Advisory overview - Ernst & Young - United States

Securing the present . . . improving the future

Taking a 360° view of your company’s health is a necessary first step to securing the present and building for the future. Many organizations are facing important short term issues, such as reducing costs and current financial risks, but it is equally important to consider performance improvement and risk management opportunities that will drive growth and operating efficiencies for the longer term and create a stronger competitive position.

Delivering improved business performance — and a superior client experience
Most businesses today are looking to solve two key challenges — improving business performance and cost reduction. This dual objective can deliver significant benefits and position your organization to emerge from the downturn with a stronger and more secure and competitive profile.

To help you meet these interconnected challenges and achieve your potential, we harness the diverse perspectives and experiences of our 20,000 advisory professionals — one of the broadest global advisory networks of any professional organization. We assemble seasoned multi disciplinary teams to work with you to deliver a superior experience built on a consistent global methodology, a robust knowledge culture and insights from our work around the world.

So whether your focus is on transforming your entire business or on sustaining performance and building on today’s achievements, having the right advisors on your side can help you accelerate towards your goals. We offer objective advice and fresh insights to help you achieve tangible results and sustainable improvements wherever you do business.

Replacing SAS 70: is your organization prepared?
With few significant modifications since it was issued in April 1992, SAS 70 has been the standard when reporting on the effectiveness of service organizations’ internal controls over financial reporting. Join our panel as they discuss how the proposed new standards could affect your business, and what you can do to prepare.

Transforming risks into opportunities
Risk-taking is part of business: no risk, no reward. The challenge in risk management is therefore not to avoid risks, but to gain a competitive edge by transforming them into opportunities. In three reports, we offer insights on how to create and protect value through best practice in risk management.

Do organizations have a plan in place to save today to prosper in the future?
Most companies fail to sustain cost reductions after the economy begins to recover from the downturn that forced those reductions. In this report, we suggest that effective cost reduction should become engrained in the way companies do business.

The future of Finance
Amid signs of economic recovery, we suggest in The future of Finance (pdf, 248.8kb) that CFOs establish and implement a holistic framework that identifies weaknesses and potential improvements, and which helps enable Finance to be more effective, lower costs and help deliver more value to the bottom line.

The future of risk
This new survey of more than 500 global companies provides a snapshot of the current risk environment (pdf, 360.13kb) at a time when mixed reports are filtering through about the medium- and long-term economic outlook. It examines companies' attitudes towards risk management and how recent global events have affected management approaches to risk.

Take the pulse of your health care business
Knowing how performance, opportunity and risk intersect helps health care providers and payors, life sciences companies and pharmaceutical businesses face a healthy future.