A Guide to Securing IT Budget: Bridging CIO Tech Talk and CFO Financialese

I decided to kick back and watch a movie on a recent international flight. It was an action film with your typical attention-grabbing big opening, over-the-top special effects and all. Visually stunning, but just as I was settling in for what promised to be a fun flick, the dialogue began … in French.

I watched for a few more minutes, essentially getting the gist of what was going on, but eventually gave up and found another movie in English. And since I was on my way to meet with several CFOs, it hit me that this is exactly how they feel when the CIO approaches them with tech talk.

The CIO-CFO Gap

There has been a long and at times widening rift between most CIOs and CFOs. Where the CIO wants to optimize IT to deliver better capabilities, the CFO weighs risks and seeks to maximize value from IT investments. Where they overlap is typically where a business allots budget. This is a nice checks-and-balances approach.

The problem is that the CIO and CFO speak different languages. They both have their acronyms and special meanings for particular words. CIOs use tech talk, with a dizzying array of alphabet soup. RAID, LAN, VLAN, WAN, ADSL, HCM, MDM, OLAP, and the list goes on ad nauseam. Heck, there is even ambiguity among tech acronyms. Wait, by ATM do you mean asynchronous transfer mode or automatic teller machine? We’ve all seen the comedy skits where a tech support worker talks over everyone’s head. CIOs are the ultimate tech support employee and tend to do this – especially with the CFO.

CFOs of course have their own jargon and a long laundry list of their own acronyms. They talk EBITDA, CAGR, FP&A, GAAP and NAV. Put them together with the CIO and it starts to feel like ancient Babel.

No wonder there is such a gap between them. This makes the CIOs job of securing funding for the IT programs the company needs infinitely more difficult. And it keeps the CFO in the dark when it comes to understanding risk and where to best focus resources. In other words, that ‘checks and balances’ approach has broken down and is of no service to businesses. In fact, it’s quite detrimental.

Finding Common Ground — VALUE!

So how do we get the CIO and the CFO on the same page? They should start with shared terms. Acronyms that are meaningful to both parties, such as ROI (Return on Investment) and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). Better yet, skip abbreviations and focus on value. Ultimately the CIO is trying to optimize IT to deliver more value to the business. And the CFO is tasked to protect the businesses investments to maximize that value. This is their common ground – the lingua franca that puts them on the same page.

And since the CFO controls the purse strings, the onus is more on the CIO to find that common ground. Cut the tech talk fat and go right for the value jugular. One of the techniques I talk about during sales training sessions is how to start with the benefit first then explain how technology will drive that benefit. For example, rather than starting with a discussion about CRM features and the differences between solutions, start by talking about how to reduce the cost of outbound marketing then show how different CRM solutions can support that objective. By leading with the value message, you’ll have more success in securing budget for key projects.

In fact, we’ve built our business, Nucleus Research, on that principle. Yes, we understand how technologies work and the finer points on why one solution is better than another. But our focus remains on the value that technologies deliver. Who cares if there is a better way to integrate data if it’s too expensive, low in usability and has limited functionality? Technically better, perhaps, but if there’s no value it’s useless for the business.

So if you want to influence the CFO, start with the bottom line.