Accenture has launched a global Risk Management consulting service line to help companies
better identify, manage and mitigate risks and make greater strategic use of risk data and
information to support their decision-making processes.

The new service line expands Accenture's risk-related services as market demand continues to
increase in response to recent turbulence in the global economy.

The new service line will help companies more accurately and quickly identify and evaluate
risk-adjusted business opportunities and help them extend their risk management function
beyond compliance. By combining Accenture's deep industry and process experience with its
capabilities in data mining, risk analytics and systems integration, the new service line
will provide clients with information that supports advanced decision making and early
warning solutions that can detect emerging threats and opportunities.

The new service line will also help companies establish their risk management organizations
and governance structures, design risk management processes and streamline risk reporting.
More broadly, the Accenture Risk Management service line will offer a range of services to
help organizations design and develop integrated risk-related solutions that are tightly
aligned with business functions across their enterprise.

"Our clients recognize the importance of risk management and the need to overhaul risk
processes and systems to further integrate and embed these into the company's
decision-making processes," says Mark Foster, Accenture's group chief executive, Global
Markets and Management Consulting. "Expanding our Risk Management practice into a dedicated
service line demonstrates our commitment to helping clients address these critical needs."

A survey of 260 corporate executives by Accenture in 2009 underscores the growing importance
of risk management in today's business climate. According to the survey, 85 percent of the
executives say their companies need to overhaul their risk management approach to achieve
better business results. Among the specific problems they identified were: ineffective
integration of risk, return and capital issues in decision-making; a lack of alignment
between the company's strategies and its appetite for risk; shortcomings in the corporate
risk culture; inadequate availability of timely risk, finance and business data; a lack of
integration and aggregation across risk types; and ambiguous assignment of risk
responsibilities between the corporate organization and individual business units.

"In an increasingly volatile and uncertain marketplace, the high-performing companies will
be those that strengthen their risk governance, upgrade risk analytics and incorporate
advanced risk reporting," says Steve Culp, managing director of Accenture's Risk Management
service line. "Risk is rapidly moving out of the back office, and management must balance
the need to create value with the need to protect shareholders. As a result, companies must
break down organizational silos and integrate risk management across the enterprise in order
to succeed."

Culp says that global operating models, highly networked organizations, rapidly changing
customer preferences, volatile financial markets, government regulatory requirements and
complex flows of information in today's business environment are all contributing to a
growing need for more sophisticated and integrated risk management solutions.

 

 

 

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