In today's business environment, where businesses are under increased pressure to be more efficient and responsive - a happy marriage between the IT and Finance functions is becoming increasingly necessary.  

The combined effect of IT and Finance could impact all the core functions of a business:

•  ERP/business solutions (with appropriate business intelligence tools) empower mangers with timely information on the performance of the business
• timely updates on KPIs (via intranet, extranet, webcasts etc..) help business managers quickly identify inefficient business processes and take necessary corrective action
• an appropriately implemented ERP solution generally results in significant cost savings and/or increased revenue opportunities (through increased operational efficiencies) for the business
• analytics features of CRM solutions could help businesses also monitor strategic indicators (such as: customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, brand awareness etc..) with greater accuracy Evaluating the ROI of IT related investments should be on going. Often, however, this aspect gets neglected thus leading to excessive cost overruns and inefficiencies.

 According to James Blyth* chairman of Diageo (the worlds leading premium drinks company)  the roadblocks for getting adequate returns on IT investments are two-fold: 

 a)     it's difficult to sustain a technology based competitive advantage

  b)    company's often lack the management discipline they need when evaluating technology proposals 

*a) James Blyth was speaking at the 2005 Wharton Globalization Forum b) Microsoft Executive Circle (Thought Leadership For Business Results)