How the Modern CFO can collaborate with IT for better cloud efficiency

From handling finances to managing IT, the role of a CFO has always been multifaceted, but in today's digital landscape, it's even more complex. As businesses rely increasingly on cloud technology, CFOs find themselves at the intersection of finance and IT. Cloud investments promise scalability, agility, and cost savings, but they also come with challenges such as rising costs, unexpected bills, the need for efficient resource utilisation, and even mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. To get the most out of cloud investments, CFOs must collaborate with their IT team – and it involves much more than just a couple of catch-up meetings and a few email chains. 

When cloud technology first emerged, it was hailed as a game-changer. Companies could offload the burden of physical server maintenance, reduce capital expenditures, and scale resources as needed. However, as cloud adoption grew, so did the complexity of managing cloud spend. CFOs now face the following key challenges:

• Cost control: Cloud costs can spiral out of control due to factors like overprovisioning, idle resources, and inefficient workload placement.
• Visibility and transparency: CFOs need clear visibility into cloud spending across departments and projects. Without this, it's challenging to allocate costs effectively.
• Financial governance: CFOs must ensure compliance with financial policies, cost centers, and budget constraints.

To address these challenges, CFOs must collaborate closely with their IT teams. Here's how they can foster a productive partnership:

1. Collaborate to develop shared goals
Get off to a good start by setting shared and strategic goals and KPIs related to cloud efficiency. These might include cost reduction, performance optimisation, and security enhancements. Define KPIs that matter both to finance and IT and regularly revisit these targets to make sure they remain relevant and achievable. Open communication between CFOs and IT teams is key from the outset – set up regular check-ins and clear protocols for updates, adjustments, and approvals. Ensuring cross-functional alignment by keeping everyone in the loop can reduce misunderstandings, and ultimately speeds up decision-making. 

Once systems are up and running, stay on top of things with routine financial and technical audits and health checks to help spot cloud waste and potential cost savings and ensure compliance with policies and regulations. This is where the IT/Finance partnership really comes into its own, as with a blend of financial insights and IT metrics, teams can make more accurate decisions about where and how to invest in cloud services. 

2. Focus on the outcomes
Collaborative efforts are key, as are ensuring that meetings have actionable outcomes. Keep track of meetings between Finance and IT teams, as well as the decisions that have been made and whether those decisions lead to real progress. It's all about making sure everyone's accountable and moving in the right direction. 

To make the most of their cloud investments, organisations must keep an eye on spending by measuring savings from resource tweaks, better deals, and using only what's needed. Teams can check how much of their cloud resources are actually in use versus just sitting idle and adjust to save money and maximise what's being paid for. It's also key for CFOs to stay on top of their cloud services to ensure they're reliable and meeting the promises in their service agreements. Regular reviews of an organisation's cloud setup will help to make sure it still lines up with big-picture business goals. 

3. Use effective tools
CFOs can't optimise what they can't measure. Invest in robust cloud cost management tools that provide granular insights into spending patterns. These tools identify resource patterns so they can confidently optimise, right-size, and adjust cloud services to match actual demand. This helps take the guess work out of forecasting future outcomes based on actual cloud usage data and can simulate the impact of scaling up or down during peak demand. In addition, these platforms keep an eye on how well cloud services are performing, so CFOs can tweak spending plans in real-time and run different scenarios to see how their financial decisions match up with their goals and KPIs – maximising their cloud investments.

Going forward, a strong CFO-IT partnership – driven by clear communication, data-driven decisions, and a shared vision for cloud efficiency – offers the best chance for maximum ROI on cloud spend. Remember, it's not just about cost-cutting; it's about investing wisely in the cloud to drive innovation and competitive advantage. As cloud technology continues to evolve, this partnership will be essential for sustainable growth and financial success.

Find out more about Surveil and how they can help optimise, secure, and control your Microsoft cloud environment.