BPM Partners and Longview Solutions Publish New CPM Whitepaper for the Banking Industry

By: Press Relese
Source: www.marketwatch.com

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Nov 10, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Longview Solutions, a leading provider of corporate performance management and tax reporting software, announced today the release of a new whitepaper which highlights many of the challenges regional financial institutions face on a daily basis and how performance management solutions provide opportunities to address those challenges ultimately impacting profitability. The whitepaper titled, How to Leverage Performance Management to Maximize Profitability within the Banking Industry,was prepared by BPM Partners, an independent analyst and advisory services firm with an exclusive focus on business performance management (BPM) solutions, and underwritten by Longview.

The whitepaper presents an overview of CPM solutions and how they are being successfully deployed in banking and financial service institution, along with recommended best practices for successful implementations. Highlights from the whitepaper include:

- Descriptions of key capabilities for CPM solutions for regional and national banking, which include portfolio modeling; flexible analysis and driver-based scenarios; funds transfer pricing (FTP); workforce planning and compensation and benefit expense planning and analysis; capital expenditure planning; financial consolidation and reporting process, to name a few

- The benefits of CPM as they relate to most industries as well as the benefits that apply specifically to banking and financial services

- A criteria list for vendor selection

- Real world examples that profile financial services organizations that have successfully deployed CPM projects

- Recommendations financial institutions can utilize when implementing their own CPM solutions

"The legacy spreadsheet approach is overwhelmed by the unique requirements of financial institutions. Commercially available CPM packages have varying levels of capabilities suitable for the industry," said Craig Schiff, CEO of BPM Partners. "An attractive option for banks and financial services firms is best of breed CPM vendors that provide unified and holistic capabilities to manage the unique requirements and complexity of the banking and financial services industry."

Earlier this year, Longview launched the industry-specific toolkit for the regional financial institution sector which included:

- An informative webcast where Longview hosted and partnered with Business Finance and BPM Partners titled, "How to Leverage Performance Management to Maximize Profitability within the Banking Industry", which is now available on-demand.

- A free consultation with BPM Partners regarding best practices to develop a Performance Management roadmap for financial institutions

- A complimentary RFP template specific to financial services available for download

"Finance departments and product portfolio planners are challenged with tackling the varying needs of the financial services sector in a unpredictable economy, in many cases, using manual spreadsheet solutions or other cumbersome applications," said John Power, President, Longview Solutions. "The information available in this whitepaper provides solid and compelling information that can be used to help build the business case to implement a CPM solution like Longview that will drastically reduce inefficiencies and improve strategic agility."

The How to Leverage Performance Management to Maximize Profitability within the Banking Industry whitepaper is available to download for free at http://www.longview.com/maximize-profitability-in-the-banking-industry .


Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bpm-partners-and-longview-solutions-publish-new-cpm-whitepaper-for-the-banking-industry-2011-11-10-93440?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Third Financial Software Announces Further Wins in Jersey

By: Business Wire
Source: http://eon.businesswire.com 

LONDON--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Third Financial Software, provider of wealth management technology solutions, has today announced that three Jersey-based wealth managers have signed up to its tercero Wealth Workstation. Aberdeen Private Wealth, Affinity Private Wealth and DPZ Capital have each taken on tercero from front to back office and connected with Channel Islands-based Custodians. Tercero Wealth Workstation will be provided to each through a mix of hosted and private installations.

Aberdeen Private Wealth, the private wealth division of Aberdeen Asset Management, used tercero to replace two legacy systems, enabling a smoother reporting process for clients and a truly integrated front and back office. The system has been live for several months.

Affinity Private Wealth, a newly formed firm which provides discretionary investment management and trust services, needed a complete wealth management system which could be implemented quickly, is scalable as their business grows and which connects to their custodian, HSBC Securities.


DPZ Capital, the fast growing investment boutique established in 2007, required a 21^st century system to support their focus on investment performance and customer service as the business enters a period of rapid growth. Tercero was selected after an extensive competitive process.

Tercero integrates investment management, client relationship management, document management, order management, compliance, client reporting and investor web access in a single, intuitive management information dashboard.

Bruce Harrison, Managing Director, Aberdeen Private Wealth said; "Tercero became the obvious choice for us as we went through the selection process. It enabled us to streamline our systems while moving to a modern platform that will be enhanced and developed as the system matures. The system also allows us to provide online reporting to our clients, which we believe is essential moving forward".

David Stearn, MD, Affinity Private Wealth commented; “As a new firm, we need a platform which is truly front-to-back and able to grow as we grow. Not only does tercero fit into this category but it is also able to connect to our custodian in the Channel Islands. Tercero enables us to be up and running quickly, with a truly leading edge technology, in a cost effective way on a single platform.”
 
Darren Zaman, CEO, DPZ Capital Limited “We’re a fast growing private client asset management firm and require an up to the minute solution that supports our focus on delivering excellent investment performance consistently across our client base, and first class customer service through flexible and timely reporting. Efficiencies will enable valuable qualified staff to concentrate their time on meeting client needs and allow the business to respond to a constantly changing regulatory reporting environment as a matter of course. Tercero stood out as a solution that is highly flexible and scalable and we recognize in Third Financial, their desire for product/service excellence and ambition and integrity, the qualities that have driven our own success to date.”

Gary Linieres, Director, Third Financial added “Because tercero is a fully integrated, scalable front-to-back system, it’s of real benefit to start-up firms and boutiques. We’re thrilled to have been selected by Aberdeen, Affinity and DPZ Capital as Jersey is a key market for Third Financial.”


Source: http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20111124005072/en

Simplify Your Budget with Ez Budget for Mac

By: prMAC
Source: http://prmac.com

After paying off $28,000 of debt in just ten months, newly married and only two years out of college, Derek Clark decided to create budgeting software that anyone could use. Budgeting can be hard and most software makes the process more frustrating. Ez Budget attempts to solve both of these problems by providing a simple software interface to the tried and true method of envelope budgeting. It does this by securely syncing with your bank account and downloading your transactions.

Envelope budgeting is the simplest method to track your spending. At the beginning of each month you put X dollars in an envelope marked "Groceries." For that month you can only spend that amount on groceries, and you can only buy groceries with the money in that envelope. It keeps your spending under control and you aware of your spending. At a glance, you can see how much you have left in each envelope.

Ez Budget improves upon this method of budgeting by cutting out all of the envelopes and cash. Carrying around an actual envelope system isn't anyone's idea of simple, so the concept was applied to budgeting software. With Ez Budget, you make virtual envelopes and split your paycheck into each category. When you spend money you put that transaction into the proper envelope and the balance updates automatically to show you how much you have left.

The real power is that Ez Budget syncs between Mac, iPad, and iPhone so that you can have your budget handy

Source: http://prmac.com/release-id-33581.htm

'Enkoyie' Budget Needs Acid Test

By: Daily Guide
Source: http://www.modernghana.com


The Minority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has called for a holistic scrutiny of the 2012 Budget which was read last Wednesday by the Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Duffuor.
The scrutiny, he said, would ensure that the budget provided equitable access to services by all Ghanaians regardless of their status and background.

According to him, the 2012 budget, which comprised the fiscal information for next year, among other things, 'Should be subject to public and independent scrutiny. In other words, information provided in the budget document should not be taken as a given. Fiscal information should be subjected to an acid test.'
His remark comes after ongoing deliberations and debates that followed the reading of the budget last Wednesday.

As the Majority is defending the budget with its last breath, the Minority have subjected the budget to much scrutiny. They have also described it with names such as 'Enkoyie', 'Bye Bye', 'Propaganda', 'Azonto' and 'Recycled budget' among others.

Meanwhile, the former presidential candidate of the Convention Peoples' Party, (CPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, has also questioned whether the budget is for growth or go slow.
The Minority leader made the remark in Ho during a post budget workshop for leadership of Parliament, committee chairpersons, ranking members and selected members of parliament.

The three-day workshop, which ended yesterday, was organised by Parliament in collaboration with its donor partners.

The workshop was to furnish the about 135 parliamentarians with in-depth knowledge as well as the requisite tools and skills to better appreciate and criticize the budget.

Resource persons were drawn from various areas such as legal, financial, public administration, petroleum, trade, governance and agriculture to enlighten the parliamentarians.

Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, who is also the MP for Suame, noted that the workshop was essential to ensure that parliamentarians discharged their mandate on the most important document of government diligently. He was hopeful that parliamentarians would keep an eagle eye on the comprehensiveness and predictability of the budget.

Other areas include transparency, periodicity, clarity of roles and responsibilities, public availability of information and independent assurances of integrity of the budget.

He also urged parliamentarians, Ministers of State and other public servants and government appointees to ensure that the common problems with budgeting were reduced to the barest minimum.

These, he said, included poor planning, insufficient linkages between policies and the budget as well as weak cash management. The rest are ill-disciplined execution that leads to a large gap between the budget as approved and the budget as implemented, inadequate accounting systems and insufficiently detailed, poorly organised and unreliable budget documentation.

The Majority leader, Cletus Avoka, who chaired the occasion, called for objective deliberations and criticisms devoid of political colouration. He also commended his colleagues for participating in the workshop and called on Ghanaians to accept the budget in good faith since it was geared towards accelerated growth for a better Ghana. 

The Speaker of Parliament, Justice Joyce Bamford-Addo, whose speech was read by the first Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adzaho, commended the parliamentarians for their outstanding role in holding the executive to account and exercising the power of the purse in recent times.
She expressed the hope that this would be sustained to protect and promote good governance and the country's young democracy.

Source: http://www.modernghana.com/news/362909/1/enkoyie-budget-needs-acid-test.html

City Budget Accuracy - Who Are the Leaders and Laggards? -- C.D. Howe Institute

By:CanadaNews Wirw
Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com

TORONTO, Nov. 23, 2011 /CNW/ - A new study from the C.D. Howe institute lifts the veil on opaque budgeting and routinely missed spending targets in Canada's major cities. In "Holding Canada's Cities to Account: An Assessment of Municipal Fiscal Management," Benjamin Dachis and William Robson report groundbreaking research on major Canadian municipalities, and grade cities on the clarity of their budgeting and financial reporting, and on their records in hitting - or, more often, missing - budgeted spending targets.

"Cities are the most visible level of government for most Canadians, providing services such as waste collection, policing and transit. Yet their budgets are the most opaque," said Mr. Dachis, a Policy Analyst at the Institute.

Municipalities typically present numbers in their budgets that do not match the numbers in their end-of-year financial reports, says Mr. Robson, President and CEO of the Institute. "So councillors and taxpayers who seek to hold these municipal governments to account face a daunting task. Worse, when you do peer through the messy numbers, you find that most cities routinely miss budget targets by large amounts."

Dachis and Robson also note, however, that amid the mixed record are municipalities with clearer numbers and better records for spending control. Leaders that earned "A"s for budget clarity are Surrey, BC, and Markham and London in Ontario.  Their performance, along with improvements in financial reporting at the federal and provincial levels in recent years, show that progress is possible.

To improve financial performance and budget clarity, say the authors, Canadian cities should copy some of the past decade's budgeting reforms by higher-order governments. Specifically, either of their own accord or by provincial mandate, Canadian cities should:

    Adopt accrual accounting in budgets;
    Integrate operating and capital budgets;
    Present multi-year budgets;
    Report department-by-department results on the same basis as in budgets; and
    Show gross, rather than net revenues and expenditures.

These changes would create clearer, more consistent budgets and help bring the financial management of Canada's municipalities into line with their fiscal impact and their importance in Canadians' lives.



Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/501040

Buffalo Grove Outlines 2012 Budget

By: Cristel Mohrman
Source: http://buffalogrove.patch.com


Village officials say they are pleased with proposed balanced budget.

Buffalo Grove officials reviewed Monday what was described as a balanced “maintenance budget” for 2012.

The proposed budget, which includes $59.1 million in revenue and $58.3 million in expenditures, outlines the needs of each village department. More than half of the budget covers salaries and benefits, including a 2 percent salary increase for all employees, with the possibility of another 1 percent mid-year merit increase.

The village will again offer a voluntary separation program in early 2012 in a continued effort to reduce expenses. The budget does not take the potential cost reduction into account.

Village Manager Dane Bragg said the village’s staff is the smallest it has been in about 15 years.

“We are very lean. We’re doing a lot of tasks with few people,” he said.

Also included in the budget is $2 million for street resurfacing, sidewalk repair and bike path maintenance; $275,000 to complete the Arlington Heights Road water main replacement and $234,054 to complete an engineering study for the proposed improvements on Weiland/Lake-Cook roads.

The budget does not include any fee or tax increases. The Village Board will review the village’s water rates in the coming months, as well as consider implementation of a rental property inspection program.

“It is only a planning document,” Village President Jeff Braiman said. “The fact that there are funds in a certain area doesn’t mean we have to spend them.”

The village’s general fund is projected to have a $155,036 surplus at the end of 2012, bringing the village’s fund balance to nearly $10.5 million, or 35 percent of its budget. The village’s fund balance goal is 25 percent, enough to cover three months of operating expenses.

Trustees praised the staff’s work on the budget, which department heads delivered as a 306-page document containing charts, graphs and narratives about each area, ranging from the police department to the Metra parking lot fund. (See attached PDF.)

“This is the best budget I’ve ever seen or read,” Trustee Beverly Sussman said. “I truly believe this is the Academy Award of budgets.”

The 2012 budget will also be adopted by resolution during the Dec. 5 Village Board meeting, with a public hearing and final approval scheduled for Dec. 19.

In related financial news, the village’s 2011 tax levy is expected to hold nearly steady, with about $13.3 million proposed. The amount is about 1.3 percent above than the village’s 2010 extension.

Buffalo Grove receives 24 percent of its revenue from property taxes, with the bulk of the remainder coming from other taxes, services charges and investments.


Source: http://buffalogrove.patch.com/articles/2012-budget
 

DPS shows first budget surplus since 2007

By: Jennifer Chambers
Source: http://www.detnews.com


After years of ever-growing deficits, Detroit Public Schools broke into the black during the past school year, with a $43 million surplus, the district said Monday.

A 10 percent enrollment drop, federal stimulus money and belt-tightening measures allowed the district to reduce spending by $98 million in 2010-11.

But even as Emergency Manager Roy Roberts announced the district's first surplus since 2007, the Michigan Department of Education warned that the district could slip back into the red this year.

"DPS continues to have a substantial budget deficit and current monthly reports indicate this year's deficit is continuing to grow," department spokeswoman Jan Ellis said Monday.

This year, still in receivership and under state control, DPS slashed its deficit from $327 million to a projected $84 million, primarily through a $244.9 million bond sale completed last month.

Announcing the surplus for last school year, Roberts acknowledged that DPS still has a lot of work to do.

"I'd love to tell you the war is won. The war is not won," Roberts said. "Detroit Public Schools is a $1.2 billion business that needs to be run like a business. If you don't run it like a business, you will be in a horrible position."

According to documents filed with the state, by Sept. 30 DPS projected it would spend $93 million more than it budgeted this school year in classroom instruction. The district had to hire more teachers for higher-than-expected enrollment this fall and had to cover other costs, such as summer school.

DPS officials on Monday disputed the $93 million figure, saying it's outdated and does not reflect $45 million in vacant positions. When reconciled, the overage for instruction will be closer to $30 million, DPS spokesman Steve Wasko said.

Roberts focused on the district's improved financial condition, which resulted in part from an increase in federal aid from the previous school year — including $45 million from stimulus funds, $35 million from Title II grant funding and $51 million from Title I funding.

This budget year, DPS is not getting any stimulus funds because the program expired.

"We are not going to get a whole bunch more money. … We are going to have to do the job with the resources we have," said William Aldridge, DPS' chief financial officer.

Aldridge said DPS still has about "half a billion" in debt obligations related to the district's two bond sales — one in 2005, when the district borrowed close to $210 million to avoid bankruptcy, and the $245 million it owes from last month's bond sale.

The recent bonds, sold at an interest rate of 4.7 percent, will be paid off during the next 10 years, essentially deferring a large chunk of the district's deficit.

For the district's capital projects, including a number of new and renovated schools funded through a $500.5 million construction bond passed by voters in 2009, DPS owes $2 billion, Aldridge said.

Source: http://detnews.com/article/20111122/SCHOOLS/111220372/DPS-shows-first-budget-surplus-since-2007#ixzz1eYdm4J8H