turning business risks into opportunities
06 Aug 2008
According to Accenture, enterprise risk management is essential to optimise shareholder return. Effective risk management enables businesses to identify, categorise, and proactively deal with all risk in an organisation in order to enhance overall value.
At a recent business breakfast hosted in Bryanston by SAS Institute, Yolanda Komen, senior manager, Accenture Information Management Systems, revealed how robust enterprise risk management frameworks can be used to identify new revenue generating opportunities and increase an organisations market confidence, thereby delivering on shareholder value. The finance division of an organisation has a vital role to play: not only anticipating and mitigating financial risk, but also helping to create a culture that effectively balances risks and rewards, thus maximising the value of the business.
Enterprise risk management aggregates and analyses data from the entire company, and provides a range of indicators allowing early detection and effective mitigation of major risks to the business through business intelligence solutions like SAS. "Products like SAS can really help a company understand its risk landscape through data mining for example," says Komen.
Komen asserts an effective risk strategy should centre on a culture of communication, such that employees can make appropriate risk-return and risk utilisation decisions.
There are four main areas of risk, namely credit risk, operational risk, business risk and financial risk. "Every organisation needs to use communication as the key to implementing and managing risk strategies, and this communication needs to come from the strategic level and filter downwards."
Accenture has developed specific methodologies, frameworks and processes that are designed to assist companies when implementing stages of their risk strategies. Data gathering is the first step on the path to a strategic roadmap. Several assets form the overall solution - but the Data Quality "Cockpit" is designed to appeal to the risk management business user. "Through all the phases of implementation, ensuring access to timely and accurate information is one of the biggest challenges facing companies," says Komen. "Master data management is playing a bigger role to ensure data is correct, current and consistent."
SAS has recently hosted a series of events focused on risk and customer intelligence. The next SAS Risk business breakfast will be on 21 August at the Forum in Bryanston and will focus on credit risk. "SAS has seen a need in the business market for informative sessions that really explain the crux of managing risk. We have had a very positive response from all our delegates who have found these sessions useful and informative," says André Zitzke, Solution Specialist at SAS.