2011-08-01
Exceptions not reported on a timely basis or left uncorrected pose an escalating level of risk. Having the processes and technology in place to notify the business process owners for timely decision making improves organisational performance and strengthens controls
Continuous Monitoring enables management to determine quickly and accurately where it should be focusing attention and resources in order to improve processes and immediately address potential risk.
Management and business process owners receive timely notification of control breaches, evaluate the risk and resolve potential problems before they escalate. By monitoring and reporting on the strength of financial and operational controls on a continuous basis, organisations create a stronger and more effective control environment.
The increasing costs of audits and compliance reviews are pressuring organisations to find a cost-effective and sustainable means of validating controls performance. ACL’s Continuous Monitoring solution automates internal controls testing in key financial and operational processes across the enterprise. Audit can place reliance on the monitoring procedures being performed and focus on areas that are not subject to these techniques.
Siemens Financial Services, Inc. (SFS) is a leading provider of business-to-business financial services in the United States. The company, based in Iselin, NJ, enables business expansion for thousands of customers in the healthcare, energy, and industrial sectors by providing customised solutions that range from equipment financing and working capital to project and export finance, and insurance solutions.
The SFS team uses ACL to run continuous controls monitoring routines on a daily basis. Business owners are notified about critical issues uncovered by ongoing analysis by the following morning, as extractions and analysis are run on the server overnight to promote peak performance. With almost no manual intervention, the analytics can reveal opportunities for greater profitability and data discrepancies that might impair management’s ability to make informed decisions. The system provides a workflow that SFS has customised to notify stakeholders of exceptions, alerts, and critical business information. The new system not only offers time savings but also increased security over accessing the controlled analytic environment.
With ACL, SFS has automated data analysis routines that used to require manual testing – enabling staff members to apply their time to more significant, value-added activities. They have leveraged the flexibility of the platform to better pinpoint errors and maximise the use of repeatable analytics.
Most importantly, SFS has ACL to make its continuous monitoring plans a reality – increasing team efficiency and reducing the negative impact of exceptions on the business. SFS has built this monitoring across the entire continuous monitoring spectrum, including master data, system configuration, and transactions.
