Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 there has been a significant tightening of the personal responsibilities and liabilities of those running businesses, large or small. In the UK the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into effect in April 2008 and C-class executives returning from a welcome break at the end of 2011 will find their responsibilities further enhanced in 2012 with the enactment of the Bribery Act in July.
All of this legislation is important in ensuring that the public can trust the actions of companies. However for time pressed compliance officers or CEOs with considerably more personal responsibility, ensuring compliance is becoming more and more of a headache.
So where are the risks for companies, and where does the weakness manifest itself. Beyond the rare but often publically shamed corporations where corruptions seems to be manifest from the top down, risk often lies in human error, particularly where the mishandling of information during processing could lead to genuine errors that have a catastrophic impact on a business. It really does defy belief that in this day and age, with back office process automation as advanced as it already is, businesses are still spending money employing people to do back breaking and mind numbing data inputting tasks where errors could have such a significant impact.
Shared Services Centre Directors/Managers using SAP to manage multiple processes including P2P, O2C, HR and Master Data will be more than familiar with issues such as fragmented communications with subsidiaries, suppliers, customers and internal functions; and a speed of execution which feels like everything is being dealt with as an exception. As documentation, and data levels increase it becomes difficult to ensure transparency, audibility or even retain any level of control. All of which destabilises business process compliance.
Today automated document capture can incorporate streamlined workflow and business process, residing within an SAP or Oracle system. This delivers a new level of control. Any entered information can now be automatically matched against SAP data, including master or transactional data. In fact it is now possible to control and improve the master data process to drive higher levels of accuracy and real time automation.
The business value is considerable: reducing costs; lowering headcount; and increasing business agility as the bulk of processes and transactions are automated. But it is the improved level of control over business information that document or request-driven process automation provides, which enables new capabilities for delivering early notification of errors.
Improved data visibility, better problem solving and more accurate and timely record keeping means departments and managers can more easily achieve expected levels of business compliancy. And this means less sleepless nights for compliance officers and CEOs.
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