Identity Management has been on the corporate technology agenda for 15 years. ‘Giving the right people, the right access to the right things, at the right time’ (Gartner), has never been more relevant.

The number of corporate systems has exploded, the move from on premise to cloud, access via mobile computing and bring your own devices (BYOD), remote working has become the norm, user populations are larger and more diverse, opening up systems to subcontractors, suppliers, joint ventures and customers and we now need to cater not just for humans but also things and apps .… Read More

Introduction

Arguably the cost of finance functions has halved over the last two decades while expectations have almost doubled during that time. A series of transformation programs (supported by armies of consultants) have implemented ERP systems, established shared services and addressed the stringent demands for greater control and regulatory compliance.… Read More

We recently surveyed 150 organisations from around the world on the nature and implementation of their internal controls, with specific focus on those related to assurance over financial reporting (ICFR).

We gained some significant new insights. Yes, we suspected that the landscape is very different to that assumed by those of us involved in the heavy lifting of global ERP systems, embedded automated controls and the application of so-called Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) tools for risk management and continuous monitoring.… Read More

KPIs in use today collect data that may relate to performance by typically do not drive performance. As such, KPIs can often prove to be detrimental to the overall success of the business and occasionally strategies centred around them can encourage the ‘gaming’ of this tool for the achievement of personal or departmental objectives.… Read More

Compliance Week columnist, Jose Tabuena, looks at what’s new in the updated framework and highlights some of the things to look out for as companies transition to it.

To have the whitepaper in PDF format, download it here: Internal Auditors, are you ready for the updated COSO Framework?… Read More

Introduction & Recent History

The ‘Continuous Monitoring’ of financial and operational processes has been discussed and written about for some years.

Continuous Monitoring (CM) is a detective, preventive and even predictive data-analytics-based feedback mechanism used by management to ensure that internal financial controls operate as designed and that business transactions are processed as prescribed.… Read More

Let’s start from the assumption that you have a Continuous Monitoring solution up and running in your environment with all business critical systems connected. A risk-based assessment of the main authorizations has been conducted, defaulting from industry standard rules, and you may have to correct a number of roles, authorizations and assignments.… Read More

 A Timely Update

The recent 2013 update of the Internal Control Framework issued by the COSO was a major event followed by standard setters and publicly held companies. The original COSO framework published in 1992 became a widely accepted internal control framework standard for meeting the requirements of a number of US regulations led by the infamous Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002, introducing a formal sign-off on the effectiveness of the system of Internal Controls over Financial Reporting (ICFR).… Read More

Key Performance Indicators and Key exception Indicators

The measurement of the overall process outcomes alone will not tell you anything about how your processes are actually doing. Yes, it sounds counter-intuitive. The fact is that although Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are useful measurements for resulting business output, if you really want to know if a business process is running optimally, KPIs are simply not enough.… Read More

Today’s global business challenges together with the recognition that working capital is the fuel for the organization’s growth engine create a compelling case for action to dramatically improve the management of this most valuable of assets.

Introduction – World Class Finance

World class finance functions enable the optimisation of four key objectives:

Continued changes in the economic, regulatory and competitive landscape have refocused attention back on Working Capital Management (WCM) and the opportunity for the Finance Function to partner with the business to protect and create value.… Read More