Indeed, 26% of IT investments in the past year have been authorized by CFOs alone, up from 18% of CFO-alone authority in the prior year's survey. And in 51% of cases, the decision is being made either by the CFO alone, or by the CFO in a collaboration with the CIO, a percentage that is up from 45% the prior year. However, the chief information officer makes the investment call alone only 5% of the time, down from 11% in 2010, the study shows.

The new research also shows that 42% of IT organizations now report directly to the CFO, with 33% reporting directly to the CEO. In what the report called an unfortunate result, "[o]nly 47% of those surveyed viewed IT as being strategic."

The Gartner-sponsored survey of 344 executives --- 95% of them senior financial executives, including 66% who are enterprise CFOs -- is titled "Technology Issues for Financial Executives: 2011 Annual Report." The report is in its third year as a Gartner-Financial Executives International collaboration, and the 13th year as an FEI project involving its members. This year's Gartner project was done in conjunction with FEI's Financial Executives Research Foundation, and its Committee of Finance & IT.

The research adds to previous reports that . But few reports seem so focused on the changing CFO-CIO relationship.