CIO2CFO

Most people would prefer to have their jobs made easier. But when it comes to information management systems, inertia is a powerful force. Even with better products available, many companies are willing to let their staff work through unwieldy programs because leadership sees IT system overhaul as a high stakes gamble. The time and effort of retraining staff on a new system can make the task feel prohibitively expensive, even when this isn’t the case.

This led to a mindset among many companies that their current information management systems were good enough - even when there was something better available. In 2007, Oracle acquired a solution that would revolutionise information management and make work easier for anyone who used it. Shortly thereafter, two top competitors, IBM and SAP, made similar acquisitions, which opened up the entire information management systems market. Oracle now had the sophistication and opportunity to emerge as a viable alternative to old school information management systems, but the resistance to change left Oracle’s true value unrealised. Oracle had to break into an entrenched market with a new, better product.

In the key Fortune 1000 companies, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) were the only people powerful enough to trigger a complete system overhaul. To gain marketplace dominance, Oracle had to jointly appeal to their sometimes divergent priorities.

Though they come from different sides of the executive suite, company CFOs and CIOs have the same agendas - specifically to help their companies run more efficiently and effectively. However, they are still very different, difficult-to-reach individuals with different sets of priorities, skills, and views on “needs and wants”. Despite these differences, Oracle’s research showed they relied on each other for their expertise. Specifically, 51% of top technology decision makers across companies try to collaborate with the CFO when making IT investment decisions.

In order to set the stage for these executives to close the loop on information management systems purchases, Oracle needed to help them find a common ground. The solution was to create an open dialogue between CIOs and CFOs that encouraged them to discuss alternative technology solutions, with Oracle serving as moderator.

Oracle forged a partnership with the two trusted publishing brands “CIO Magazine” and “CFO Magazine” (and their corresponding web sites) to create a partnership known as CIO2CFO. By bringing these two unrelated but highly influential publications together, Oracle positioned itself as the first technology partner to facilitate the CIO/CFO conversation.

Survey findings revealed that CIOs and CFOs were unsure how to define or implement technology management processes, and were therefore unwilling to make significant changes. IT and finance departments each felt that they were better placed to make well-informed decisions on the subject, causing major communication hurdles. Based on the findings of this research, Oracle set about addressing these concerns through a joint online forum where Oracle offered solutions and tips for these challenges facing the companies. More important than offering existing solutions, Oracle directly addressed the specific issues that came out of the research. Both publications created custom reports designed to resonate with their specific audiences. Additionally, Oracle integrated similar content into unique Executive Summary inserts appearing in the brand’s print editions. Lastly, both CIO and CFO ran live video webcasts to further engage the audiences with the information, even featuring Oracle’s CFO, Jeff Epstein, speaking on key topics and trends.

More than 1,300 Fortune 1000 business decision makers from both IT and Finance departments downloaded content from the CIO2CO forum, providing both their e-mail and phone registration for Oracle to use in follow-up sales calls. 200 CIOs and CFOs participated in the peer-to-peer research that fueled discussion and content for the entire campaign. The first CIO2CFO online video seminar achieved the highest number of live attendance participation in the history of Oracle’s online advertising. The program has been extended to Asia, Europe and Latin America with an additional $500,000 investment.