Leading Analyst Firm Positions BWise in the Visionaries Quadrant for Enterprise Governance, Risk, and Compliance Platforms
Magic Quadrant, 2008

New York, NY, July 2, 2008 – BWise, a leading provider of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) software solutions, today announced that Gartner, Inc., a leading industry analyst firm, has positioned BWise in the Visionaries quadrant in the “Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Governance, Risk, and Compliance Platforms” by French Caldwell, Tom Eid. The report analyzes the market for Enterprise GRC Platforms and its “evolution from a focus on regulatory compliance to include risk management, audit management, and policy management. It is dominated by best-of-breed vendors.”

According to BWise CTO, Luc Brandts, “As we believe this report reaffirms, BWise’s market leading approach to GRC has been shaped by our focus on processes that tie together the core functions of regulatory compliance, risk, audit and policy management through an established market-driven platform. Our business process management capabilities enable mapping of processes against risks and controls to produce tangible business process improvements.”

“We think being placed in the Visionaries quadrant by Gartner in the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Governance, Risk, and Compliance Platforms underscores our commitment to GRC leadership and excellence,” said Robert Pijselman, Chief Executive Officer of BWise. “Companies today are looking for a solution that is holistic in its approach and offers an enterprise-wide view to GRC. This has been BWise’s vision since our inception in 1994.”
According to the report, “Visionaries have a solid understanding of the market as demonstrated by domain expertise and responsiveness to their customers’ expectations. They are actively executing against an aggressive product road map that expands support to additional regulatory and non-regulatory compliance and risk management needs.”

In related news, BWise was also placed in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Operational Risk Management Software for Financial Services by Douglas McKibben, David Furlonger, June 6, 2008. This report analyzes how “the use of ORM software by financial services firms requires capabilities beyond generic audit, control and compliance applications. In addition to qualitative self assessment capabilities, leading institutions are seeking solutions that support quantitative, performance-based models.”

BWise continues to develop and deliver marketing leading GRC solutions shaped by a collaborative process with customers and partners. Leading global businesses from a diverse range of industries including financial services, energy, semi-conductor and manufacturing continue to rely on BWise for GRC solutions backed by solid best practices that solve real world problems and deliver measurable, bottom-line results.

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About BWise
BWise is a global leader in compliance and enterprise risk management software, with a strong heritage in business process management. Established in 1994, BWise delivers proven solutions to help organizations become “in control” by increasing corporate accountability; strengthening financial, strategic and operational efficiencies; and maximizing performance and ROI. With customers in more then 80 countries worldwide and users in virtually all markets, BWise has developed a strong and sustainable presence in the compliance and risk management sectors. Utilizing templates and a best-practice implementation approach, BWise enables management to measure and manage risks and to comply with rules and legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley, European Corporate Governance Codes, IFRS, Basel II, ISO-standards and more. BWise has offices in the Netherlands, United States and India. For more information, visit http://www.bwise.com.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner, Inc., and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Here’s another player in the GRC (Governance, Regulatory and Compliance) space.  Achiever Business Solutions (ABS), part of The Sword Group (www.sword-group.com), is the European based leader in Governance Risk & Compliance management software, with over 600+ active customers relying on Achiever Plus software to address multiple areas of Governance, Risk & Compliance management within their organisations. To date Achiever Plus software addresses 38+ areas of legislative, regulatory and best practice requirements within the GRC framework.ABS continues to invest in research and development to ensure that Achiever Plus technology meets today’s GRC requirements and is flexible enough to absorb the future’s growing GRC demands.More can be found at www.achieverplus.com 

The Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance at the Yale School of Management has named 56 young professionals as “Rising Stars of Corporate Governance.”The Millstein Center’s list of Rising Stars recognizes corporate governance professionals under the age of 40 who are making their mark as outstanding analysts, experts, activists, and managers. The honorees were nominated by their peers and selected by a committee of leaders from the Millstein Center, the Open Compliance and Ethics Group, and the International Corporate Governance Network based on criteria such as past accomplishments and thought leadership, future projects and endeavors, reputation among existing industry leaders, and potential to influence the industry in the future.

More at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2008_June_9/ai_n25490839

A great article on the Stanford Business School site … 

June 2008

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—A study by Stanford law and business faculty members casts strong doubt upon the value and validity of the ratings of governance advisory firms that compile indexes to evaluate the effectiveness of a publicly held company’s governance practices.

Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossing, Sunbeam. The list of major corporations that appeared rock solid—only to founder amid scandal and revelations of accounting manipulation—has grown, and with it so has shareholder concern. In response, a niche industry of corporate watchdog firms has arisen—and prospered.

Governance advisory firms compile indexes that evaluate the effectiveness of a publicly held company’s governance practices. And they claim to be able to predict future performance by performing a detailed analysis encompassing many variables culled from public sources.

Institutional Shareholder Services, or ISS, the best known of the advisory companies, was sold for a reported $45 million in 2001. Five years later, ISS was sold again; this time for $553 million to the RiskMetrics Group. The enormous appreciation in value underscores the importance placed by the investing public on ratings and advisories issued by ISS and its major competitors, including Audit Integrity, Governance Metrics International (GMI), and The Corporate Library (TCL).

But a study by faculty at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford questions the value of the ratings of all four firms. “Everyone would agree that corporate governance is a good thing. But can you measure it without even talking to the companies being rated?” asked David Larcker, codirector of the Rock Center and the Business School’s James Irvin Miller Professor of Accounting and one of the authors. “There’s an industry out there that claims you can. But for the most part, we found only a tenuous link between the ratings and future performance of the companies.”

The study was extensive, examining more than 15,000 ratings of 6,827 separate firms from late 2005 to early 2007. (Many of the corporations are rated by more than one of the governance companies.) It looked for correlations among the ratings and five basic performance metrics: restatements of financial results, shareholder lawsuits, return on assets, a measure of stock valuation known as the Q Ratio, and Alpha—a measure of an investment’s stock price performance on a risk-adjusted basis.

In the case of ISS, the results were particularly shocking. There was no significant correlation between its Corporate Governance Quotient (or CGQ) ratings and any of the five metrics. Audit Integrity fared better, showing “a significant, but generally substantively weak” correlation between its ratings and four of the five metrics (the Q ratio was the exception.) The other two governance firms fell in between, with GMI and TCL each showing correlation with two metrics. But in all three cases, the correlations were very small “and did not appear to be useful,” said Larcker.

There have been many academic attempts to develop a rating that would reflect the overall quality of a firm’s governance, as well as numerous studies examining the relation between various corporate governance choices and corporate performance. But the Stanford study appears to be the first objective analysis of the predictive value of the work of the corporate governance firms.

The Rock Center for Corporate Governance is a joint effort of the schools of business and law. The research was conducted jointly by Robert Daines, the Pritzker Professor of Law and Business, who holds a courtesy appointment at the Business School; Ian Gow, a doctoral student at the Business School; and Larcker. It is the first in a series of multidisciplinary studies to be conducted by the Rock Center and theCorporate Governance Research Program. More details can be found at http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/larker_corpgov.html 

Source: Directorship Magazine

It’s no secret that directors skew toward an older demographic. After all, most boards are looking for individuals who possess a career’s worth of experience and wisdom—executives who have battle scars and gray hair to prove it. In fact, the average age of today’s corporate director at a large company is about 60, according to research from executive compensation firm Pearl Meyer & Partners and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). A recent trend, however, suggests that companies are looking for a few good men and women who aren’t part of the Greatest Generation or born during the Baby Boom. 

Two concepts are driving this shift: technology and diversity. The more that companies come to rely on technology—and just about every company is an Internet firm these days in one way or another—the more it will seek deep tech knowledge in the boardroom. That means young, Silicon Valley types who are in their late 30s or early 40s and possibly have already founded two or three companies. These individuals have been staples for some time on boards in technology-heavy industries like computing, media, and financial services, but now every company is looking for a technology edge.

The second catalyst, diversity, is being broadened beyond gender and race. Boards are looking for individuals with different perspectives and backgrounds. They want to tap into new ideas and avoid groupthink. “You want someone who is going to question the status quo, so a balance of newer directors who probe and those who have been around for awhile and really know the business, is a good thing,” says Rick Lacher, a managing director at investment banking firm Houlihan Lokey. “A lot of it is just smarts,” he says. “They are really bright and they get it, even without as much experience as others might have.”

Theodore L. Dysart, a managing director at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, says there is an increasing tendency to select younger directors. He says many boards are looking for board members with unique skills and knowledge in certain areas. “If you have niche expertise, you’re more likely to get on a board at a younger age.” For generalists, he says, there is a deeper pool, so companies have the luxury of picking from individuals with more experience.

While there are no hard and fast rules about how young is too young to be on a board, recruiters generally say that most companies have no problem considering candidates in their late 40s. Candidates in their early 40s raise eyebrows, and recruiters get a lot of pushback on candidates in their 30s. “Anyone who is under 45 is going to generate a lot of questions from clients,” says Dysart.

 More can be found at http://www.directorship.com/directors-to-watch-50-under-50.

The World Bank views good governance and anti-corruption as important to its poverty alleviation mission. Many governance and anti-corruption initiatives are taking place throughout the World Bank Group. They focus on internal organizational integrity, minimizing corruption on World Bank-funded projects, and assisting countries in improving governance and controlling corruption.Combining participatory action-oriented learning, capacity-building tools, and the power of data, the World Bank Institute (WBI), in collaboration with other units in the World Bank Group, supports countries in improving governance and controlling corruption. We also provide policy and institutional advice and support to countries in their formulation of action programs. Using a strategic and multidisciplinary approach, we apply action-learning methods to link empirical diagnostic surveys, their practical application, collective action, and prevention. Concrete results on the ground are emphasized in our learning programs and clinics as well as the periodic release of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) and country diagnostics. This integrated approach is supported by operational research and a comprehensive governance databank. More information can be found at www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance 

Interested in seeing what others are doing to better monitor their green sourcing programs. How are you exercising good governance over these programs?Here are some links to great resources on Green IT:

http://www.us.capgemini.com/resources/ExecCurrent/ec_article.asp?ECID=537

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/sts/?p=352&nr=MII

http://energypriorities.com/entries/2007/06/what_is_green_it_data_centers.php

http://www.greenercomputing.com

http://www.idc.com/research/greenit.jsp

http://www.techworld.com/green-it/

http://www.thegreengrid.org

Also, do check out my profile at Technorati Profile

I was at SFO airport and ran into the Chairman of MetricStream, Gunjan Sinha. Gunjan and I had a conversation about technology and tools related to governance, regulations and compliance (GRC). Here’s what Forrester thinks about MetricStream:

MetricStream Cited as a “Leader” by Independent Research Firm

“MetricStream demonstrated one of the most flexible GRC platforms evaluated”, says the reportJanuary 10, 2008 | Redwood Shores, California - MetricStream, Inc., a market leader in enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Management solutions, today announced that it has been cited as a ‘Leader’ in the recent published report Forrester WaveT: Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance Platforms 2007. MetricStream was among the select companies that Forrester invited to participate in its report The Forrester WaveT: Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance Platforms, Q4 2007. More …ˇForrester developed a comprehensive set of approximately 100 evaluation criteria against which to evaluate the leading enterprise GRC platforms. In addition to market presence and client feedback, the companies were evaluated on a range of capabilities that span multiple enterprise GRC areas including many risk areas such as strategic, operational and IT risks as well as regulatory and operational compliance areas such as quality management, health and safety, financial assurance and corporate governance.”We are very happy being recognized as a leader in the Forrester WaveT report on Enterprise GRC Platforms. It demonstrates our success and commitment towards enabling our customers in building better governed and more resilient enterprises,” said Shellye Archambeau, CEO of MetricStream.The report notes that “MetricStream demonstrated one of the most flexible GRC platforms evaluated”. Further, the report says that “MetricStream has developed strong capabilities in all core areas required of the GRC function - policy and procedure management, risk and control management, loss and investigations management and GRC analytics.”

“MetricStream demonstrated one of the most flexible GRC platforms evaluated.”

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MetricStream’s versatile Enterprise Compliance Platform technology uniquely addresses a variety of risk scenarios across verticals ranging from Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management to a growing range of industry-specific operational risk issues such as Pharmacovigilance in the life sciences industry, Safety risks in the food and beverage industry, Product Quality risks in the manufacturing industry, FERC/NERC compliance in the energy and utility industry and Financial Risks in banking.In evaluating Corporate Governance capabilities, the report places emphasis on board/entity management, serving the role of the corporate secretary, managing the corporate reporting/filing processes, audit management and dashboarding GRC at a level appropriate to executives and the board. MetricStream has been listed as a strong performer in this area.Support for training programs and delivery of regulatory content set MetricStream prominently apart from the other players in the market, according to the report. “A key differentiator is its operation of ComplianceOnline.com, a GRC community portal that offers visitors access to information, best practices, training and products”, notes the report.”Whereas GRC approaches of the past have been function-specific and isolated from other areas of the organization, companies are increasingly looking for a federated approach to manage their Corporate Governance initiatives, Enterprise and Operational Risk, Regulatory and Industry Compliance that spans the entire enterprise,” said Gaurav Kapoor CFO and General Manager of MetricStream. “A federated and flexible GRC architecture built on MetricStream’s technology and content infrastructure is designed for such environments. It gives stakeholders access to the critical information needed to run vital business operations while meeting corporate governance, risk management, regulatory and operational compliance objectives.”About MetricStreamMetricStream is a market leader in Enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Solutions for global corporations. MetricStream solutions are used by leading corporations such as Pfizer, Philips, American Airlines, NASDAQ, SanDisk, BP, Entergy, Subway, Fairchild Semiconductor, Hitachi and TaylorMade-Adidas Golf in diverse industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Automotive, Food, High Tech Manufacturing, Energy and Financial Services to manage their quality processes, regulatory and industry-mandated compliance and corporate governance initiatives, as well as by over a million compliance professionals worldwide via the ComplianceOnline.com portal. MetricStream is headquartered in Redwood Shores, California and can be reached at www.metricstream.com.Media contact: pr@metricstream.com

Lack of good governance is the weakest link in most global relationships.  Managing relationships to mutual benefit is notoriously difficult. Managing relationships from many time zones away is increasingly so.  Webster’s Dictionary defines governance as “the act or process of authoritative direction or control”.  We extend this in our context to mean how global initiatives are run – the people, processes, systems and controls. The adoption of globalization has generated significant benefits for US corporations across various industries.  At the same time, the rate of adoption has also generated increasing complexity and level of risk associated with leveraging globally dispersed resources.  With scale and rapid growth come numerous challenges.  Among these challenges are service failures, privacy violations, theft of data and inadequate cost savings to name a few.  While such issues are often attributed to lack of capabilities and inconsistent quality on the part of the service provider, one factor that remains underrepresented is proper governance on part of the client.  Inadequate attention to governance on the part of client organizations has been the single largest factor contributing to the failure of globalization initiatives.

What does governance enable an organization to accomplish?  An effective governance structure enables the organization to ensure that its global initiatives remain aligned to overall corporate strategy. Such a structure also allows an organization to manage expectations and communications between its internal constituents and the service provider or its own global operations. The organization benefits by ensuring that services are delivered effectively, that internal constituents make the right decisions at the right time and that key stakeholders’ expectations for service delivery are managed appropriately.

 Governance is not a short-term or stop-gap measure. Ultimately, governance is about alignment, controls and benefits.   To craft successful relationships with global vendors and distributed global operations, an organization must put as much effort into designing and implementing the governance structure as into writing the RFP, selecting the supplier, setting up an operation or negotiating the deal.

What type of governance structure should organizations put in place to succeed in globalization and reap the promised benefits?  What aspects of governance are most critical to manage?  How do leading organizations avoid the value leakage that can occur as a result of poor governance? 

In order to manage complexity and risk, organizations need to develop governance structures that span across strategic and tactical elements of the company’s objectives as well as consider key factors that impact overall success.  As companies scale their global efforts, there will need to be an increasing amount of attention devoted to ensuring that the right governance structure is implemented to ensure successful outcomes.

 This best-in-class governance structure starts with establishing a governance body across three layers: organizational, functional and operational. Further, for the governance body to be successful, the firm needs to ensure internal commitment, a lifecycle commitment, timely decision-making, appropriate staffing and role definitions, leveraging of influencers, investment of time and effort by senior management and finally appropriate budgets.  The key components of successful governance also includes six operational components: performance management, financial management, contract management, resource management, relationship management and risk management.

As an example, HSBC was able to establish offshore operations in 10 Asian countries a mere 6 years after opening its first offshore operation in Guangzhou, China.  HSBC is yet another excellent example of continued governance commitment from top management as well as from employees across a wide berth of expertise and experience. Today, the group employs more than 18,000 people across Asia, catering to its banking divisions across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. A focused and dedicated corporate governance team called the Global Processing Team (GPT) works to continually achieve both strategic and tactical objectives. The GPT evolved from being just a small team reporting to HSBC UK’s Senior Manager for Personal Financial Services, to today becoming a strategic division in itself, reporting directly to the Group CEO.

Finally, good governance will ensure that your global initiatives are not just aligned with your business objectives but also provide an early warning system and ensure excellent return on investment.

Take a look at the UNDP Annual Report 2007

[01/05/08] The 2007 Annual Report is a snapshot of flagship democratic governance products and services delivered in the past year. Democratic Governance remains the largest priority area, with 41% of UNDP overall expenditures allocated to its activities. The report highlights UNDPs support in launching the IKnow Politics Network and the initiative on access to information in post conflict countries. more…