Today your finance organization probably consists of offices, chairs, desks, people, and lots of computers, all of which are real, physical things. If you could virtualize some of those things, especially the computers, the organization stands to save real money.

Gartner has identified virtualization as the highest-impact trend in the infrastructure and operations market through 2012. Leading the virtualization wave is server virtualization, but it doesn’t have to stop with servers. Companies are starting to virtualize desktop computers for even more savings. Data storage and networks can be virtualized as well.

Heck, you can virtualize almost everything else, too. Some consulting firms virtualize offices by maintaining only minimal amounts of physical office space to be shared by consultants who work mainly outside the office. Temporary staffing firms enable companies to virtualize people, too. Usually they provide bookkeepers and accountants, but they will provide what amounts to a virtual CFO too. more