RISK MANAGEMENT SERVICES
Case Study
Global investment management firm uses
web-based platform to better measure,
manage, and monitor risk.
According to Kathy Christian, Executive Vice President of Risk
Management Services, the first pilot lasted almost 6 months—giving
the department a chance to develop an in-depth understanding of how
the tool works and the benefits SCORE delivers.
When financial services organizations face penalties for
non-compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) regulations or other laws, it may be tempting to
simply pay the fines and move forward with “business as
usual.” But for one RCP Solutions client—a New York City
based global investment management firm—such an issue
prompted a fundamental change to the way it measures,
manages, and monitors risk throughout its organization.
“It was such a success that other departments and functional areas
actively sought the ability to use SCORE to measure, manage, and
monitor their processes, as well,” Christian says.
Catalyst for Change
For this investment firm, a missed tax filing resulted in significant
penalties and a subsequent search for a new and better approach
to managing a myriad of compliance requirements and risks. So in
2006, working with members of the Risk Management Services team,
they implemented RCP SCORE™ a proprietary web-based application
from RCP Solutions. Besides the SCORE platform, RCP Solutions
offers a range of consulting and implementation services to help
organizations deploy and maximize the value of this uniquely flexible
risk management platform.
Working with the Risk Management Services team, the investment firm
configured SCORE to help effectively track and manage wide-ranging
tasks and risks across functional areas. It has even used the platform
as a collaborative tool with third-party vendors who play key roles in
compliance-related projects.
Piloting the Tool
RCP Solutions’ initial engagement focused on one department with
a specific need. The company’s risk and compliance experts started
with a thorough examination of the current situation—identifying
strengths and weaknesses in the existing processes. With those
insights, the Risk Management Services team helped the department
roll out a pilot program using the SCORE platform.
Enterprise-Wide Deployment
This investment firm has taken full advantage of SCORE’s
capabilities says Christian. Several departments—including Account
Management, Client Services, Compliance, and Financial Services—
use SCORE to track the complex, time-sensitive activities that support
compliance and risk management.
As she is quick to note, a successful deployment of SCORE requires
that a department understand and optimize its processes before
automating them. She and her colleagues have worked closely with
departments throughout this firm—helping them to solidify, automate
and add transparency to their process, with SCORE as the conduit to
delivering these capabilities.
Christian says, RCP Solutions helped to optimize and automate 24
business processes for the firm’s registered SCORE users. This user
base included individuals from across multiple departments and from
outside companies that help with key compliance related processes,
such as the production and distribution of annual reports and other
documents required by SEC regulations.
Enterprise-Wide Benefits
The platform had a significant impact on both day-to-day operations
and overall risk management. Indeed, while SCORE helped this firm
better manage compliance-related processes the Risk Management
Consultants have helped enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of
other business processes, as well.
“SCORE makes it easier to ensure compliance with corporate policies
and internal controls,” Christian says. She adds that the teams who
understand the power of SCORE cannot optimize and automate their
processes fast enough.
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MAILING 200 Dryden Road, Suite 3500 | Dresher, PA 19025
PHONE (267) 607-4120
EMAIL [email protected]
WEB RCP-Solutions.com
RISK MANAGEMENT SERVICES
Case Study (continued)
“For complex processes with many individuals and teams involved,
SCORE makes it easy to monitor those processes across the board,” she
explains. “It provides a systematic means of documenting every step
in a process, assigning each task or activity to a resource or team, and
then monitoring the progress in real time.”
“SCORE also illuminates interdependencies, so management can see
how one missed deadline could derail an entire project. It gives them
the ability to identify and address issues before they become serious,”
she adds. SCORE users are notified through automatically generated
email reminders when an assessment requires a response or a control
requires an update to its status. Management notifications are set to
handle those situations where a key assessment or control is in jeopardy
of being missed.
Additionally, SCORE provides the client with important business
continuity benefits. When members leave a team for any reason, the
system provides a concrete record of what has been done, when, and by
whom. Managers can quickly identify which tasks are still incomplete
and reassign them to other resources.
• Enhance communication, accountability, and performance
internally and with third-party vendors that support critical
compliance activities
About RCP Solutions
Risk Compliance Performance Solutions specializes in risk
management, compliance, communications and outreach programs
that drive performance and positively impact the bottom line. We
are a women-owned business with an executive team of 100+ years
combined experience in a variety of industries and disciplines bringing
a wealth of knowledge, excellence and innovation to all of our services.
Driven by state-of-the-art technology, we integrate the many facets of
business, risk, compliance and management to achieve the best results
for our clients.
SCORE also eliminates geographic barriers. Because it is a web-based
tool, users can securely access their data from any Internet-connected
computer. Thus, team members can stay on top of their to-do lists from
the office, from home, and even while traveling.
In short, the Risk Management Services team helped streamline and
automate numerous key business processes—empowering this global
investment management firm not only to avoid negative incidents, but
also to position itself for greater efficiency, agility, and performance
across business functions.
Key Benefits
Using SCORE, this investment firm was able to:
•
More effectively manage a wide range of business processes—
from relatively simple internal processes to complex, crossfunctional initiatives that support compliance with SEC and
other regulations
• Enjoy real-time visibility into the tasks, interdependencies, and
status of business processes, so problems can be proactively
resolved before they lead to serious consequences
MAILING 200 Dryden Road, Suite 3500 | Dresher, PA 19025
PHONE (267) 607-4120
EMAIL [email protected]
WEB RCP-Solutions.com