Posted by Adam Ripley - 17/04/2012
Banking and Financial Services organisations have enormous challenges coping with the level of change they now face. Some examples are regulatory changes, mergers, acquisitions and disposals, and these are just some of the numerous drivers that are creating this pressure for change. The pressures not only put demands on IT to deliver, they challenge performance of the business and can cause financial penalties or put its reputation at risk.
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Posted by Philip Tootell - 17/03/2012
In the current business climate, a host of different factors is leading to increased business integration activity. A stagnant economy offers limited opportunities for growth and companies look for acquisitions, mergers and disposals to bring about new business efficiencies. In the financial sector, regulatory changes, risk and compliance and competition laws are among the pressures causing mergers and acquisitions. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Richard Mossman - 19/02/2012
Recently Hector Sants, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority, said that financial service companies need to change, stop dragging their feet and comply “proactively” with the FSA.
In my opinion businesses, rather than dragging their feet are, all too often, wrestling with ill-defined, ill thought out and very badly communicated regulation. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Yasmin - 13/12/2011
In my last posting I overviewed some of the issues that are arising with testing mobile applications. In this article I am going to highlight the challenges in the Functional testing of mobile applications. Functional testing and validation can be done manually or through automation. We can test these on emulators similar to the way we Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Yasmin - 07/11/2011
There is no doubt that in the new era of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, people have become used to accessing information when and where they want it, these mobile devices enable them to stay connected. However, it is no longer individuals who want to do this just for social networking; businesses have now become major players in the game and are providing their employees and customers with instant access via bespoke applications targeting these devices. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Adam Ripley - 25/08/2011
One in six IT projects is a ‘black swan’, where costs spiral out of control, according to some recent research by Oxford University, representing one of the largest global studies of IT projects. With budget overruns hitting an average of 200 per cent in real terms, the research found the IT sector is two to three times more likely to have projects where costs balloon than building and construction companies dealing with similarly large infrastructure schemes. Read more on this here
The Oxford University research on big IT projects is timely given the increasing financial constraints on UK business. Businesses need to grow but are becoming more and more scared of engaging Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Dan Minkin - 24/08/2011
In a previous blog (November 2010) I talked about some of the risks of outsourcing testing activities. This was based on some ongoing work that Certeco has been doing, in two areas, risk analysis and the creation of a process called the Test Quality Criteria Method. (TQCM). In this follow up I take a more detailed look at risk analysis. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Adam Ripley - 27/07/2011
Following on from our last article on things to consider in a Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) solution, here are another couple of areas to think about:
Risk Management – A risk management solution can provide not only documentation but workflow, evaluation, analysis, simulation, visualisation, reporting and remediation. That way the risk owner can Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Adam Ripley - 27/06/2011
In recent articles we have discussed various aspects of the Governance, Risk and Compliance topic. One thing that we are often asked is, “what are the best practice considerations when developing a solution?” So starting this week I thought I would cover a few of the main considerations:
Audit Capabilities
A key aspect of any solution will be how it support audit. Getting the data out quickly and Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Paula Heenan - 24/05/2011
Many organisations have teams based in multiple locations, more often now multiple countries and time zones or they rely on third party suppliers who work in different offices. There are several recognised challenges with remote teams; communication, version control (is this the latest version?) and task management amongst them. Whilst technology does provide the tools to help overcome these issues, wikis, asynchronous and synchronous communication channels, cloud storage and software development lifecycle management tools; are humans really wired to work like this?
Read the rest of this entry »
