In This Issue 

• Opener: 5 Tips for Smarter IT Spending 
• What’s in Your Tech Stack? With Steve Mitchell, CFO, Redgate Software 
• Product & Company News: Anaplan, Paystand, Oracle and More 
• People News: FloQast, Dayforce, Avalara and More 
• FATEdex: Our Exclusive Public Company Tracker 
• Upcoming Events/Subscribe & Share 

Editor’s Note—Tech is hard. We get it. To help, StrategicCFO360 and The CFO Leadership Council are launching a new effort—starting with this free newsletter—to help finance pros make more confident technology choices and help software providers understand and more successfully serve their needs.  

On October 28-30, we’ll hold our inaugural Finance and Accounting Tech Expo at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. Join us!  

We could use your help, too: If you have feedback, ideas or product, people and company news to share with the community, email us at vince@CFOLC.com—Vince Ryan, editor

5 Tips For Smarter IT Spending

CFOs are willing to part with their organization’s technology dollars, but they are also keen to avoid products that fail to produce the promised returns. To learn how CFOs should approach finding the best solutions and the most trustworthy vendors, as well as the mistakes to avoid, we spoke with Alok Ajmera, CEO of Ontario-based Prophix Software. While organizations face challenges in finding good vendor fits, Ajmera says, in the cloud at least, “the economic power remains with the end user.” 

Here’s the advice he offers CFOs: 

Think past the immediate. “Buyers need to become a little more sophisticated. They focus on one pain point—budgeting is a disaster, the close process is terrible, cash forecasting is challenging. But if you invest time, energy and money, you want to buy a solution that can grow with you. More CFOs are thinking about the ecosystem strategically; they want to solve the acute pain, but they also want to continuously add value.” 

Clean up the data first. “You can have a complex, sophisticated vision for what you want out of a budgeting and planning system, but if the data is not mature and scattered across dozens of systems with no way to collect and harmonize it, that’s a problem. [Implementation] projects can then run incredibly long, and the buyer risks never getting to value. As buyers move to modern architectures, they are overhauling their core systems and cleaning up their data, but [data management] is still not as sharp as it needs to be if companies want to benefit from all the cool, data-driven technology available.” 

Check that value received > price. “The cloud pitch from vendors is, ‘Just sign up. And if you don't like it, drop it.’ When buying on-premises systems, 90 percent of the lifetime cash was already spent. In the cloud, for some solutions, you can just as easily cancel as buy the service. But for a complex, massive piece of software, you need to prepare a year or two ahead if you want optionality at renewal time. If the value received for your ABC ERP solution is no longer greater than the price paid, start the journey.” 

Read the reviews. “If a vendor has a history of treating customers poorly or ratcheting up the price, you can find out in advance. You can go online for unfiltered feedback on how customers are treated after they sign the contract. Do your due diligence. Does the software have the capabilities to solve my problem today? Does it have the capability to solve my problem tomorrow? But also, who am I partnering with, and is this a partnership or a vendor relationship?” 

Don’t buy hype. “AI technology will be incredibly disruptive for the office of the CFO. But AI is also at peak hype cycle. Everyone wants to talk about it, whether they have something materially AI generated or not. The truth is most of the AI being generated is not through B2B application vendors. We stand on the shoulders of giants—the Microsofts and Amazons of the world. These deeply rooted technology companies are the ones doing all the research and work on AI. We’re saying, ‘OK, OpenAI, you've created something that has no purpose. Can I create a purpose for it? Can I take that tool and wrap something around it to add value?’ Should a CFO buy business software today based exclusively on AI? No. They should ask which vendor has the most robust AI roadmap. That will help future-proof their investment.” 

In our first issue, we used the incorrect last name for Eventus Advisory Group CFO Glenn Hopper. We apologize for the error. — Editor 

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What’s In Your Tech Stack?

We asked Steve Mitchell, CFO of U.K.-based Redgate Software, a provider of database development tools, to describe the company’s IT environment. 

Our core finance systems use NetSuite, Zuora, Avalara and Microsoft Office (including PowerBI). We have found it more efficient to outsource payroll and the processing of flexible benefits. Redgate's broader tech stack uses Salesforce and Marketo, which provide additional data granularity for the FP&A team to deliver insights into commercial and financial performance. 

We are adding NetSuite's planning and budgeting module (NSPB) for insightful analysis and process efficiencies. We're also moving more of our data to Microsoft Azure—a scalable and robust way to access data quickly as business grows. 

Finally, we take information security very seriously and invest in Microsoft E5 licenses. 

What's your joy and what's your headache? 

My greatest joy is having IT software/systems that make great datasets available promptly. I also get a lot of joy from think-cell, a small plug-in for Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel that allows us to create compelling presentations quickly. I have introduced think-cell in my last four companies and am beginning to think I should be paid a commission. 

My biggest headache is when a project introduces new software that includes excessive bespoke code to fit existing processes. It often adds time and cost to a project and causes pain down the line when the bespoke build results in an inability to adopt new features from vendor releases. That ultimately leads to another costly and time-consuming project to remove a lot of the bespoke coding. 

If you could wave a magic wand, what would you make software companies do for you? 

We tell our customers that we make things ingeniously simple. I would welcome software for the finance tech stack that is easy to implement, does not require excessive bespoke code (see above) and integrates effectively with other solutions.  

What’s your best piece of tech advice for others in your job? 

I have two. One, if you're purchasing and implementing new software, adapt your processes to work well with the (presumably great) software you just selected. I've seen many businesses unable to take advantage of key new software features because they have tweaked and personalized the “out-of-the-box" software so much. For CFOs, what makes it more galling is you still foot the bill as part of renewal pricing. Two, never, ever forget information security. 

Have news to share? Drop me a line at vince@CFOLC.com — Vince Ryan, editor 

Anaplan agreed to acquire Fluence Technologies, a cloud-native solution for financial close, consolidation and disclosure management. The deal is expected to be completed in May. 

Paystand acquired Teampay, a provider of spend management software, to add AP automation to its blockchain-based smart payments platform. 

New AI capabilities introduced in Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX) help sales target the right prospect accounts and marketers create compelling content to engage buyers. 

FreshBooks added embedded business payments capabilities to its small business accounting software under an expanded partnership with Stripe. 

AccountTECH launched darwin.Cloud, an enterprise version of its accounting software for real estate brokerages and franchisors. 

Have news to share? Drop me a line at vince@CFOLC.com — Vince Ryan, editor 

FloQast hired Josh Glover as its new president and chief revenue officer, reporting to CEO Mike Whitmire. The former nCino executive replaces Ken Sims, who takes over the chief development officer role. 

Dayforce (formerly Ceridian) appointed Amy Cappellanti-Wolf, formerly of Cohesity, Symantec, Silver Spring Networks and Cisco, as EVP and chief people officer. 

Versapay named Ed Neumann its new CFO. He joins CEO Carey O’Connor Kolaja, who started a year ago, and newly appointed CTO Gaby Kozakov in the C-Suite. 

Avalara promoted its CFO, Ross Tennenbaum, to president. He will oversee most of the tax software company’s business operations. 

Plan to join us at the Finance and Accounting Technology Expo, the country’s largest annual trade show for buyers and vendors of corporate finance and accounting software. This year’s event will take place on October 28-30, 2024, at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. This is a great opportunity to network with industry peers, learn from experts, and discover new products and services. You can register online at strategicCFO360.com/fate/ and get a limited-time, free registration if you use the code czh510.

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