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What is the Meaning of ‘Effective?’ The ability of humans to ask probing questions on any phenomenon, including questions about problems that do not yet exist today, is one of our major advantages over machines. One question a friend often asked me years ago was, “You’ve been very busy, but are you effective?” His question begs another question, “What is effective?” On the question “What is effective financial risk management?” the ubiquitous word ‘effective’ appears again. This two-part article explores and attempts to answer that question in a way that would interest practitioners and stakeholders alike. First, let’s break the clause ‘effective financial risk management’ into different parts, explain each part to see what picture emerges and then reassemble all of them together. Let’s start with the elusive term 'effective.’ Everyone agrees that this word is overused, but what is a good alternative? So, we turn to Peter Drucker, the father of modern management thinking. ‘To be efficient,’ according to Drucker, is doing things right, whereas ‘to be effective’ refers to doing the right things. Drucker further emphasized that no amount of efficiency can compensate for a lack of effectiveness. If you are on a highway, efficiently weaving your way through traffic, you are not effective if you are headed in the wrong direction. Therefore, ‘effective’ financial risk management refers to doing the right things for the reason financial risk management exists in organizations. Dissecting ‘Financial Risk Management’ by Grouping the Terms
Subscription-based monetization is no longer a fad; it's a fundamental pillar of how businesses operate today. From streaming platforms like Netflix to enterprise software providers like Salesforce, businesses across industries are reimagining the way they deliver value and monetize it. Yet this transformation has introduced unprecedented complexity. Dynamic pricing tiers, mid-cycle entitlement changes, usage-based monetization and constantly evolving contracts create systemic operational breakdowns across fragmented technology stacks. The result: companies lose track of what they've earned versus what they've billed and what they're being paid. The financial impact is stark. For a company generating $100 million in annual recurring revenue, a typical leakage of 4 to 10 percent translates to $4 million to $10 million in unrealized income—lost through data inconsistencies, process breakdowns and organizational silos between finance, product, IT and sales teams. xfactrs addresses this critical challenge by giving CFOs a strategic tool to reclaim lost revenue and strengthen financial integrity. The platform transforms revenue assurance from a reactive back-office function into a proactive intelligence capability, enabling financial leaders to identify, recover and prevent revenue leakage. Drawing on his expertise in subscription monetization consulting, co-founder and CEO Ravin Checker created xfactrs as an AI-based revenue leakage and anomaly detection platform that seamlessly integrates with any billing product, CRM, ERP, fulfillment and many other systems to automatically detect and prevent revenue leakage. Acting as a strategic lever for CFOs, it helps bridge financial gaps and unlocks new revenue inflows even in the absence of fresh sales. "Between 4 and 10 percent of earned revenue never reaches the balance sheet—lost to systemic operational breakdowns, not fraud," says Checker. Designed by subscription monetization professionals and developed by technology experts, xfactrs provides complete visibility across an enterprise's monetization ecosystem. It identifies leakage areas, detects anomalies, highlights process inefficiencies and uses AI modeling to predict future risks. Instead of waiting for financial reviews to reveal what went wrong, companies can see in real time where they're losing revenue and act immediately. Proactive assurance helps organizations strengthen profitability and decision-making capabilities simultaneously..
An organization’s financial stability and profitability hinge on its successful debt collection strategies. In their pursuit of running business operations, serving clients, and managing organizational priorities, many companies often find it challenging to collect unpaid dues. First Financial Resources (FFR) serves as a valuable partner in accounts receivable management (ARM) with its trained and certified team of collectors actively engaging in proactive communication with consumers facing debt obligations. Drawing on over 32 years of expertise in debt recovery solutions, FFR offers personalized, customer-centric solutions with compassionate assertiveness. Ensuring regular and clear interaction, FFR collaborates with debtors to identify effective solutions to facilitate payment of their unpaid dues. FFR’s solutions for unpaid dues including pre-collections and skip-tracing services, delivering boutique and locally-focused customer service nationally. “Having recently expanded to national level, we take immense pride in our ability to treat each client with the same level of care as if we were in their neighborhood,” says Terry Merrell, President and COO of First Financial Resources. As a family-owned, contingency-based business, FFR holds a diverse portfolio encompassing over 1,300 businesses with expertise in consumer and commercial work across various industries. The primary challenge for clients is the time constraints in addressing past-due accounts. In the medical industry for instance, recent regulations prevent credit reporting on medical debt until it’s one year old and exceeds $500. This poses additional challenge for clients in initial debt collection and subsequent recovery efforts. To address this, FFR ensures its collectors undergo rigorous training and certification through the American Collectors Association. They receive training to comprehend the debtor’s financial situations and are adept at handling every debt recovery. FFR engages in collaborative efforts to help consumers move forward from their financial obligations.
Growing up in Kazakhstan, where dreaming beyond survival was a luxury, Anelya Grant seized an opportunity to spend a summer in the U.S., which ignited her determination to make it her home. Despite facing obstacles like limited English skills and starting a career from scratch, she pursued a finance degree, recognizing its universal power. This decision laid the foundation for her success, building an accounting practice focused on venture-backed startups in Silicon Valley. Throughout her career, Anelya noticed a common problem—companies struggled with accounts receivable workflow, which was cumbersome, error-prone, and time-consuming for the growing company. Financial projections and reporting were hindered by the often ineffective communication between Sales and Finance. This challenge fueled her desire to find a solution. Meanwhile, Daniel Kivatinos faced a similar issue in his healthcare tech business. Despite a team of accountants, he often felt overwhelmed by complex financial reports, always searching for quick insights into his company's health. He, too, wanted a better solution. Grant’s and Kivatinos' shared experiences led them to team up with Vinay Datta Pinnaka, an expert in machine learning with a focus on building billing solutions. Pinnaka’s technical expertise was the missing piece, and together, the trio set out to create a platform that would simplify financial management, using their own struggles as a guide. Today, their business, JustPaid.ai, is a leading AI revenue management platform providing financial payment solutions, dedicated to innovating how businesses transact in the digital age. With a focus on ease of use, security, and speed, its platform supports businesses across various industries in optimizing their financial operations.
Rodney Kagarise, Director, Data Modeling, Fannie Mae [OTCQB: FNMA]
Misti Mostiller, Executive Vice President, Chief Consumer Banking Officer, Extraco Banks
Olly Downs, Chief Technology, Product and AI Officer, Curinos
Fabian Schramke, Sr. Director Information Security, Newrez LLC
Argyro (Iro) Tasitsiomi, Head of AI, Investments Data Science & Research, T. Rowe Price
Accounts payable recovery audits help businesses identify payment errors, recover financial losses and strengthen internal controls.
AI-driven revenue leakage detection platforms empower organizations with predictive analytics, real-time insights, and automation to safeguard financial accuracy and performance.
The New Era Of Ai-Driven Revenue Assurance
Three forces have defined the year. Mounting pressure to protect margins in a sluggish macroeconomic environment has pushed CFOs to address revenue leakage—which can be 4 to 10 percent of top-line revenue in SaaS and service industries—as a key opportunity for value creation. Simultaneously, the rise of usage-based and hybrid pricing models has rendered manual controls impractical, fueling demand for anomaly detection, contract-aware analytics, and real-time usage metering. In healthcare, claims integrity and denial-prevention initiatives have intensified as providers rely on AI-powered revenue cycle management (RCM) tools to stabilize reimbursement and strengthen compliance.
The market continued to grapple with data fragmentation, legacy billing systems, and mistrust of AI “black boxes,” all of which slowed implementations and extended sales cycles. Leading platforms responded with more robust native integrations, domain-specific models, auditable rules engines, and pilot programs that demonstrated rapid, recoverable revenue to secure executive sponsorship.
Heading into 2026, buyers are looking for platforms that are not only accurate but also explainable, pre-integrated with core financial ecosystems, secured against increasing cyber risks, and capable of managing the next wave of complexity in dynamic pricing and large-scale partner revenue sharing.
In this edition, we spotlight some of the most influential names in the industry, including David Robertson, Director of Enterprise Architecture, Software Engineering and Applications at Exeter Finance, and Ciprian Porutiu, SVP of Strategic Initiatives, Change Management, and Business Transformation at Marsh McLennan. These leaders share their perspectives on the emerging challenges and opportunities in the space. We hope their insights will help you make better and more data-driven business decisions.
