The following column is by Dinakar Hituvalli, Chief Technology Officer of Deltek. The opinions belong to the author.
The role of CFOs has changed dramatically to becoming increasingly co-pilots of strategic technology since focusing primarily on financial management. From capital allocation and AI governance to automation priorities and digital risk, finance leaders play a key role in decision-making that determines both operational resilience and long-term growth.
Increased levels of involvement of CFOs indicate a significant change in expectations. Currently, the board of directors and CEOs Suppose the organization's prioritized technology, how success is measured, and new features will affect the company's planning cycle, risk management, and other investment strategies and where to best suit them.
However, CFOs need more than visibility into technology strategies, in order for innovation to promote sustainable and scalable value. They require early operational alignment, shared accountability and greater collaboration when transforming business goals into new digital capabilities.
Misalignment
Historically, organizations have struggled to achieve consistency between finance and technology personnel, not because of lack of cooperation, but because of the friction inherent in the way decisions and measurements progress. Finance and technology leaders often operate on a variety of assumptions, timelines and definitions of success.
This cuts the surface in several ways:
- Unstructured data weakens decision-making. Predictive models and AI tools rely on clean, well-secured financial data. Incomplete or fragmented data leads to false signals that appear reliable but do not reflect actual conditions. This kind of noise-based decision weakens trust in both the system and the strategy.
- Investment sequences create expectations of discrepancy. Technology leaders often prioritize infrastructure that unleashes future capabilities. Conversely, finance leaders are responsible for capital efficiency, budget planning and measurable returns. As timelines and value visions are pulled apart, progress and innovation stall along with it.
- Performance metrics have no shared meaning. The finance and technology teams apply a variety of metrics to assess the impact. Technology groups can focus on system uptime or model output, but finance tracks margin increases, working capital movements, and forecast differences. Without integration between these frameworks, success remains ambiguous.
- Communication habits create operational drags. Finance and IT leaders speak in different languages, depending on the system they use. From reporting tools to terminology to cadence planning, these differences appear in budget reviews, investment pitches, and execution plans. Without shared language and rhythm, even small decisions take time and pose more risks.
These obstacles illustrate the need for a deliberate restructuring that more intentionally links technology implementation to business priorities, establishes clear ownership and promotes shared outcomes at all levels. This kind of future relies on strong leadership, clear success metrics, clear success metrics on financial and operational goals, and CFOs and CTOs must work together to achieve it.
Finance Technology Alignment Operations
The role of CFOs in technology currently spans the complete lifecycle, from prioritization formation to strategy translation. That level of involvement requires more than structural integration. Mindset shift is required. One of the most valuable lessons I've learned is that alignment begins with fundamental transparency, especially when it comes to risk.
CFOs deal with ambiguity every day, but to manage it effectively, they need to be clear about where that ambiguity lies. When technology leaders are open about implementation challenges, data limitations, or competitive threats, they build trust and reliability, and make it easier to support when bold technology arises.
In my experience, the following four strategies can help strengthen the growth mindset and create conditions suitable for sustainable, technologically-ready innovation:
Promote financial data as a cross-sectional asset. Standardizing financial input across a well-governed system will allow teams to model risk more confidently, reduce rework, and improve planning accuracy.
This foundation becomes even more important as organizations integrate AI models into forecasting and planning workflows. Without high integral data, even the most sophisticated tools produce outputs that feel accurate but lack context or reliability that drive sound financial decisions.
CFOs should consider playing a more direct role in enterprise data governance. For example, look for ways to apply structures to ways that define, validate and share financial assumptions between departments.
Teams are encouraged to create and use a dictionary of shared data or coordinated coordination protocols to avoid delays and build trust in outputs that inform decision-making across the finance and technology domain.
If you are working on a core infrastructure such as a new data platform or an automation layer, match that initiative with scoped, short-term outcomes, such as reducing time or automating compliance checks.
Sequence investments across short-term and strategic perspectives. Your company's roadmap can span multiple planning cycles, similar to your funding and performance goals. Enhanced alignment across these often-white timelines begins with a mapping initiative by Value Horizon and how today's investments can unlock future features.
If you are working on a core infrastructure such as a new data platform or an automation layer, match that initiative with scoped, short-term outcomes, such as reducing time or automating compliance checks.
It is also helpful to frame technical discussions in business terms. Instead of focusing on technical capabilities, we emphasize how solutions support important goals such as revenue recognition, improving working capital, or a closer cycle of faster accounting. This approach strengthens buy-in and ensures its relevance with financial strategy.
Anchor metrics in sharing business priorities. Defining impacts in different ways by financial and technology teams makes it difficult to track progress or maintain alignment. Metrics are useful, but clarity about expectations is often important.
If certain patterns raise concerns as a finance leader, speak up early. Some CFOs view over-appreciation as a red flag. Others are openly evaluating competitive threats and implementation hurdles. Sharing these preferences with technology partners will improve the quality of planning input and increase transparency on both sides.
This type of alignment tends to work best when performance indicators are co-developed. For example, it may connect to model reliability or system uptime forecast differences or working capital improvements.
Job metrics such as decision latency and the amount of manual handoffs can reveal inefficiencies that affect wider outcomes. Most importantly, while the metrics reflect your priorities, you give both teams a shared view of success.
Establish a team structure that minimizes translation gaps. Structure can be a problem if it takes too long for a team to clarify ownership and recreate deliverables. Embedded finance leads within an agile project team are one way to get closer to execution decisions and create more integrated workflows.
Some organizations report hierarchies across departments or develop sharing plan templates to create sharing plan templates to reduce misconceptions. These structures not only improve adjustments from day one, but also promote joint accountability for the outcome. When both financial and technology leaders share ownership of key initiatives, the trusts are built faster and decision-making becomes more strategic.
Formation of the results
Financial-technical alignment takes shape with consistent action rather than broad strokes. The choices you make daily will set the conditions for technological innovation that will take root and scale along with financial management.
Alignment requires more than collaboration. CFOs need to develop the flow of real technology and apply financial judgments to technical decisions. At the same time, technology leaders need stronger financial insights to ensure innovation has an impact on their business.
The competitive advantage doesn't depend on the biggest technology budget, but it depends on how well financial strategy and digital capabilities work together. The future belongs to financially disciplined innovators to balance wise investments with calculated risks to unlock long-term value.
