Rokt CFO: Use Data and Better Tech to Move Fast With Certainty

CFO responsibilities are evolving alongside operational advancements and empowering today’s finance leaders to drive holistic growth.

“A lot of what the CFO job at a fast-paced, high-growth company entails is helping the rest of the business move fast by making informed decisions that leverage trusted data, and creating the foundational infrastructure to allow for that,” Nathaniel Katz, CFO at eCommerce software provider Rokt, told PYMNTS in a recent interview.

“As a CFO right now, I’m focused on creating the foundation that will be put in place to allow for the scale that we’re trying to achieve. And that comes down to data, that comes down to systems, it comes down to processes — and above all it comes down to people,” Katz said.

He called this approach “enabling the capacity for velocity.”

And it is working for Rokt, which has been growing at a 50% clip at scale. The only thing typical about his day-to-day, Katz said, is providing lunch for Rokt’s 500 “Roktstar” employees.

Unlocking Potential Through Connectivity

In today’s challenging economic times, realizing a return on investment (ROI) of many processes that were once handled manually by modernizing them with digital replacements and enhancements is critical to optimizing operations across departments, and reducing silo-induced miscommunications.

Katz noted that while there are a ton of great and innovative software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications in the marketplace, these tools are only as good as their implementations.

“Jamming these systems in often leads to bad outcomes,” he said. “It can result in the data being siloed, where businesses are then using that data narrowly.”

The solution? Katz pointed to a well-architected enterprise data warehouse that allows for the intelligent access and use of connected data across a company’s internal systems as being critical.

This, “unlocks a whole new set of possibilities for leveraging that data,” Katz said. “A common vernacular is a really important part of it. Having everyone speaking the same language, coming up with a common business glossary and ensuring that we’re consistently using it so people, when they speak, they know exactly what’s being talked about — it’s paramount to the success of being able to leverage this collected data and draw insights from it.”

“I think that’s underappreciated in a lot of businesses,” he added. “And that’s part of the role of a CFO — to put that structure in place, drive that organizational alignment, and help business leaders within your organization tie their upstream activities to downstream financial results, so everyone understands how what they are doing impacts the organization in a measurable, definable way. And the language behind that matters quite a bit.”

PYMNTS has been closely tracking how digital tools are evolving the responsibilities of finance teams by powering next generation, wholly transformative approaches to business planning.

Creating a Frictionless Digital Experience

Katz told PYMNTS the roadmap goals he builds for his team center around three core words: Right, Tight and Insight.

“Let’s get the data right, let’s make sure the process is tight, and let’s pull out insights that are actionable in helping drive business decisions forward. It comes back to having that connected foundation of data, bringing all those siloed data points together so you can leverage them in a more powerful way,” he said.

“That’s one of the biggest opportunities I see internally for businesses around digitization and modernization, which can either be through direct integrations or through data outputs that are tied together outside of the system itself.”

When data collected by digital solutions lives siloed and independently, you’re not getting the full output and value that you can and really should get in using modern tools, Katz added.

“The opportunity to leverage exists a lot on the external facing systems,” he said, “by providing a frictionless, tailored experience driven by data. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if you’re not providing a great digital experience for your customers, then you risk losing that business.”

It’s an area, he notes, where B2B businesses are lagging behind. Meaning, of course, that providing a seamless digital B2B experience without frictions represents a major opportunity.

As for what the Rokt CFO is looking forward to in the year ahead?

He tells PYMNTS that attracting and developing talent remains a priority for the fast-growing company. People are at the heart of process, and process is at the heart of profits.