Spreadsheet Woes – Burden in SOX Compliance and Other Regulations

End User Computing (EUC) or end User Developed Application (UDA) systems like spreadsheets used to be ideal ad-hoc solutions for data processing and financial reporting. But those days are long gone.

Today, due to regulations like the:

  • Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act,
  • Dodd-Frank Act,
  • IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards),
  • E.U. Data Protection Directive,
  • Basel II,
  • NAIC Model Audit Rules,
  • FAS 157,
  • yes, there?s more ? and counting

a company can be bogged down when it tries to comply with such regulations while maintaining spreadsheet-reliant financial and information systems.

In an age where regulatory compliance have become part of the norm, companies need to enforce more stringent control measures like version control, access control, testing, reconciliation, and many others, in order to pass audits and to ensure that their spreadsheets are giving them only accurate and reliable information.

Now, the problem is, these control measures aren’t exactly tailor-made for a spreadsheet environment. While yes, it is possible to set up a spreadsheet and EUC control environment that utilises best practices, this is a potentially expensive, laborious, and time-consuming exercise, and even then, the system will still not be as foolproof or efficient as the regulations call for.

Testing and reconciliation alone can cost a significant amount of time and money to be effective:

  1. It requires multiple testers who need to test spreadsheets down to the cell level.
  2. Testers will have to deal with terribly disorganized and complicated spreadsheet systems that typically involve single cells being fed information by other cells in other sheets, which in turn may be found in other workbooks, or in another folder.
  3. Each month, an organisation may have new spreadsheets with new links, new macros, new formulas, new locations, and hence new objects to test.
  4. Spreadsheets rarely come with any kind of supporting documentation and version control, further hampering the verification process.
  5. Because Windows won’t allow you to open two Excel files with the same name simultaneously and because a succession of monthly-revised spreadsheets separated by mere folders but still bearing the same name is common in spreadsheet systems, it would be difficult to compare one spreadsheet with any of its older versions.

But testing and reconciliation are just two of the many activities that make regulatory compliance terribly tedious for a spreadsheet-reliant organisation. Therefore, the sheer intricacy of spreadsheet systems make examining and maintaining them next to impossible.

On the other hand, you can’t afford not to take these regulations seriously. Non-compliance with regulatory mandates can have dire consequences, not the least of which is the loss of investor confidence. And when investors start to doubt the management’s capability, customers will start to walk away too. Now that is a loss your competitors will only be too happy to gain.

Learn more about our server application solutions and discover a better way to comply with regulations.

More Spreadsheet Blogs


Spreadsheet Risks in Banks


Top 10 Disadvantages of Spreadsheets


Disadvantages of Spreadsheets – obstacles to compliance in the Healthcare Industry


How Internal Auditors can win the War against Spreadsheet Fraud


Spreadsheet Reporting – No Room in your company in an age of Business Intelligence


Still looking for a Way to Consolidate Excel Spreadsheets?


Disadvantages of Spreadsheets


Spreadsheet woes – ill equipped for an Agile Business Environment


Spreadsheet Fraud


Spreadsheet Woes – Limited features for easy adoption of a control framework


Spreadsheet woes – Burden in SOX Compliance and other Regulations


Spreadsheet Risk Issues


Server Application Solutions – Don’t let Spreadsheets hold your Business back


Why Spreadsheets can send the pillars of Solvency II crashing down

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Benefits of Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)

More than just building energy, improving skills and undertaking audits, Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme works beyond. ESOS adheres to policy coherence, provides information to raise awareness, facilitates energy efficiency market and encourages adoption of appropriate energy efficiency measures.

Generally, ESOS is great for energy professionals and businesses. And in the current situation of UK?s energy industry, this new scheme is a substantial help. The key is to know the benefits that ESOS provides, understand how it can affect you, learn how to maximise its potential and make a big difference. Here?s to explore the highlights of ESOS.

Who benefits from ESOS?

Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme covers non-SME enterprises which includes UK businesses having more than 250 employees; even those with employees fewer than 250 but have annual turnover of more than ?50m and balance sheet exceeding ?43m; or those professionals that belong to a large enterprise. This is in accordance with what Article 8 of the EU Derivative provides.

What are the benefits of ESOS?

ESOS provides opportunities to enhance an organisation’s energy efficiency strategy, of which the benefits include:

Economic Growth and Competitiveness

The implementation of energy efficient measures increases local employment in the labour markets. Consequently, this taps the labour potential and drives economic growth.? In a lower carbon economy, businesses need to develop green projects to maintain economic competitiveness as well. ESOS is strategic approach initiated by the UK government to push technological innovation and energy investments.

Cost Savings and Emission Reductions

ESOS is flexible in such a way that it combines energy policies and innovations tailored to every organisation’s need. The energy efficiency measures taken, resulting from the scheme, quickly cuts down both carbon emissions and energy bills at cheapest possible ways.

Managing Energy Demand

ESOS provides energy security to UK by reducing the energy consumption of enterprises. With this, the economy would be more efficient and less exposed to international energy market volatility. Also, this will lead to more savings from less future investment in energy infrastructure.

Getting your Management Performance Noticed

If you are an energy professional, you will benefit from ESOS by exploiting it ?to boost your charisma towards the company directors. You can show them how the scheme works and how it can save your company substantial costs. Managing energy with ESOS can help an organisation grow. Nevertheless, you are the key person designated to get the project done and achieve success.

How can ESOS make a difference?

More than anything else, ESOS can make a huge change. True to its name, it provides large enterprises the opportunity to manage energy wisely, reduce overhead costs and promote responsible corporate energy consumption.

The International Energy Agency said that investing in energy efficiency leads to growth, additional jobs, competent budgets on public spending and enhanced industry productivity. If you are an energy and environment professional or a non-SME business entity, you hold the impulse to act. Aside from all those excellent business benefits that you get to enjoy, you will be able to contribute a portion towards achieving UK?s national carbon target of 80% in CO2 by 2050.

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Importance of Field Service Management Software for Mobile Working

Technology has been evolving at a fast pace. Changes are also happening simultaneously within different industries. Making a great difference in the business world right now is the trend of mobile working.

Thanks to platforms and tools, working while on the go is now easier and more streamlined. The field service industry also benefits from these technological advances.

Mobile technicians can now give excellent performance and do their job efficiently with no hands-on management needed.

Keep in mind that field service management is no joke. So, to achieve a smooth business and mobile worker management, you’ll need to invest in good mobile service management software.

But First, what is Mobile Working?

Mobile working is a method of working that is not tied to a single physical location.

It isn’t just about checking your emails on your phone or ringing your colleagues via Bluetooth while driving your car to the next appointment. It’s so much more intricate than that.

Effective mobile working means you’re mobilising your workers. Field technicians should have everything they need to complete their day to day work. You’re giving them their entire office in the form of a mobile device.

Mobile working, via a handheld device, allows field technicians to do the following:
● Access and input information about a work order
● Collaborate on projects
● Stay in touch with colleagues, clients and management
● Utilize effectively the different software features

Your field workers should have the support of a dynamic management tool that ensures they are sent to the job that utilises their skills effectively and efficiently.

That’s where a good field service management software shows its importance.

The Role of a Field Service Management Software

Your mobile workforce is scattered across various physical locations. You’ll need to connect with them and simultaneously manage your field service business.

Thanks to the increasing connectivity and improvement of technologies for this purpose, mobile workers can easily input and access any work order details via your chosen field service management software.

What Makes a Good Field Service Management Software?

There are 3 main points to consider when investing in a good mobile workforce management software:

1. It’s simple and familiar to use. Like we mentioned before, be sure to mobilise your field technicians – not the back-office system. Make sure your chosen app or software has a simple user interface so your workers can be on-the-go easily.

2. It works offline. Rural areas and highways can have poor connectivity. Sometimes agents will need to work in areas that have little to no network coverage or are deep down working in tunnels or around heavy machines and turbines. You don’t want your field technicians unable to complete work due to connectivity issues. Make sure to choose software that can function on their device while offline.

3. It’s flexible (and maintainable). Your field service management of choice should have real-time visibility. Flexible and improved visibility for a field worker means that they can do their best in any task. They can share or get critical information about orders and customers. This drastically improves job completion rates and customer satisfaction.

Importance of Field Service Management Software to Mobile Working

Utilize the technology that is available to you. Your mobile workforce should have the right tools so they can make sure to do their fieldwork efficiently without worrying about tedious administrative work. Any back-office task can be done quickly through a field service management software.

And that’s the most important role of a great mobile service management app — effective mobile worker efficiency.

Benefits of a Field Service Management Software to Mobile Working

● Additional revenue: By simplifying the administrative work, your field technician can even double the work order in their daily shift, meaning more profit for the business.

● Cost-cutting: The cloud-based nature of a field service management software means that your business can reduce the cost of on-site IT.
Your mobile workforce can operate from wherever they have an online connection, meaning less reliance on offices and building costs.

● Boosts overall efficiency: A mobile workforce management software allows you as a manager to monitor in real-time where they are and what they are doing. It means that problems can be identified and dealt with immediately.
Your field technician, in turn, becomes more efficient because the technology allows them a quicker response, instead of taking too long finishing administrative tasks.

Invest in a great field service management software. Check out FieldElite and see how they can help you with the following mobile working features:
• Accepts jobs in the field
• Automate appointment scheduling
• Manage scheduled jobs
• Get real-time visibility into all operations
• Have a clear and easy viewing of job locations
• Resolve field service calls faster
• Enable mobile workers to get the job done right
• Keep customers updated at every step
• Create quotations and accept payments
• Analyse efficient reports from field technicians

How Accenture Keeps Rolling Out Sustainability

Multinational management-consulting and technology-services company Accenture has a good eye for sniffing out new business, with 305,000 employees advancing its interests in more than 200 cities in 56 countries evidence. Last year, it netted US$30 billion profit that is a tidy sum of money in anybody?s books.

Accenture also practices what it preaches. This is maximum business efficiency within moral standards. It tracks its carbon emissions from its offices around the world. Being a technology services company it is unsurprising that it automated the process. Being management consultants it can drill down to finest detail in its search for continuous improvement.

As a forward-thinking company Accenture is committed to transplanting its business skills into other organizations, in order to drive higher performance and sustain greater profits in the long term. It works with clients across borders and industries to integrate sustainability into their business models, and find effective ways to lighten carbon footprints.

The City of Seattle in Washington is a case in point. Following a proud history of nature and energy conservation, it engaged Accenture in 2013 to help it reduce downtown power consumption by 25%. Other project members were Microsoft supplying software, the local power utility for technical advice, and a non-profit to set up a smart building program. The initiative uses cloud services to process the big data generated by a host of building management services, plus a multitude of sensors, controls and meters.

The project is vital for the City. It wants to continue expanding but needs to avoid another power plant polluting its skyline. At the time of writing, the pilot sites had proved successful and the program was rolling out. Seattle?s next challenge is to acquire 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

The smart building solutions Seattle trialled in five downtown buildings, had a further welcome spinoff; by reducing operating times, facility managers can look forward to extended equipment life and fewer maintenance downtimes. The green building philosophy is alive and well in the City of Seattle, driven both by necessity and vision.

It is a no longer as question of if – but when – other urban communities follow suit. EcoVaro believes it is time long due for individual companies to start enjoying lower energy costs plus the prospect of profitably trading carbon credits. The process begins with measuring what you have and identifying cost-effective savings.

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