Intelligent Independence Inspection Part 1: Bending the Cost Curve

Within the accounting profession, personal independence matters are of high importance. While the profession has largely adopted systems for the core independence function – disclosing and monitoring financial interests – the adoption of automation around the core independence function has been slow. Instead, teams continue to increase in size. As one senior partner at a Big 4 firm put it to me, “the pressure on our business model, profits, and the way we comply with regulators has never been greater," How do we become more cost efficient? 

I would like to hone in on one area – personal independence inspection process – in this series of posts. As we have spoken to multiple leaders in the profession the current process can be describe in the following four generalized steps.

This four step process is rife with manual processes for the team managing the inspection process as well as the individuals being selected. It reminds me of what we go through when a tax authority (e.g. Internal Revenue Service in the United States) audits an individual – painful is a gentle word to describe the process. What if we provided a more enjoyable experience while reducing costs?

Our viewpoint is the combination of leveraging cognitive technologies as well as process orchestration in an application provides a complete solution. I have overlaid how the technology provides robust capabilities that automates processes for you.

The solution becomes smarter – leveraging technology instead of people to provide a consistent, cost effective approach. No longer do you need people to manually scan documents, as the cognitive engine extracts the data for you. No longer are there endless cycles of questions through emails that are lost, phone calls that are forgotten, and deadlines that are missed. Instead, the system orchestrates precisely what is needed from the users. No longer do you need people to review the information manually, as the system can leverage the data that is disclosed and the data that is extracted and provide you exceptions to work through.

Using technology, you can bend the cost curve of personal independence compliance.  In the following posts, we will discuss other complications and how this approach provides you benefits.