| | June 20168CIOReviewThe role of the today's CFO has never been more complex, even as technology aspires to make the CFO's life easier. The pace of information flows, technology evolution and competitive threats in today's business climate poses real and constant challenges for corporations seeking to thrive and grow over the long term. Against this backdrop, the CFO often bears responsibility for navigating through the myriad issues ranging from government dysfunction and economic uncertainty to cybersecurity and technological disruption. Perhaps one of the most persistent challenges CFOs in global businesses must grapple with today is global compliance broadly ranging from various tax regulations to statutory, regulatory, reporting, employment and cultural matters.It is not enough to merely maintain routine regulatory compliance with core systems of record within your region or country of origin as the problem becomes exponentially more complex as your business expands across borders over time in pursuit of new avenues of growth. Even for a company with experience outside of the United States in certain of more traditional Western European and Asian markets, the growth of the "BRIC" (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other important emerging markets compels companies today to push into newer international markets with more complex and precarious legal, commerce and political environments. For organizations with even modest growth plans, fundamental localization compliance can become one of the more challenging matters to tackle, turning into a seemingly endless array of moving parts in a process that feels as daunting as growth itself. And although there are numerous studies correlating native language to buying preference, localization issues extend far beyond those related to language translations. Understanding business requirements across borders­within foreign countries in which you operate and do business­has historically been daunting. Traditional use of local employees or partners, and even external consultants, has managerial challenges beyond those of a financial nature for any size business. Moving into new markets abroad is just not an easy problem to solve. As the digital revolution continues to transform how companies do business affording even the smallest, most agile businesses access to unchartered global markets, the side effect has been an increased risk of falling out of compliance. Beyond the typical compliance duties the CFO and corporate risk management teams must navigate, strengthening compliance monitoring is a constant requirement as changes originating from both exogenous changes in regulations and standards or changes are brought on by one's own corporate expansion into new geographies poses a constant threat to even the most sophisticated change management skill sets. Enter the next generation of software technology as an emerging new hope.In recent years, there have been a number of big-box software companies that have waded into the murky waters of global compliance offering products which on the surface are designed to ease the burdens of localization. The value proposition for CFOs is simple - time is money. Basic compliance has become too time consuming for most organizations attempting to stay current on the multitude of requirements they must maintain across many jurisdictions, not to mention managing the sourcing, updating and The New Norm for Today's CFO: Compliance without BordersBy Jeff Laborde, CFO, InforIN MY OPINIONJeff Laborde
< Page 7 | Page 9 >