The latest survey published by the business process management (BPM) Forum shows that companies still have their work cut out for them in achieving financial transparency and performance accountability.
The survey, entitled Benchmarking the Board: The Performance Accountability Audit and sponsored by leading BPM proponent Hyperion Solutions Corp, details the attitudes, concerns and priorities of more than 150 board members relating to performance accountability.
The results are revealing, especially in the wake of several financial accounting and reporting scandals (eg. Enron and WorldCom) that have come to the fore during the past year. Over 85% of those surveyed expressed major reservations about the current methods and tools used to track corporate performance: nearly 40% did not measure their companies’ operational indicators regularly; and more than 60% percent of respondents said they still struggled to get performance data measured against that of key competitors.
Around two-thirds felt uncomfortable with the accuracy of their company’s financial business forecasts, and around a third said they were unsure if they have all the information needed to satisfy the disclosure of appropriate information to Wall Street, investors, and other interested parties.
Other interesting findings of the survey include 20% of respondents saying their companies have already allocated funds specifically to address new compliance regulations laid down by Sarbanes-Oxley. But only 40% expected immediate compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.
The BPM Forum, set-up by Sunnyvale, California-based Hyperion, operates as a vendor-neutral body committed to advancing new performance management practices, technologies and processes. ‘BPM’ is a rapidly evolving term that is generally used to describe a technology-driven discipline for delivering financial transparency and accountability.
Source: Computerwire
