The process design capabilities of Nimbus Control 2007 have been combined with the risk management, control and reporting functionality of BCS Operational Control Architecture(tm) (OCA), to bring process improvement best practices to the financial services industry. The four-step Map, Measure, Monitor, Manage approach is a risk, control and compliance derivation of the Plan Do Check Action (PDCA) approach used in other sectors. Nimbus Ensure is quick to implement and delivered through a web platform. It improves process management, increases operational efficiency and transparency, reduces risk and decreases the cost of compliance.

Michael Bush, head of product development at BCS, commented: "The parallels between BCS and Nimbus make this alliance a powerful and logical move. Firms can now take their existing investment in process mapping to the next level by measuring how processes perform in real-time against how they were designed. Not only will this create a continuous control improvement cycle, but it will also achieve improved visibility, communication and accountability across all business levels."

The integrated offering makes it easy to map business processes and associated operational control requirements, and then visualise and execute control certification and key risk metrics more efficiently. Nimbus Ensure supports faster and more sustainable compliance, which is further aided by real-time reporting capabilities. Spanning multiple locations - including offshore activities - the solution gives instant cross-regional, cross-departmental, cross-functional transparency over how well each business activity is performing, from top level strategy through to daily operational processes.

Adrian King, COO at Nimbus, said: "With regulators promising significant overhaul of the regulatory regime and ongoing turbulence in the financial services sector, firms need to concentrate more on achieving process excellence. BCS and Nimbus share the belief that governed business processes should be at the heart of compliant operations. By using this integrated framework, our clients will achieve greater efficiency in their operational risk and compliance initiatives. We are pleased to be working with the BCS team and developing a long-standing and successful partnership together."

Both BCS and Nimbus are Microsoft Gold certified partners and work with some of the world's largest financial institutions.