Rising Above Cloud Computing Confusion

Machine learning can bring a lot of value to companies - if they use it correctly. In this informative and lively session, we examine myths and truths about machine learning and, as a bonus, share ways to build better models.

As companies realize the need for rapid application development, they are embracing DevOps methodologies. But implementing DevOps practices without establishing a culture of quality often results in lower quality software or a poor customer experience, which impacts the business bottom line. Leave this session with ideas, approaches, and tools to shift your organization’s culture, process, and technology toward quality.

Robotic process automation, or RPA, can speed up and improve many rote business processes. Learn how to scale up or expand into other areas of your business with tips to accelerate your success, from technologies to processes, in a center of excellence framework.

Experis Finance is pleased to announce the next session in our Hot Topics Series for Chief Audit Executives and their teams. This series of webinars provide practical insights on topics of interest to internal audit professionals. This panel discussion will cover Robotics Process Automation (RPA) and the key considerations for Internal Audit.

RPA, robotics, robots, bots … as Internal Auditors you have undoubtedly been hearing this terminology tossed around more and more recently. What exactly is it; why should Internal Audit care; and what can we do to help our organizations embrace, adopt, control, and realize the benefits of this technology?

The webinar will provide participants with the following learning objectives:

• Discuss RPA in practical terms as companies begin to assess, plan and implement
• Learn where RPA is providing the most benefit and return for organizations
• Recognize the importance of effective Project Governance for RPA projects and what risks organizations should be thinking about
• Highlight the role of internal audit in assessing the overall RPA plan and the downstream impacts on business processes and internal controls
• Understand lessons learned and leading practices from successful RPA initiatives

Experis Finance is pleased to continue our Hot Topics webinar series in 2019. Our goal is to provide you with a series of webinars that provide practical insights on topics of interest to internal audit, information security, and compliance professionals.

Our upcoming session covers Balancing the Risks of Today with an Eye on the Risks for Tomorrow.

For the internal audit function to add value when assessing and evaluating risks it is important to look at the risks that matter most today with an eye on the risks that will matter tomorrow. All functions are expected to provide assurance relative to compliance, cyber and financial reporting risks. A forward-thinking department needs to have a deeper understanding of organizational strategy, technology trends, and disruptive business trends that will impact risk in the future. Corporate audit has the data and knowledge of the business to evaluate organization maturity and agility to take on new initiatives and the related risks.

•Defining the balance between high-focus areas - cyber, compliance, and financial reporting - against disruptive trends and technology
•Assessing organizational readiness for disruption and emerging trends
•Managing expectations of the board and audit committee

Experis Finance is pleased to announce the third webinar in our Hot Topics series. Our goal is to provide you with a series of webinars that provide practical insights on topics of interest to internal audit, risk and compliance professionals, audit committees, and board members.

Our third session covers Internal Audit Function Effectiveness.

In this webinar, a panel of seasoned Internal Audit practitioners from Experis Finance will share their insights, experiences and recommendations on how Internal Audit functions can assess the effectiveness of their activities. With different drivers and many available possibilities, this is a classic “one size does not fit all” scenario. This session will help Internal Audit leaders understand the available options in order to determine the approach and methodology that best suits their individual situation and relevant stakeholders.

During this webinar, we will address the following topics:
•How is Internal Audit effectiveness defined and how can Internal Audit manage the competing expectations of their stakeholders (Senior Management, the Board, the Audit Committee, Regulators, External Auditors, etc.)?
•What are the elements of the Quality Assurance and Improvement Program (QAIP) as defined by the IIA’s International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing? Are there different options and possibilities for assessing Internal Audit effectiveness?

Managing cyber risk in today’s digital environment is extremely challenging, whether your organization is public, private or governmental. In response to the growing frequency and severity of cyber-attacks, many organizations have decided it’s time to focus more of their efforts on cyber risk, starting with a cyber risk assessment. This approach to proactively dealing with the risk of cyber-attacks increases the organization’s awareness of the potential impacts and costs, and enables them to take actions that reduce the overall risk to the organization, minimize the impact of cyber-attacks, and more predictably ensure the continuity of essential services.

This webinar will provide a high-level overview of assessing cyber risk and explore the following:

•Threats and root causes of breaches
•The changing regulatory landscape
•Security frameworks and tools
•Practical ways to assess your risk and organizational exposure
•Key elements of a successful cyber risk management program

Whether or not you have embraced a formal cyber risk management program, this session will provide practical advice on the evolving nature of cyber risk management, how to develop and incorporate an assessment process into your organization’s overall risk management efforts, and how cyber risk management can improve your organization’s ability to withstand a cyber-attack.

Experis Finance is pleased to announce the first of our Hot Topics Series for Chief Audit Executives and their teams. Our goal is to provide you with a series of webinars that provide practical insights on topics of interest to internal audit professionals. Our first session will cover Agility and preparing for Robotic Process Automation.

The webinar will provide participants with the following learning objectives:

•Define Agility in the context of Internal Audit
•Share pragmatic insights in how to define and execute an Agile transformation
•Discuss RPA and in practical terms as companies begin to assess, plan and implement
•Highlight the role of audit in assessing the overall RPA plan
•Link the opportunities of RPA to the concepts of Agile Auditing

Presented by:
Tim Lietz – CIA, CRMA, MBA
Regional Director, Risk Advisory Services
Experis Finance

Ed Williams CIA, CRMA
Sr. Manager, Risk Advisory Services
Experis Finance

Issued by the FASB in 2016, the implementation dates for CECL (Current Expected Credit Loss) are approaching and it is essential that appropriate planning and implementation tasks start soon so that banks can be assured of meeting key milestones, most notable the objective of running parallel calculations for the year preceding the go live date. Proper CECL planning is a multi-discipline effort, requiring the time and effort of many of each bank’s accounting, risk and IT groups.
This informative webinar will provide a practical overview of planning and implementation considerations facing smaller, less complex financial institutions, including coverage of the following topics:
•Description of the CECL standard and comparison to the existing Incurred Loss Method (we will focus our discussion on the impact to the ALLL account)
•Review of key planning and implementation tasks including guidance needed to establish timelines, key decisions that need to be made and how to leverage existing processes
•Update on recent CECL developments including regulatory guidance on potential capital treatment and a description of the proposed auditing standard covering estimates

Our presenters will share their perspectives and industry experience:
C. Michael Baron (CIA, CISA, CFSA, AMLP)
Regional Practice Director, Financial Services – Northeast

Erik Mahlke
Engagement Manager, Financial Services – Midwest

John R. Fleming
Technical Accounting SME, Financial Services - Northeast

The Internet has brought about dramatic changes in the structure, methods and operational capabilities of businesses, and how they interact with their customers, suppliers and communities. Along with the business benefits of the technological advances has come a demand for better security governance, operational risk and performance information to support business decisions and resource allocations. Unfortunately, many security metrics become shelfware or are routinely ignored because the recipients find little value in the measures, metrics and other report contents they routinely receive.
This session will:
•describe the various types and uses of metrics
•establish some common attributes of meaningful metrics
•discuss the importance of differentiating metrics by audience
•describe a process for developing meaningful metrics
•discuss the importance of performing periodic reviews and updates.

Participants will gain a better understanding of meaningful security metrics and be able to:
•Recognize some common impediments that prevent metrics from providing value
•Move beyond the metrics status quo to a portfolio of meaningful metrics
•Discriminate the security metrics provided based on audience attributes and needs

The Millennial Generation is one of the five generations in today's workforce and now, also the largest! Learn what motivates this powerful generation as they move into leadership roles and mold the future direction of organizations they work within.

This informative webinar will provide an in-depth look at the Millennial workforce and cover the following aspects of this new generation:
•A look at the five generations interacting in today's workforce
•An overview of Millennial Generation characteristics
•Management tips for all generations to consider
•Current examples of leading and mentoring Millennials
Whether you lead Millennials today, have them as teammates or colleagues, or you report to one, this session provides insight into what motivates this powerful generation and the ways they will change our workforce over the coming years.

Managing operational resilience in today’s digital environment is extremely challenging, whether your organization is public, private or governmental. In response to the continued growth of cyber-attacks, many organizations have decided it’s time to focus more of their efforts on cyber resiliency. This approach to proactively dealing with the potential outcome of cyber-attacks increases the organization’s awareness of the potential impacts and costs, and enables them to take actions that reduce the overall risk to the organization, minimize the impact of cyber-attacks, and more predictably ensure the continuity of essential services.

This webinar will provide a high-level overview of cyber resiliency and explore the following aspects of cyber resiliency:

• Where cyber resiliency differs from traditional business continuity management
• How to determine your organization's need for cyber resiliency
• Practical ways to assess your current and future organizational exposure
• Who should be involved in cyber resiliency
• What are some practice steps to begin implementing a cyber resiliency program

Whether or not you have embraced a formal cyber resiliency program, this session will provide some practical advice on what cyber resiliency is, how to incorporate it in your organization’s overall business continuity management efforts, and what cyber resiliency can mean to improving your organization’s ability to withstand a cyber attack.

Presented by:
Stephen Head, CPA, CISSP, CISM, CBCP
Sr. Manager - Risk Advisory Services
Experis Finance

Mike Gerdes
Director, Information Security Center of Expertise
Experis US, Inc.

Jeff Butler
Director, Risk Advisory Services
Experis Finance

Behavior-Driven Development with Ruby/Cucumber automation is a practical, fail-proof, read-to-use strategy or process that improves software quality and decreases costs. 

Ambiguity and miscommunication cause the majority of critical defects and undesirable outcomes in the software development lifecycle. Behavior Driven Development (BDD) ensures that requirements are accurate. It builds a mutual understanding of what should be developed and tested through a common vocabulary.

This webinar introduces BDD methods that promote product quality by generating business requirements in Gherkin (Given-When-Then) format. Tool agnostic, BDD emphasizes communication between business, requirements analysts, developers, and testers to ensure quality expectations are achieved. Describing requirements in the form of system behavior eliminates scope creep and guarantees proper software functionality.

How do you decide what’s most important to test in your development projects? Risk-based testing provides a straightforward way to decide how and what to prioritize in your tests. In this informative session, Experis introduces you to the concepts of Risk-Based Testing, leaving you with methods and tools to improve your testing processes.
In this training we answer these questions while teaching participants how to measure and rank risks, using a simple yet comprehensive method:
•What is Risk-Based Testing?
•What forms does it take?
•When should it be used?
•What are the key elements of risk?
Who should attend:
•QA practitioners interested in efficient testing
•Business analysts who create requirements
•Technical architects and developers who design and implement solutions to requirements
•Project managers interested in effective development and test methods

During this session, we will discuss how identifying risks and weaknesses in the procurement and contract process can result in reduced costs, recovered savings and corporate governance. You will learn how to identify differences between the contracted commercial teams and what is actually invoiced by vendors using a proven four-phased approach, data mining and other techniques to accentuate manual efforts. You also will discover how to embed controls and recover real dollars through an in-depth review of your procurement process and contracts.

This webinar features George Albarelli, Director of Risk Advisory Services, and Bill Consolie, Global Practice Leader of Construction Services. They will:

•Provide background and perspective on procurement contract compliance efforts
•Demonstrate how to identify contract risks and weaknesses in the procurement and contract process
•Introduce processes that could reduce overpayments
•Share how to imbed controls and recover real dollars

In addition to the above, the presenters will highlight specific aspects of contract compliance as it relates to construction. Specifically, they will emphasize:
•Cost recovery
•Risk mitigation
•Cost avoidance
•Cash management / cash flow

Presented by George Albarelli, RAS Director, and Bill Consolie, Practice Leader-Construction Services, both of Experis Finance.

Assessment and implementation of the new revenue recognition standard is in full force and moving beyond the assessment phase for many companies. This webinar will provide a high-level summary of the new revenue recognition standard focusing on implementation considerations including tax and internal control documentation and procedures, as well as disclosure requirements and examples of the new significant footnote disclosures. This webinar will go beyond the debits and credits and into specific areas that companies should focus on as they move toward the adoption date. The presenters will share their perspectives gained and other issues noted when advising clients on their assessment and implementations as well as noted within industry guidance.

Presented by:
Pam Henry, CPA, CGMA; Director - Finance and Accounting
Ladonna Johnson, CPA; Engagement Manager – Technical Accounting

IT leaders are increasingly uncovering the value of soft skills within their workforce. They’re telling us that soft skills—specifically communication and collaboration skills—can be as important as some technical competencies. What is causing increasing demands for soft skills in IT talent? How do IT leaders assess the soft skills of new recruits? Can these skills be developed in existing employees?

During this webinar, you’ll hear experts from Experis and Right Management discuss the need for improved soft skills within today’s IT workforce and how IT leaders can ensure their workforce has the skills required to succeed in today’s world of work.

By participating in this webinar, you will:
Understand the increasing importance of communication and collaboration skills in IT roles today
Gain greater insight from workforce experts about how to assess new IT recruits for soft skill proficiency
Learn best-practice strategies for developing communication and collaboration skills within your team

* NOTE: This event qualifies for 1 CPE credit.
Experis is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.learningmarket.org. Should this course need to be cancelled or rescheduled by Experis, a 24-hour notice will be provided. For more information regarding administrative policies such as complaint and refund, contact Learning & Development at 414-319-3400.

Year-end tax activities can be overwhelming and put extra stress on you and your tax team. Corporations are often challenged to clarify what their priorities need to be when planning for year-end tax activities. As 2016 comes to a close, there are a number of important items that should be taken into consideration as part of your planning efforts. This 60-minute webinar will update participants on the latest federal, state and international tax developments.

By attending this session, participants will:

-International Tax - Learn about international tax updates including BEPS and, in particular, the impact of Country by Country reporting on compliance and reporting obligations as well as Global Indirect Tax (VAT/GST) updates
-Federal Tax - Understand the latest developments and changes in federal tax including section 179 and bonus depreciation, deductions which were made permanent or extended via tax extenders bill, and other major developments for business entities
-State and Local Tax - Be aware of critical state income, sales and use tax legislative modifications and case that may impact your business

Regulators acknowledge the risks associated with vendor relationships and have demanded that business leaders monitor and take responsibility for the actions of their vendors through various laws and standards such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the FCPA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, as well as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements and CFPB guidance.

Consequently, vendor management is currently at the forefront of organizational risk management priorities and Internal Audit needs to address vendor management and third party risk in their audit planning and execution.

In this presentation, you will:
- Gain an understanding of the potential risks that may arise from the use of third party service providers
- Identify the basic elements of an effective third party risk management program