While many IT vendors continue to stress the importance of ROI and rapid payback as the prime yardsticks for assessing IT investment value, this new study reveals that CFOs and CIOs require much more than that to make key spending decisions. In fact, these executives now judge non-financial metrics such as customer satisfaction to be a more important indicator of investment value than, say, short-term ROI.

This insight is one of many spotlighted in the just-released study from CFO Research Services and Saugatuck Technology entitled Customer-Centric Technology Investments: Where's the ROI? The study concludes six months of surveys and interviews by Saugatuck Technology in partnership with CFO Research Services to determine how financial and IT executives determine and manage the value of customer-centric technology (CCT) investments.

Among the key findings:

• Non-financial metrics outweigh financial metrics as gauges of technology investment value.
  
  
• Contact/Call Center, Sales Force Automation, Customer Self Service and Database Integration provide the greatest CCT payback.
  
  
• CFOs have begun to surpass CIOs as champions of technology as a strategic growth tool.
  
  
• Overall IT spending will brighten moderately in 2003, with CFOs more bullish than CIOs.
  
  
• Spending on CCT continues to outpace overall IT spending growth through 2003.

CFOs Broaden their Focus
This study also shows that many CFOs now wield broad managerial mandates and are held accountable by the board of directors for the success of investments in information technology. And with capital scarce and top-line growth constrained, CFOs are more exacting than ever when scrutinizing expenditure requests. However, in a marked shift from past behavior, CFOs are looking beyond short-term, financial ROI.

CFOs as a group have come up with a practical approach: subject CCTinvestments to traditional financial metrics such as ROI and payback time, but combine these with traditional non-financial, customer-focused measures, especially customer satisfaction. These blended metrics enable CFOs to gauge the likely costs and cash-flow impacts on the firm in a manner that conforms to traditional financial management practices, while also underscoring the strategic business value of the investments -- or the lack of value, as the case may be.

In total, 304 financial and IT executives participated in the study -- 231 of which held senior financial titles such as Chief Financial Officer, VP Finance, or Controller, and 73 of which were senior IT executives such as Chief Information Officer, VP of IT, or IT Director/Manager. The combined CFO and CIO surveys targeted both large and medium-sized enterprises in a cross-section of industries.

Customer-Centric Technology Investments: Where's the ROI? is jointly published by CFO Research Services and Saugatuck Technology. The report's editors conducted the research and prepared the final analyses on an independent basis. Funding for this project came from leading information technology providers: SAP, Ayava, SUN Microsystems, and Epicor.

About Saugatuck Technology
Saugatuck Technology is a strategic advisor to leading information technology vendors. Its mission is to accelerate growth through strategic intelligence, filling a gap between high-cost strategy consultants and IT market research firms. Its proven research and consulting methodologies, and deep industry network, helps clients develop sustainable business models, effective product strategies and winning go-to-market tactics. Founded in 1999, Saugatuck Technology is headquartered in Westport, CT. For more information, visit www.saugatech.com

About CFO Research Services Group
Original research and thoughtful analyses are the cornerstones of CFO Research Services Group, the sponsored research arm of CFO magazine. Its team of research professionals dissects emerging trends in business and financial management using mailed surveys and personal, on-the-recordinterviews with respected financial executives. Its white papers and research reports often provide a backdrop to conferences produced by CFO Executive Programs and illustrate new applications of technology and breakthrough managerial thinking. CFO magazine is a member of the Economist Group and has over 450,000 readers in the US alone. For more information about CFO magazine, visit www.cfo.com