righ...

By Don Durfee • June 15, 2004

Will Tablets Take Off?

Americans may be a sedentary lot, but not, it seems, at work. How else to explain the many efforts computer companies are making to satisfy the needs of the “mobile workforce”? Laptops and PDAs continue to shrink and get more powerful, cell phones are turning into multifunction devices, and table...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 15, 2004

Could India’s IT Glow Be Fading?

It wasn’t until 1991 — when India began to liberalize its protected economy — that the IT industry really started to gather steam. Foreign businesses saw the potential of India’s highly educated, English-speaking workforce and sent coding assignments there, where they could be handled for a fract...

By Justin Wood • June 14, 2004

The View from the East

Eleven floors above the heat and noise of Mumbai’s busy streets, Seturaman Mahalingam sits in the air-conditioned offices of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) sipping tea. He looks relaxed, sanguine even, as he discusses his role as CFO of the biggest IT-services firm in India. Before long, he says...

By Justin Wood • June 9, 2004

The $33 Billion Phone Bill

In one of the more memorable episodes of the “Brady Bunch” — and really, how often do we get to use that opening? — parents Mike and Carol are shocked when they see how big their monthly phone bill is getting. The solution? They install a pay phone in the family room, forcing the kids to deposit ...

By Karen Bannan • June 8, 2004

Does a Low Profile Hurt Offshorers?

Cost savings, of course, are what often make the chief financial officer a company’s foremost proponent of offshoring. In fact, 42 percent of the CFOs in our survey whose companies outsource offshore reported net savings of more than 20 percent on offshored expense areas. While they report that t...

By Kris Frieswick • June 7, 2004

The Backlash

Not since the North American Free Trade Agreement debate, when Ross Perot evoked the “giant sucking sound” of U.S. jobs pouring into Mexico, has offshoring attracted so much angry attention. Today, the debate over the decision to outsource jobs to other nations has taken on the tenor of a crusade...

By Kris Frieswick • June 7, 2004

Spyware: A Hidden Menace

Viruses and spam get all the attention, but there is another, less visible, threat to internet users that may already be lurking on your computer without your knowledge. “Spyware”, as it is known, is software that sneaks on to your PC, tracks your online activities, and occasionally splashes pop-...

By Economist Staff • June 4, 2004

Measuring Offshoring Miscues

What’s the best way to make offshoring work? Performance measurement and on-site tracking, says Ravi Aron of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Aron has studied the types of errors made, and which can be detected and “codified” easily. Work monitored in that manner may be the best f...

By Roy Harris • June 2, 2004

Making It Work

Shortly after they get the keys to their new home, customers of IndyMac Bancorp also get a “welcome call.” The friendly telephone reminder lets them know when their first mortgage payment is due and where to send it. Those details help harried homeowners avoid sending their first payment late — a...

By Roy Harris • June 2, 2004