Business Control Solutions (BCS), provider of management consultancy services and operational control software to the financial services sector, has launched BCS Integrity.
This new software offering improves financial control and reduces operational costs by managing and standardising account reconciliation and substantiation processes. By driving efficiencies across financial institutions, Integrity enables better decision-making.
Integrity is designed to reduce control costs while ensuring accountability, ownership and transparency in all financial servicesorganisations, from smaller firms through to complex, globalenvironments with multiple general ledgers and supporting softwareapplications. It enables firms to communicate along the business chainand customise control points according to their needs, rather than aprescribed workflow. Data can be efficiently added, manipulated andconsolidated, eliminating issues caused by disparate data systems aswell as the need for qualified staff having to do time-consuming tasks.This in turn decreases the risk of human error.
“The issue of effective financial control is one that continues toplague the financial services sector. As business processes inevitably become more complex and regulations more demanding, it’s important that dedicated controls are put in place to deliver timely P+L and risk assessments, as well as accurate reconciliation, substantiation and reporting,” says Eva Weber, analyst, Aite Group.
“Most financial institutions still rely on Excel or Access for accountsubstantiation, which involve too many manual processes, leaving toomuch room for error. This lack of control increases operational risk andis not sustainable on a cost or operational basis. Currently, every finance director is living with uncertainty. By quantifying the uncertainty, Integrity puts them back in control and helps them sleep at night,” adds Michael Bush, head of product development, BCS.
Integrity provides an effective and controlled route for managers andfinancial directors to highlight concerns and generate accuratereporting across multiple regions, business areas, ledgers andcurrencies. Its account ownership and task completion tools ensure thereis no ambiguity over the account status or the person accountable forit. By highlighting inefficiencies and mistakes in the reportingprocess, it allows users and management to communicate effectively andfocus on high-risk issues.
Firms can use Integrity to provide trend analysis as well as a constant,real-time view of progress. This includes out-of-the-box configurationto cover month-end processes, P&L exposure, progress forecasting andbalance sheet briefs. The solution’s personalised dashboard providesobjective visibility over the end-to-end business process. It can alsoincorporate feeds from different general ledgers and consolidate theminto a single view.