News & Events

Finsbury Solutions, a leading supplier of spreadsheet management and compliance software to the financial services sector, today announced that leading global alternative asset manager Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) has implemented Finsbury Solutions advanced Spreadsheet Workbench software system.

Spreadsheet Workbench is based on the latest Microsoft technologies, including SQL Server 2005 and SharePoint 2007, and provides auditability and control over business critical spreadsheets. The system provides finance, risk and audit departments with enhanced transparency and control over the financial reporting process in accordance with the latest financial legislation, such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

^ back to top

 

Seamlessly Integrated and Scalable Spreadsheet, Document Management and Collaboration Solution Enhanced to Deliver Advanced, Enterprise-Wide Control, Monitoring and Analytic Capabilities.

London, 10th June 2008 - Finsbury Solutions, a leading supplier of spreadsheet management and compliance software to the financial services sector, today announced the launch of the market’s first enterprise-wide spreadsheet management solution specifically designed for implementation on Microsoft SharePoint 2007.

Spreadsheet Workbench, Finsbury Solutions flagship spreadsheet management system, has been architected to offer seamless integration with SharePoint and enhanced functionality for improved spreadsheet control, risk management and compliance across organisations.

Jeremy Wood, director and co-founder, Finsbury Solutions, comments: “Microsoft SharePoint is the system of choice for enterprise document management and by enhancing Spreadsheet Workbench to seamlessly extend SharePoint’s spreadsheet functionality, we have created a powerful solution for the management and control of business critical spreadsheets, from a single environment.

“Spreadsheet Workbench is quick to deploy, easy to use and cost effective. It enables organisations to reduce manually intensive spreadsheet based processes and assists with a wide range of business functions including audit, risk and compliance, trading, operations, finance plus client and regulatory reporting.”

Spreadsheet Workbench’s enhanced functionality includes:

• A spreadsheet management portal for rapid and remote deployment, enabling organisations to quickly and cost effectively rollout the solution throughout their operations globally.  
• A high performance spreadsheet comparison and analytic server for fast analysis of large and complex spreadsheets. This allows financial institutions to quickly identify spreadsheet problems, highlight irregularities and ensure compliance.  
• Spreadsheet key performance indicators for improved spreadsheet data transparency and the provision of real time management alerts set against user defined business criteria.
• High availability deployment options provide increased resilience and disaster recovery capabilities for critical spreadsheet applications.

Bruce McKee, industry partner manager, Microsoft Financial Services, adds: “Spreadsheet Workbench provides a scalable solution with powerful analytic and monitoring capabilities that complement SharePoint Server 2007 and allow organisations to manage detailed and complex spreadsheets.”

^ back to top

 

Research Confirms Spreadsheet Control Products can Reduce Risk and Improve User Efficiency without Affecting Flexibility

London, 09 April, 2008 -Finsbury Solutions, a leading supplier of spreadsheet management and compliance software to the financial services sector, today announced that leading analyst firm, Gartner, Inc., has rated Finsbury Solutions as 'Promising' in its MarketScope for Spreadsheet Control Products Assessment, 2008, written by Jay Heiser and David Furlonger, published on 11 March, 2008.

Finsbury's Spreadsheet Workbench is the market's only enterprise spreadsheet control solution exclusively based on Microsoft SharePoint 2007. It provides a flexible, enterprise-wide spreadsheet management and compliance solution for the rapid control and development of business critical spreadsheet applications.
Jeremy Wood, director and co-founder, Finsbury Solutions, comments: "We feel this rating is a significant achievement for Finsbury Solutions, being the newest entry to the market. We believe Gartner's evaluation validates our growing presence as well as the significant role of spreadsheet control in any organization's operational risk management strategy."

"Spreadsheets support a huge range of business operations from risk management to financial and regulatory reporting. We are committed to providing the highest levels of support for these core operations, delivering the most intuitive and scalable enterprise spreadsheet management and compliance solution available."

Spreadsheet control products, so the report explains, can provide 'better levels of documentation for auditors and regulators ' and can also 'arguably reduce losses due to mistakes and even fraud'. In addition, research showed that 'Overcoming their initial resistance, spreadsheet authors are finding that these products not only improve the quality of their work but also save time'.

Companies included in the MarketScope were evaluated based on six criteria, including market understanding, marketing strategy, offering (product) strategy, product/service, overall viability (business unit, financial, strategy, organization) and customer experience.

^ back to top

 

Leading spreadsheet management firm becomes member of Microsoft Office Development Advisory Council.

London, 18 March 2008 - Finsbury Solutions, a leading supplier of Spreadsheet Management and Compliance software to the financial services sector, today announced its appointment to the Microsoft Office Development Advisory Council. This prestigious position is only offered to a select number of companies.

Jeremy Wood, director and co-founder, Finsbury Solutions says: "Being invited onto the Microsoft Office Development Advisory Council is a significant milestone for Finsbury Solutions and is a great endorsement of our work to complement and add value to Microsoft Excel".

"As an established Microsoft partner, Finsbury is at the forefront in the use of the latest Microsoft technologies and products. Finsbury's Spreadsheet Workbench solution adds an intuitive level of control and transparency to Microsoft Excel".

Many financial organisations are heavily dependent upon business critical spreadsheet applications, and although spreadsheets provide high levels of flexibility, they also bring increased business risk. Spreadsheet Workbench helps to address spreadsheet risk by providing comprehensive spreadsheet security and access control, version history, a complete audit trail of all spreadsheet changes, plus comprehensive spreadsheet comparison analytics.

David Gainer, Principal Group program manager, Microsoft Excel development team, comments: "We are delighted that Finsbury Solutions is part of the Microsoft Office Developer Advisory Council. Finsbury Solutions provides significant added value to Microsoft applications and with its extensive experience and knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Finsbury will be a valuable participant of the council".

^ back to top

 

Leading spreadsheet management and compliance provider joins Microsoft London Market Network.

London, February 28, 2008 - Finsbury Solutions, a leading provider of spreadsheet management and compliance solutions, today announced its participation in the London Market Network, a select group of companies that have joined forces to provide business and technology services to the London Insurance Market.

In this first-of-a-kind initiative, Finsbury Solutions joins the Microsoft-led group, along with Sequel Business Solutions, Moore Stephens, CIBER, K2, and Meridio. The group of leading-edge technology firms will combine their expertise to offer the London Market a ?one-stop-shop? technology solution.

Jeremy Wood, Director and Co-founder of Finsbury Solutions, says: "The London Market Network joins a cohesive, best-of-breed pool of technologies with an optimum implementation programme. The resulting improvements in efficiency and profitability of individual London Market companies will heighten competition, which will, in turn, raise the bar of the industry as a whole.

Finsbury Solutions' Spreadsheet Workbench product resolves many of the real business and control issues that surround collating, manipulating, and storing critical business data in a spreadsheet environment. The solution will allow London Market members to seamlessly adopt robust IT controls and procedures into business critical spreadsheet applications, ensuring operational risk issues are minimized, and spreadsheet applications are more robust, scalable and supportable.

Wood adds: "This network provides a formal structure in which vendors and the business community can come together, share problems and solutions, and work out new ways to employ technology solutions faster, more cost efficiently and more effectively".

Bruce McKee, Insurance Business Development Manager, Microsoft UK, says: "All the partners have been selected because of their ability to solve a business issue or problem that exists in the London Market. They will have solved such problems before; have customer endorsements; solid reputations, and as business partners, the right cultural fit".

An invitation-only launch event of the London Market Network is to be hosted at Balls Brothers, Mincing Lane, London, on February 28th, 2008.

^ back to top

 

Advanced spreadsheet analytics help to avert financial irregularities.

London, 16th July 2007 - Finsbury Solutions, a leading supplier of Spreadsheet Management and Compliance software to the financial services sector today announced the availability of Spreadsheet Workbench V2.10. This latest version of the product provides advanced spreadsheet analytics capabilities. Users will benefit by being able to analyse larger and more complex spreadsheets and by reducing the time required to review potential errors.

Spreadsheet Workbench is one of the leading spreadsheet management and compliance solutions for the financial services sector. It provides comprehensive spreadsheet security and access control, version history, a complete audit trail of all spreadsheet changes, plus comprehensive spreadsheet comparison analytics. Spreadsheet Workbench V2.10 builds upon these capabilities and provides some of the most powerful spreadsheet analytic capabilities available.

The financial services sector is one of the heaviest users of business critical spreadsheets. Most financial organisations use spreadsheets to support key business processes across the enterprise, including trading, operations and finance and it is not uncommon for the number of critical spreadsheets in any one organisation to number over 100,000. However spreadsheets bring significant operational and financial risks. Recent surveys by some of the leading accountancy and audit firms have shown that over 90% of spreadsheets contain errors, with over 5% of those errors being material.

Over the last two years managing spreadsheet risk has become a major item on the corporate agenda and with increasing financial regulation including Sarbanes Oxley and Basel II, plus guidance from the FSA and external auditors, organisations are now seeking to put in place spreadsheet management and compliance solutions.

Business critical spreadsheet applications can be very complex, and as they often contain large sets of complex unstructured data are difficult to analyse for problems. Simplistic analysis tools can generate large numbers of exceptions, which on further review can be shown not to result in any adverse business consequences. As a result business managers may waste large amounts of time reviewing irrelevant exceptions. Powerful analytics that enable users to focus on genuine issues can help organisations detect more critical problems faster whilst significantly reducing the cost of the review and audit process.

Spreadsheet Workbench V2.10 includes the most advanced set of spreadsheet analytics currently available and provides the business user with the capability of rapidly highlighting spreadsheet issues and errors in a meaningful and intelligent way that can avert a potentially fundamental issue.

Jeremy Wood, Director and Co-Founder of Finsbury Solutions comments, "Spreadsheet Workbench V2.10 really sets the benchmark for enterprise class spreadsheet analytics. Our ability to provide intelligent comparison and change information rapidly can make a fundamental difference in reducing the level of operational risk whilst preserving the flexibility that the business needs in its continued use of business critical spreadsheet applications".

^ back to top