No Result
View All Result
SUBSCRIBE | NO FEES, NO PAYWALLS
MANAGE MY SUBSCRIPTION
NEWSLETTER
Corporate Compliance Insights
  • Home
  • About
    • About CCI
    • Writing for CCI
    • NEW: CCI Press – Book Publishing
    • Advertise With Us
  • Explore Topics
    • See All Articles
    • Compliance
    • Ethics
    • Risk
    • FCPA
    • Governance
    • Fraud
    • Internal Audit
    • HR Compliance
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
    • Financial Services
    • Well-Being at Work
    • Leadership and Career
    • Opinion
  • Vendor News
  • Career Connection
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Library
    • Whitepapers & Reports
    • eBooks
    • CCI Press & Compliance Bookshelf
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • About
    • About CCI
    • Writing for CCI
    • NEW: CCI Press – Book Publishing
    • Advertise With Us
  • Explore Topics
    • See All Articles
    • Compliance
    • Ethics
    • Risk
    • FCPA
    • Governance
    • Fraud
    • Internal Audit
    • HR Compliance
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
    • Financial Services
    • Well-Being at Work
    • Leadership and Career
    • Opinion
  • Vendor News
  • Career Connection
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Library
    • Whitepapers & Reports
    • eBooks
    • CCI Press & Compliance Bookshelf
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
Corporate Compliance Insights
Home Featured

Intelligent Automation: Designing the Intelligent Organization

by James Bone
September 25, 2017
in Featured, Risk
AI brain on blue background

The Driver Behind Enterprise Situational Awareness

Intelligent automation is an emerging solution to enable intelligent decision-making at the strategic level, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be complex or require cumbersome new infrastructure. In fact, since overly complicated approaches to intelligent automation tend to result in project failure, simplicity may be the order of the day.

“Intelligent Automation” is such a new term that you won’t find it in Wikipedia, Merriam-Webster or any of the other dictionaries that serve as an official reference source.  However, the emergence of this term exemplifies the speed at which technology moves.  We are clearly in the early stages of a transformation no less dramatic than the invention of the internet. The dawn of a new age in quantitative and empirical methods will change how businesses operate as well as the role of traditional finance professionals.[i]  To compete in this new digital environment, finance professionals must be willing to adopt new operating models that reduce costs and improve performance through better data.  In short, a new framework is needed for designing an intelligent organization.

Advanced analytics and automation will play increasingly bigger roles as tactical solutions to drive efficiency or to assist executives with solving complex problems.  This article takes a step back from tactical examples of automation to consider how the role of a strategic cognitive framework informs the design of an intelligent corporation.

The convergence of technology and cognitive science provides finance professionals with powerful new tools to tackle complex problems with more certainty.  However, the real opportunities lie in reimaging the enterprise as an intelligent organization.  An intelligent organization is designed to create situational awareness with tools capable of analyzing disparate data in real or near-real time.

Automation of redundant processes is only the first step.  An intelligent organization strategically designs automation to connect disparate systems (e.g., data sources) by enabling users with the tools to quickly respond or adjust to threats and opportunities in the business, proactively.  Situational awareness is the product of this design.  In order to push decision-making deeper into the organization, line staff need the tools and information to respond to change in the business, as well as the flexibility to adjust and mitigate problems within prescribed limits.  Likewise, senior executives need near-real time data that provides the means to query performance across different lines of business with confidence and anticipate impacts to singular or enterprise events in order to avoid costly mistakes.

The future of financial reporting is becoming increasingly complex at the same time that finance professionals are being challenged to manage emerging risks, reduce costs and add value to strategic objectives.  These competing mandates require new support tools that deliver intelligence and confidence in the numbers.  So how can this be done as budgets are being squeezed in the face of rising competition?  Thankfully, a range of new automation tools is now available to assist finance professionals in achieving better outcomes against these dual mandates and more.  However, to be successful, finance executives need a new framework that anticipates the needs of staff and provides access to the right data in a resilient manner.

Intelligent automation also means getting a good return on your technology investment!

A cognitive framework provides finance with a design roadmap that includes human elements focused on how staff uses technology, as well simplifying the rollout and implementation of advanced analytical tools.  The cognitive framework is comprised of five pillars, each designed to complement the development of an intelligent organization.  Kevin Legere, Director of Product Design at software provider ACL, says, “much of the challenge in delivering clear, measurable business value through enterprise governance, financial controls and risk programs today can be attributed to the severe lack of thoughtful design-thinking on the part of finance and risk professionals in part, but indeed even more so among the industry bodies, standard-setters and technology providers that support those professionals.”

A cognitive framework is based on the following pillars:

  1. Cognitive Governance
  2. Intentional Control Design
  3. Business Intelligence
  4. Performance Management
  5. Situational Awareness

Each of these pillars is designed to complement the other when implementing intelligent automation most effectively.  Cognitive governance is the driver of intelligent automation as a strategic tool in guiding organizational outcomes.  The goal of cognitive governance, as the name implies, is to facilitate the design of intelligent automation to create actionable business intelligence, improve decision-making and reduce manual processes (risks) that lead to poor or uncertain outcomes.  In other words, cognitive governance systematically identifies the “blind-spots” across the firm, then directs intelligent automation to reduce or eliminate the blind spots.

Cognitive governance is the process of shedding light on uncertainty.

The end game is to create situational awareness at multiple levels of the firm with better tools to facilitate and understand risks and errors in judgment and to streamline inefficient processes.  Human error or decision-making under uncertainty is increasingly recognized as the greatest risk to organizational success; therefore, it is critical that senior management create a systemic framework for reducing blind spots in a timely manner.  Cognitive governance sets the tone and direction for the next four pillars.

Intentional control design, business intelligence and performance management are the tools an organization uses to create situational awareness in response to cognitive governance mandates.  A cognitive framework does not require huge investments in the latest big data “shiny objects.”  In fact, one need not spend millions on machine learning or other forms of artificial intelligence.  Alternative automation tools are readily available today and used by firms to simplify operations.  In other words, intelligent automation does not have to be complex or require cumbersome new infrastructure.  Access to advanced analytics is now available in a variety of cloud services and formatted to support organizations large and small.  However, for firms who want to use machine learning/AI, the cognitive framework easily integrates any tool or regulatory risk framework widely in use today.  A cognitive framework is focused on the one factor that others ignore: how humans interact and use technology to get their work done most effectively.

Network complexity has been identified as a strategic bottleneck in response times for dealing with cybersecurity risks, cost of technology and the inflexibility to change in fast-paced business environments.[ii]  Improperly designed automation processes may simply add to infrastructure complexity without a proper framework.  There is also a dark side to machine learning/AI that organizations must understand in order to anticipate best use cases and avoid the inevitable missteps that will come with autonomous systems.  Microsoft learned a hard lesson with “Clippy,” its chatbot project, which was shelved when users taught the bot racist remarks.  While there are many uses for AI this technology, is still in an experimental stage of growth.[iii]

Overly complicated approaches to intelligent automation are the leading cause of failed big data projects. However, “leveraging design thinking when considering how people, process and technology intersect is centered on an organization’s vision and how desired outcomes are aligned to the organizations key objectives.  Long-term success is a product of creative design to respond to opportunities and manage risks,” according to Kevin Legere, ACL.

Simplicity is the new value proposition that should be expected from the implementation of technology solutions.  Intelligent automation is one tool to accomplish this goal, but execution requires a framework that understands how people use new technology effectively.  Simplicity must be a strategic design imperative based on a framework for creating situational awareness across the enterprise.

__________________________

[i] https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-54858491/the-dawning-of-the-age-of-quantitative-empirical-methods

[ii] https://www.ipswitch.com/Ipswitch/media/Ipswitch/Documents/Resources/Whitepapers%20and%20eBooks/The-Challenges-of-Controlling-IT-Complexity-Report.pdf?ext=.pdf

[iii] https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-microsoft-future-ai-chatbots/


Tags: Artificial Intelligence (AI)AutomationBig DataCyber RiskData AnalyticsMachine Learning
Previous Post

Escalating the ABC Fight in Asia-Pacific

Next Post

Introducing 6 Questions with an Ethics & Compliance Officer

James Bone

James Bone

James Bone’s career has spanned 29 years of management, financial services and regulatory compliance risk experience with Frito-Lay, Inc., Abbot Labs, Merrill Lynch, and Fidelity Investments. James founded Global Compliance Associates, LLC and TheGRCBlueBook in 2009 to consult with global professional services firms, private equity investors, and risk and compliance professionals seeking insights in governance, risk and compliance (“GRC”) leading practices and best in class vendors.
James is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and contributing writer for Compliance Week and Corporate Compliance Insights and serves as faculty presenter and independent consultant for several global consulting firms specializing in governance, risk and compliance, IT compliance and the GRC vendor market. James created TheGRCBlueBook.com to provide risk and compliance professionals with transparency into the GRC vendor marketplace by creating a forum for writing reviews on GRC products and sharing success stories on the risk practices that are most effective. James is currently attending Harvard Extension School for a Master of Arts in Management with an emphasis in accounting and finance. James received an honorary PhD in Letters from Drury University in Springfield, Missouri and is a member of the Breech Business School Hall of Fame as well as the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Having graduated from the Boston University Graduate School of Education, James received his M.Ed. in Management and Organizational Design in 1997 and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Drury University in 1980.  

Related Posts

castle pixel art

Building a Defense-in-Depth Culture to Combat Phishing

by Perry Carpenter
March 22, 2023

Phishing attempts are only growing more sophisticated by the day, and effective cybersecurity means defending all the vectors of attack,...

risk tunnel

From Regulation to Volume, There Is No Light at the End of the Data Privacy Tunnel

by Jim DeLoach
March 15, 2023

Data proliferation and data privacy regulatory activity across the globe have created the need for focused boardroom discussions. An underpinning...

DALL·E 2023-02-16 13.18.43 - magritte style painting of robot looking into mirror

A Bot Isn’t Going to Take Your Place, But AI Will Make Your Job Harder

by Jennifer L. Gaskin
March 8, 2023

OpenAI’s splashy ChatGPT rollout has generated untold amounts of text, both directly and indirectly. While much of what’s been written...

cisa website

What Can Your Organization Learn From the New CISA Strategic Plan?

by FTI Consulting
January 11, 2023

Cyber threats against organizations of all sizes are only rising as scammers and fraudsters become more and more sophisticated. Kyung...

Next Post
woman surrounded by question marks

Introducing 6 Questions with an Ethics & Compliance Officer

Compliance Job Interview Q&A

Jump to a Topic

AML Anti-Bribery Anti-Corruption Artificial Intelligence (AI) Automation Banking Board of Directors Board Risk Oversight Business Continuity Planning California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Code of Conduct Communications Management Corporate Culture COVID-19 Cryptocurrency Culture of Ethics Cybercrime Cyber Risk Data Analytics Data Breach Data Governance DOJ Download Due Diligence Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) ESG FCPA Enforcement Actions Financial Crime Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) GDPR HIPAA Know Your Customer (KYC) Machine Learning Monitoring RegTech Reputation Risk Risk Assessment SEC Social Media Risk Supply Chain Technology Third Party Risk Management Tone at the Top Training Whistleblowing
No Result
View All Result

Privacy Policy

Founded in 2010, CCI is the web’s premier global independent news source for compliance, ethics, risk and information security. 

Got a news tip? Get in touch. Want a weekly round-up in your inbox? Sign up for free. No subscription fees, no paywalls. 

Follow Us

Browse Topics:

  • CCI Press
  • Compliance
  • Compliance Podcasts
  • Cybersecurity
  • Data Privacy
  • eBooks Published by CCI
  • Ethics
  • FCPA
  • Featured
  • Financial Services
  • Fraud
  • Governance
  • GRC Vendor News
  • HR Compliance
  • Internal Audit
  • Leadership and Career
  • On Demand Webinars
  • Opinion
  • Resource Library
  • Risk
  • Uncategorized
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Well-Being
  • Whitepapers

© 2022 Corporate Compliance Insights

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • About CCI
    • Writing for CCI
    • NEW: CCI Press – Book Publishing
    • Advertise With Us
  • Explore Topics
    • See All Articles
    • Compliance
    • Ethics
    • Risk
    • FCPA
    • Governance
    • Fraud
    • Internal Audit
    • HR Compliance
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
    • Financial Services
    • Well-Being at Work
    • Leadership and Career
    • Opinion
  • Vendor News
  • Career Connection
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Library
    • Whitepapers & Reports
    • eBooks
    • CCI Press & Compliance Bookshelf
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Subscribe

© 2022 Corporate Compliance Insights

Welcome to CCI. This site uses cookies. Please click OK to accept. Privacy Policy
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT