Case Studies Elimination of Manual Processes Makes Reporting to the SEC Significantly Smoother

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	Elimination of Manual Processes Makes Reporting to the SEC Significantly Smoother

Elimination of Manual Processes Makes Reporting to the SEC Significantly Smoother

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries	Finance & Insurance
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Process Control & Optimization Regulatory Compliance Monitoring Remote Collaboration
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	The bank faced several challenges in their reporting process, primarily due to the manual creation, distribution, and consolidation of Excel templates. These templates were sent via email to multiple business groups for data collection, leading to issues with version control and the potential loss of important information. The daily exchange of dozens of emails made it difficult to track the status of each task without constant communication through emails and phone calls with contributors, approvers, and reviewers. Additionally, the lack of a formal workflow and audit trail made it challenging to determine where changes had been made to spreadsheets without manually comparing versions or waiting for user responses. Read More
About Customer	The customer is a large bank based in the United States, responsible for managing footnote disclosure for their 10Q and 10K filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The bank's finance team was heavily reliant on manually creating, distributing, collecting, and consolidating Excel templates from multiple business groups. This process was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, leading to issues with version control and email overload. The bank needed a more efficient and reliable solution to streamline their reporting process and ensure the accuracy of their reports to the SEC. Read More
Solution	Vena provided a comprehensive solution to the bank's challenges by combining the flexibility and familiarity of Microsoft Excel with the structure and security of an enterprise-class Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solution. Vena's central data repository stored all of the bank's most up-to-date spreadsheets, templates, business drivers, assumptions, and more. This ensured that any changes made to the data in the repository were automatically reflected in the templates and formulas. The implementation of formal workflow processes allowed managers to assign tasks and deadlines to specific users and instantly view the status of all tasks in the process. Automatically generated templates were sent to both managers and users when a user missed their deadline or when a task was completed and ready for review and approval. Managers had instant access to consolidated data and individual group submissions, and a detailed audit trail provided date-, time-, and user-stamped activity, enabling users to roll back to previous spreadsheet versions to analyze differences over any time period. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Applicable Industries

Finance & Insurance

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Process Control & Optimization

Regulatory Compliance Monitoring

Remote Collaboration

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

The bank faced several challenges in their reporting process, primarily due to the manual creation, distribution, and consolidation of Excel templates. These templates were sent via email to multiple business groups for data collection, leading to issues with version control and the potential loss of important information. The daily exchange of dozens of emails made it difficult to track the status of each task without constant communication through emails and phone calls with contributors, approvers, and reviewers. Additionally, the lack of a formal workflow and audit trail made it challenging to determine where changes had been made to spreadsheets without manually comparing versions or waiting for user responses.

About Customer

The customer is a large bank based in the United States, responsible for managing footnote disclosure for their 10Q and 10K filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The bank's finance team was heavily reliant on manually creating, distributing, collecting, and consolidating Excel templates from multiple business groups. This process was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, leading to issues with version control and email overload. The bank needed a more efficient and reliable solution to streamline their reporting process and ensure the accuracy of their reports to the SEC.

Solution

Vena provided a comprehensive solution to the bank's challenges by combining the flexibility and familiarity of Microsoft Excel with the structure and security of an enterprise-class Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solution. Vena's central data repository stored all of the bank's most up-to-date spreadsheets, templates, business drivers, assumptions, and more. This ensured that any changes made to the data in the repository were automatically reflected in the templates and formulas. The implementation of formal workflow processes allowed managers to assign tasks and deadlines to specific users and instantly view the status of all tasks in the process. Automatically generated templates were sent to both managers and users when a user missed their deadline or when a task was completed and ready for review and approval. Managers had instant access to consolidated data and individual group submissions, and a detailed audit trail provided date-, time-, and user-stamped activity, enabling users to roll back to previous spreadsheet versions to analyze differences over any time period.

Impact #1	The finance team no longer had to manually collect and consolidate data, saving time and eliminating issues with email overload and version control.
Impact #2	Formal workflow processes helped move projects along by sending automatically generated emails to managers when submitted templates were available for review.
Impact #3	Managers could see with one click which user had started their task, who had finished, who had yet to start, and who had been rejected from contributing, allowing them to instantly identify and correct bottlenecks.

Impact #1

The finance team no longer had to manually collect and consolidate data, saving time and eliminating issues with email overload and version control.

Impact #2

Formal workflow processes helped move projects along by sending automatically generated emails to managers when submitted templates were available for review.

Impact #3

Managers could see with one click which user had started their task, who had finished, who had yet to start, and who had been rejected from contributing, allowing them to instantly identify and correct bottlenecks.

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Overview

Elimination of Manual Processes Makes Reporting to the SEC Significantly Smoother

Operational Impact