CFO.com: White Papers

Slaying the Dragon: Using Psychological Technology to Cut Litigation Costs

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:13:00 GMT

Conventional management of legal teams leaves the corporate client at the mercy of non-productive litigation efforts that are inefficient from an economic or cost perspective as well as from the standpoint of tactical positioning in the litigation. Application of proven psychological research methodology and its results (psychological technology) in trial preparation produces substantially more cost-effective litigation efforts while simultaneously reducing the potential for large damage awards. Three key content domains are explored: 1) Estimation of exposure for settlement purposes; 2) Witness training; and 3) Discovery activities. Examples are provided that demonstrate the potential for significantly reduced legal costs in conjunction with an improved defense posture in terms of trial preparedness.

Mastering The Complexity Of Revenue Management

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:10:00 GMT

With complex regulations, continually evolving interpretations and stiff penalties, the mission-critical task of revenue management is more complex than ever.

66% of companies fail to evaluate the revenue impact of deferred revenue, and a whopping 92% of public companies say they still use spreadsheets for critical revenue-accounting tasks, leaving them exposed to a host of issues including compliance, audit and forecasting problems.

Get the research paper "Mastering the Complexity of Revenue Management" to learn:
* 5 Specific steps you can take to ensure better compliance, improved visibility and lower costs
* 9 key revenue management technology requirements that decision makers can't afford to miss
* Why Vendor Specific Objective Evidence (VSOE) is worrying more and more revenue managers and what you need to do about it
* 7 benefits that optimized revenue management brings to your organization, including accelerated closing, reduced revenue leakage, and forecasting visibility.

Improve Business Results By Interactively Analyzing Business Drivers

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:42:00 GMT

Growing and mid-sized companies are striving to improve efficiency and effectiveness across all aspects of their business in order to survive and thrive in today's tough economic conditions. Many companies periodically look at business measures or Key Performance Indicators (KPI metrics) to determine how they are performing. But this gives us only a glimpse into past performance. To truly understand current performance and gain insight into future outcomes, we need to identify business drivers, also called Key Performance Drivers. Performance drivers can be used as part of a closed-loop, continuous improvement model.

This paper examines why and how we must go beyond the historical business results and examine operational performance more deeply to find truly actionable metrics.

Optimizing Operational Performance From A Financial Management Perspective

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:41:00 GMT

Financial results are periodically reported and can be analyzed, however to improve those results, a wider perspective regarding the use of performance metrics, visualization and interactive analytics is required. Operational performance directly impacts business outcomes and financial results. A holistic approach to overall business and operational performance can improve efficiencies, reduce costs, grow revenue and improve profitability.

This white paper examines the relationship between operational performance and financial management and outlines an approach to optimizing operational performance to improve financial results.

Using Performance Drivers To Enhance Business Success: Identifying, Visualizing And Analyzing Key Performance Drivers (KPD Metrics)

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:40:00 GMT

PI metrics are useful for ensuring strategic alignment across the various organizations within the company and illustrate whether strategic goals are achieved. However, they measure results achieved in a past period and don't provide insight into the activities and drivers of those results, particularly within a period.

This leads to the need for another category of performance metrics called Key Performance Drivers or KPD metrics. This white paper examines performance metrics and focuses on the nature, identification, and use of Key Performance Drivers to enhance business success.

An Overview Of Cloud Computing

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:39:00 GMT

There has been much confusion as of late regarding Cloud Computing in the marketplace, largely fueled by the excitement of a new, innovative computing model and the subsequent, surrounding hype.

This document seeks to provide an explanation of Cloud Computing and outline how myDIALS utilizes cloud computing concepts, architecture and technologies to deliver significant business value to our customers and partners.

DETECTING AND PREDICTING ACCOUNTING IRREGULARITIES: A COMPARISON OF COMMERCIAL AND ACADEMIC RISK MEASURES

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:22:00 GMT

Although a substantial body of academic research is devoted to developing and testing risk proxies that detect or predict accounting irregularities, the academic literature has paid little attention to commercially developed risk measures. This is surprising given the general consensus that accruals-based risk proxies in the academic literature are very noisy (McNichols [2000]). We compare the commercially developed AGR risk proxy with proxies from the academic literature to determine which measure best detects and predicts accounting irregularities. We find that AGR outperforms academic risk measures in all head-to-head tests for detecting and most head-to-head tests for predicting Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions (AAERs), egregious accounting restatements, and shareholder lawsuits related to alleged accounting improprieties. Incorporating commercially developed risk proxies into future research may yield interesting insights beyond what academic proxies have provided to date.

Getting focused, Getting ahead: Finance executives on managing leaner organizations equipped for growth--A report prepared in collaboration with American Express

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:30:00 GMT

The late-2000s recession is the deepest and most sustained economic crisis since the Great Depression. This research examines how finance executives at mid-size companies have weathered the downturn and explores their views on how they will manage the finance function and their companies through the recovery. Finance executives anticipate that many of the recent improvements made within the corporate finance function--in particular, improvements in working capital management and cost management--will arm their companies to excel during the recovery.

Delivering Enterprise Value with Oracle Governance, Risk, and Compliance

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:03:00 GMT

Organizations spend more money on risk management and compliance than they should, largely due to inefficiency. In a complex and changing business environment, manually managed and fragmented risk and compliance programs can cripple organizations' agility, performance, and competitiveness. Success therefore requires that an organization integrate, build, and support business process with an enterprise view of risk and compliance. Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software can and must deliver value towards this goal.
In this whitepaper, Corporate Integrity's Michael Rasmussen, Risk & Compliance Lecturer, Writer, and Advisor, analyzes how Oracle, as a GRC solutions provider, delivers economic value to its clients.What you will uncover:

- The traps that have led most businesses to become encumbered by risk and compliance activities
- Commonly reported benefits recognized by clients of Oracle's GRC Applications
- Specific and quantifiable cost savings achieved by Oracle GRC users

Managing Sales Incentive Compensation amid Uncertainty--A report prepared in collaboration with Varicent

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:39:00 GMT

In this study among senior finance executives at large companies, we found that many companies aspire to encourage sophisticated sales behaviors using complex sales incentive compensation plans. But complicated sales compensation plans can contribute to higher administrative costs, increased risk of error--and uncertain outcomes. Survey respondents suggest that better use of technology can help resolve this dilemma, and offer advice to their peers who hope to improve sales incentive compensation management at their companies.