Despite what the business-page headlines would have us believe, some of the most advanced risk management approaches still come out of the financial services industry. I caught up with Mike Pugliese, co-lead of Capco North America’s finance risk and compliance group, to learn about the wider application of risk-adjusted profitability.

Eric Krell: The sluggish economy and anemic recovery has put downward pressure on revenues across most industries. How can organizations strategically cut costs and protect and grow their revenue stream in this environment?

Mike Pugliese: For financial institutions, there is downward pressure on revenue for two reasons: the economy and the regulatory mandates coming out of Washington D.C. However, all businesses are coping with the difficult economic environment. more

The hours you spend preparing your firm’s taxes may drop, albeit slightly, courtesy of the latest guidance to come from the IRS.

Until now, cell phones used in business were considered listed property, which is a “specific class of depreciable property that is subject to a special set of tax rules if it is used for business no more than 50 percent of the time…. Listed-property rules limit the amount of deductions and depreciation that can be taken if the asset isn’t predominantly used in a business or trade,” according to Investopedia. In general, items found on the “listed property” list are those that easily lend themselves to personal use, such as cars and cell phones. more

The movie Contagion opened in the U.S. last weekend , and some critics worried that this Hollywood portrayal of a global pandemic might exaggerate this societal risk while playing on, and heightening, the fear it generates

A little fear may be a good thing, particularly if it motivates risk managers to update their pandemic preparedness components of their business continuity management (BCM) and disaster recovery programs.

This article is a healthy place to start.

Alight has announced that it is partnering with Scope Systems to provide the mining industry with planning and financial reporting systems tailored for extraction companies. Scope creates ERP solutions for companies engaged in mining, drilling and natural resource exploration.

The combination of ERP and planning and reporting has implications for any industry. It’s important to record transactions and manage business processes associated with recording transactions, which is what ERP systems do. It’s equally important that companies plan, budget, report and analyze results – functions often included under the heading of performance management. Since data created by ERP systems is a key component of data that drives performance management, the two are complementary. I think this is a reason why almost all of the once-independent performance management or business intelligence software vendors were acquired by ERP vendors over the past decade (and why it makes sense for Scope to offer its customers an integrated solution). more

While more and more business processes are moving online, the human element still matters when it comes to business banking. That’s the conclusion of a recent report by Greenwich Associates, a research firm focusing on financial services.

It’s also a reversal of the enthusiasm with which small- and mid-sized businesses embraced Internet banking during the years just prior to the recession. By late 2009, these businesses said that their banks’ Internet platforms were just as important as their personal interactions with their banks. more