Asset Managemnet using BPM

BPM provides a collaborative platform for designing and executing a workflow for the asset management of the company. The company used BPM for designing and implementing workflow for taking care of infrastructure and maintenance needs of company. The workflow was connected through sales and logistics database as well as infrastructure database. The typical process started with the request from a particular wholesale branch for increase in infrastructure assets or request for maintenance. The requisition was sent for approval to the competent authority in head office for infrastructure approval .The checklist was embedded in workflow which pulls out data from infrastructure database of last maintenance work /infrastructure enhancement .The request for new infrastructure/maintenance is also goes for approval to the sales head responsible for that area .The checklist for sales approval involves pulling out data from sales data bases in terms of increase in sales and subsequent increase in logistics cost. The additional information that needs to be put in is loss of sales due to lack of infrastructure/maintenance. The request when approve by both sales and infrastructure authority .The request is then sent to the region head for approval. The region head if approves the process it automatically triggers the process of calling tenders from third party vendors listed in the company. The communication is send to all the vendors via email asking them to respond with quotation within fifteen days. As soon as all the vendors place their quotations or then the processes of short listing tenders is triggered and the mail is send to all the tender committee members for which queue has already been created in the BPM platform. The members approve the tender of one particular vendor . The process of sending mail to the vendors is initiated stating tender process is closed and the name of vendor selected for work. The vendor who has been awarded work can send his bill via email which again triggers account payable processes which involves verification of task ,quality of task and approval for payment.

BPM and SOX Compliance

Compliance requirements in Sarbanes-Oxley

SOX has 2 important sections 302 and 404

• S 302 requires executives to personally certify the validity of financial statements
• S 404 requires complete documentation of financial controls and evaluation
  

Self-certification of internal controls and legal compliance requires an organization-wide compliance initiative as the managers of each function need to assess and certify the effectiveness of processes and controls that they are responsible for.

BPM enables organizations to address these requirements through document management features for creating a Compliance Framework, Compliance Workflows and Reporting and Monitoring.

Compliance Framework

BPM helps organizations to create a robust, scalable compliance framework consisting of:

• Owners and participants in the compliance initiative
  
• Risk Assessment procedures with Processes, risks and controls that are to be used for self-assessment
  
• Test Plans that are to be used to verify the operating effectiveness of controls
  
• Issues and Recommendations that are detected and defined during self-assessment
  
• Legal Compliance through management of tasks that require fulfillment of legal provisions under various acts
  
  

Compliance workflows

BPM facilitates collaboration by enabling execution of workflows for the following compliance activities:

• Self-assessment of design effectiveness and operational effectiveness of controls
• Workflows that enable tracking of issues and remediation plans to address flaws in controls
• Legal Compliance workflows to enable fulfillment of legal requirements
  

Reporting and Monitoring:

Before CEO/CFOs can certify the existence and effectiveness of controls, they need to view the results and status of the compliance initiative. BAM and Analytics provide powerful graphical dashboards and drill-down reports that enable CEO, CFO and managers to view the current status of assessment tasks and control effectiveness.