The Integrity News
Vol. XI No. 20
ISSN 1081-2717
August 1, 2002
July 29, 2002 (pgs. 20-21)
Chief Information Officers (CIOs) have
a role in protecting companies from
financial mismanagement.
The following are 10 things you can do to
to help restore shareholders' confidence.
1. "Make sure the CFO and CEO have a
sound grasp of how financial software
works, so they can give financial analysts
and regulators a clear picture of how
systems secure data and promote accounting
accuracy.
2. Volunteer to attend analyst meetings
so you can present detailed information
about financial systems yourself.
3. Learn to talk the talk. Improve your
grasp of generally accepted accounting
principles.
4. Take advantage of real-time financial
technology to provide more information
to investors about earnings, more quickly.
5. Consider deploying systems that can
drill down to generate geographically
detailed data.
6. Roll out features such as executive
dashboards that trigger alerts when key
indicators are out of line.
7. Insist that the IT department, not the
finance department, manage financial
applications to avoid potential conflicts
of interest.
8. Set up a committee of financial and
IT executives to meet regularly.
9. Emphasize a culture of fiscal
responsibility in which each department
views its budget as shareholder's money.
10. Create a white paper that describes
your company's financial-reporting systems
and make it available on your Web site."
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