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As your company seeks to reduce costs and preserve its cash, it is important to keep a careful eye on those other companies that provide services to you that can have a material affect on your ability to conduct business productively, safely, and profitably. Specifically, your company's landlord could be experiencing financial or other challenges that, if unresolved appropriately, could hinder your ability to enjoy a productive business environment, irrespective of your continued rental payments. Watch for a number of issues that could signal your landlord is having difficulties, or may be headed for them. They could be signs that your landlord may be in danger of losing its building.

The Tipping Point: Collision of Relaxed Regulation, Small Business and the Economy, is a white paper snapshot of the current economic, ethical and political environment for small business SOX compliance in the new Obama Administration. The Tipping Point provides a sobering post-mortem case study of a small, high technology public company that, according to a well-informed financial insider, "could have been saved if it had been complying with Section 404." The company, which received millions of dollars in investor capital during years of SOX deadline extensions, filed for bankruptcy and left a painful trail of financial destruction among investors, employees and suppliers. Based on published comments from President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, PCAOB Chair Mark Olson, and SEC Chair Mary Shapiro, the mood appears to be changing from years of deadline delays to more robust insistence upon SOX compliance by smaller public companies in 2009.

As the demand for widening customer base, rising return on investment (ROI), delivering with cost, time and quality is mounting, companies need to extensively consider the market dynamics. Technological developments, changing customer preferences, evolving global standards and regulation add further complexity, therefore the companies are forced to enhance the frequency of their product updates and accelerate delivery schedules. At such a juncture the strategy of Agile Methodology is adopted, wherein QA and testing services ensure the success of development projects in an Agile environment.

This white paper from Wipro Consulting Services provides good overview of issues and concerns in Energy sector along with overview of various Energy sources like fossil fuels and green energy sources. It compares Fossil fuels with alternative energy sources. It gives brief overview of environmental issues, energy efficiency challenges and Hydrogen economy. This paper highlights how Information Technology helps in existing supply chain and how it can help as an enabler in improving energy efficiency and build supply chain around Green Energy sources

The document details the various levels of IT journey that an organisation takes. This journey has been detailed through the pyramid structure explanation. This enables a user organisation on how they can approach their IT applications needs. Organisations normally chart out their journey basis needs, but this may not be an correct approach and organisation may have to go through a lot of failures before they actually bear the fruits of the journey. But in most cases the journey loses its sheen and value because organisational needs have changed over a period of time. This document allows a user different perspective to the whole life cycle journey basis its IT – Applications.

Reconciliation utilities promise better and more flexible application of resources, lower cost structures, unified technical platforms, best practice synergies and better staff retention. They also give managers a perspective on the process that allows them to understand operational risk, and to improve reconciliation processes. Larger firms have been able to reach ROI figures in the range of 25% to 100% and break-even within 1 year in well-managed and well-implemented cases.

This paper provides a framework to understand how a utility can best fit into your organisation, how the business case can be constructed, and discusses some of the organising principles, including the challenges to keeping your strategic goals in sight. It forms a plan of action, moving you towards a more holistic view of your reconciliation activities, aggregating the many reconciliation instances across your firm into a shared service or centre of excellence – a reconciliation utility.

The white paper examines the trend toward process automation as the increasingly competitive business environment requires companies to look for ways to cut costs and operate more efficiently, especially in the accounts payable function, which is largely still reliant on inefficient paper-based processes such as traditional invoices and checks.

Too many executives, uneducated in the details of how commercial rents really work, focus on rent as a primary determinant of cost. In fact, true rent is only one component of a commercial tenant's overall occupancy costs.

Companies operating in complex regulatory environments, such as life sciences and healthcare, face significant compliance challenges. Violations of rules concerning Medicare/Medicaid pricing or off-label promotions can be particularly difficult to avoid. And when those violations do occur, they can result in exclusion from revenue-critical programs and/or the imposition of heavy fines.

Requirements are agreed-upon facts about what an application or system must accomplish for its users. They are largely independent of the methods or notations used to analyze, design, implement or test the target application. The process of managing requirements can determine project success and is especially important for larger systems, out-sourced and critical projects. However it is a well-known fact that requirement management is an often underutilized discipline in software development. The number of project failures attributed to inadequate requirements development and management is staggering.

This paper presents a strong case for requirement management as an integral part of any product/project life cycle, and it describes some of the key requirements issues that affect nearly every software and systems development project. The paper also outlines practical strategies and an effective solution to help address many common requirement- related problems.

This paper will demonstrate that the FCFE (Free Cash Flow to Equity) approach to discounted cash flow modeling provides a valuation that is less sensitive to changes in the terminal growth rate and the discount rate inputs than is the value provided by the FCFF (Free Cash Flow to the Firm) approach.

Segregation of Duties (SoD) is an integral part of a company's internal controls. It attempts to ensure no single individual has excessive system access that allows them to commit fraud or materially impact the financial statements. Spurred by Sarbanes-Oxley and similar control-related regulations worldwide, companies have never had a greater incentive to establish rigorous SoD policies and procedures.

By focusing on transactions that pose the greatest risk to the business, a company can quickly gain control over the underlying access issues and determine –- at a level that satisfies management, regulators and audit parties -- that the appropriate risks are being taken to remediate and mitigate the root causes of the issues

Without proper guidance and a sound approach, SoD testing, remediation, and mitigation may appear daunting, but a risk-based approach, as outlined in this white paper, can make the effort manageable for a company of any size.

Major changes in the pharmaceutical marketplace in recent years have challenged employers to develop and implement new strategies for pharmacy benefit program design and administration. In particular, the unique challenges of specialty (biotech) drugs require employers to strike the right balance between providing plan participants with needed medications and managing the extremely high cost for employers and plan participants alike.

This paper examines what the incoming Obama administration will mean to employers in terms of health care reform.

The paper:
* Provides an overview of Obama's health care reform objectives
* Focuses on five areas of reform Obama discussed during his campaign that could profoundly affect employers
* Poses questions to employers that relate these reforms to their specific situations.

In a rapidly changing world of technology, newer platforms are launched frequently. This necessitates that organizations adapt to these changes, keep pace with newer technology and remain competitive in the market. For this purpose many organizations have to accomplish the uphill task of migrating system applications and day-to-day business data. In addition to technological changes, Mergers and Acquisitions also require the integration of various applications and consolidation of data as well.

Many organizations worldwide are still using multiple applications to manage the business affairs and some of them are legacy systems. Data migration and system integration are effective solutions for maintaining consolidation of data and keeping synergy. This paper covers various stages in data migration: Planning, Design, Development, Testing and Pre- and Post-Implementation.

Current economic conditions present an extremely difficult environment for retailers. Consumer sales are down. Credit terms have tightened. Bankruptcy filings and liquidations are increasing, often leaving trade vendors with large unsecured claims that may yield pennies on the dollar in a retailer's bankruptcy.

However, trade vendors do have a number of powerful tools at their disposal that, if employed effectively, can reduce their exposure both before and after the retailer files for bankruptcy.

Timothy Brink, partner, and Nicholas M. Miller, associate, are lawyers in DLA Piper's restructuring practice based in Chicago.

Software Asset Management ("SAM") systems combine processes and technologies to improve the way software applications are utilized, tracked, and managed throughout all phases of their lifecycle. There are many advantages that can be achieved through the use of SAM. Improved application performance and increased productivity of both IT staff and end users are chief among them.

This paper provides an overview of software asset management and its key benefits. Additionally, it highlights the areas where an SAM solution can deliver the most tangible, quantifiable cost savings to an organization. Readers will also learn how to calculate the potential return on investment (ROI) on SAM in order to present senior management with a compelling business case for the solution.

The legislative landscape for tax policy has shifted. The election of Barack Obama combined with Democratic gains in both the House and Senate will make future tax legislation look very different over the next two years. While this doesn’t mean an immediate tax increase for most taxpayers, it does mean that the rules of the tax legislative game are expected to change. Read about what businesses and individuals should expect in 2009 and beyond.

For most companies, research and development (R&D) activities are front of mind, but documenting these activities and associated costs is not. A documentation-based analysis of your R&D activities can prepare you to meet increasingly stringent IRS requirements. Read about how to test which activities qualify and how to calculate the credit in Grant Thornton's white paper.