Finance Chiefs Struggle to Extract Value From Tech Investments as Implementation Gaps Widen

The finance technology market continues its expansion, but a growing number of CFOs are finding that purchasing the software is the easy part—actually realizing its promised benefits is proving far more elusive.

The challenge has become acute enough that CFO Leadership Council, a membership organization of 2,500 finance executives, is dedicating programming to the implementation gap at its upcoming Finance & Accounting Technology Expo. The focus reflects a shift in the conversation among finance leaders from "what to buy" to "how to make it work," according to materials promoting the event.

The implementation problem cuts across the finance function. Controllers and senior finance executives report that technology deployments often stall between purchase and productivity, creating what one industry observer described as "shelfware"—expensive systems that sit largely unused while finance teams revert to familiar spreadsheets and manual processes.

The Deployment Dilemma

The issue isn't a lack of available solutions. The finance technology landscape has exploded in recent years, with vendors offering everything from AI-powered close management to automated reconciliation tools. But the proliferation of options has created its own problem: finance leaders now face the challenge of not just selecting technology, but integrating it into existing workflows, training staff who may resist change, and demonstrating ROI to skeptical boards.

CFO Leadership Council has responded by expanding its educational programming around technology implementation. The organization offers NASBA-approved continuing professional education events and has launched a certification program specifically focused on finance technology leadership—an acknowledgment that managing tech deployments now requires distinct skills beyond traditional finance expertise.

The group's chapter network, which hosts in-person events across multiple regions, has made technology implementation a recurring discussion topic. These gatherings allow finance leaders to share candid assessments of what worked, what failed, and why—conversations that rarely make it into vendor case studies.

Beyond the Demo

The challenge for CFOs is that technology often performs beautifully in controlled demonstrations but struggles in the messy reality of legacy systems, incomplete data, and resistant users. Finance leaders attending industry events increasingly swap stories about pilots that never scaled, integrations that broke existing processes, and promised automation that still requires significant manual intervention.

The Controller Network, another CFO Leadership Council initiative, has emerged as a forum for mid-level finance leaders grappling with the tactical realities of technology rollouts. These executives often bear direct responsibility for implementation while lacking the authority to mandate adoption across business units—a recipe for stalled deployments.

What remains unclear is whether the implementation gap represents a temporary growing pain as finance organizations adapt to new tools, or a more fundamental mismatch between what vendors promise and what finance departments can actually absorb. For now, the question occupying many CFOs isn't whether to invest in technology, but how to ensure those investments actually transform their operations rather than simply inflating their software budgets.