WORKIVA WDESK MERGES SUSTAINABILITY WITH FINANCIAL REPORTING SEPTEMBER 2014

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1 WORKIVA WDESK MERGES SUSTAINABILITY WITH FINANCIAL REPORTING SEPTEMBER 2014 Verdantix Ltd Reproduction Prohibited.

2 WORKIVA WDESK MERGES SUSTAINABILITY WITH FINANCIAL REPORTING September 2014 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Licensed Content This report provides senior managers responsible for financial and sustainability reporting with an overview of Workiva s Wdesk cloud-based software-as-a-service proposition for corporate reporting. Since 2008, Workiva (formerly WebFilings) has grown to over 900 employees and set up 15 offices globally, of which 12 are based in the US. Verdantix analysis finds that the Workiva Wdesk platform simplifies the report creation process through the use of functionality such as automatic updates of data linked to source files, advanced permission controls and comment trails filterable by name, date and time. With over 2,000 firms already using Wdesk for various financial reports, heads of sustainability should leverage this solution to support sustainability and integrated reporting processes. TABLE OF CONTENTS WORKIVA WDESK MERGES SUSTAINABILITY WITH FINANCIAL REPORTING Workiva Wdesk Simplifies The Report Creation Process Sustainability Leaders Should Leverage CFO Investments In The Workiva Platform FIGURES & REFERENCES Figure 1. Workiva Wdesk Reporting Solutions ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED 3E Company, Black Hills Corporation, CDP, CGI, Deloitte, DJSI, ebay, ecvision, European Union, FASB, FirstMerit Corporation, Google, GreenSoft Technology, GRI, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, L Oreal, Orbitz, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the Treadway Commission, US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, US Federal Reserve, US Securities Exchange Commission, Workiva, XBRL International 2014 Verdantix Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Verdantix, Green Quadrant, Total Portfolio and Critical Moments are trademarks of Verdantix Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Verdantix clients may make one attributed copy of each figure or paragraph contained herein. Additional reproduction is strictly prohibited. Verdantix Ltd Reproduction Prohibited. 2

3 WORKIVA WDESK MERGES SUSTAINABILITY WITH FINANCIAL REPORTING This report provides senior managers responsible for financial and sustainability reporting with an overview of Workiva s Wdesk cloud-based software-as-a-service proposition for corporate reporting. Since 2008, Workiva (formerly WebFilings) has grown to over 900 employees and set up 15 offices globally, of which 12 are based in the US. To understand more about Workiva s product and service offerings, Verdantix attended the 2014 Workiva User Conference, The Exchange Community. Workiva Wdesk Simplifies The Report Creation Process Corporate reporting processes occur year-round, involving collaboration and reviews by multiple individuals throughout the firm. This can be challenging, as multimillion dollar revenue firms typically have decentralized processes for data and process management distributed across various functions and regions. Workiva believes it has identified a gap in the market for firms to streamline the report creation process while simultaneously enhancing data management. The Wdesk software: Provides a single platform for financial and non-financial reporting. Workiva is a cloud-based application that simplifies and automates the process of creating and updating business reports. While originally created solely for the purpose of Securities Exchange Commission filings, Workiva now offers 17 different types of corporate reporting solutions grouped into four categories: compliance, management, risk and sustainability (see Figure 1). These solutions include Arelle-compatible XBRL EDGARization, investor-related reports and presentations, as well as Dodd-Frank stress tests. The diverse reporting solutions allow the Wdesk software to serve as a single platform for both financial and non-financial reporting needs. Facilitates real-time collaboration with a filterable audit trail. Through the use of functionality such as permission controls and comment trails, authors of financial and sustainability reports can collaborate in real time while maintaining version control. The permission controls can limit user access to a specific section, slide or cell of a document to allow for simultaneous edits with tracked changes. For example, cells in a spreadsheet can be traced to show the history of updates including all previous values. Comments are also threaded and can be hidden or filtered by name, date and time to support auditing needs. These functions help finance, accounting and sustainability teams save time on complex edit and review processes. Automates the process of updating corporate reports. Source files can be synced with Wdesk so that changes to values automatically flow through to linked locations. The live -linking functionality eliminates manual rekeying of data, which shortens the time needed to update reports and helps improve accuracy by reducing human errors. Livelinking can be used in spreadsheet cells, document text and presentation charts. According to Mary Anne Wingert, Senior Manager of Financial Reporting at Black Hills Corporation (a $1.3 billion diversified energy and utilities firm), the Wdesk software allowed the firm to spend more time on the content of the report as opposed to Verdantix Ltd Reproduction Prohibited. 3

4 Figure 1. Workiva Wdesk Reporting Solutions Category Solutions Description Compliance SEC 8-Ks, 10-Qs, 10-Ks and other SEC reports with XBRL-tagging (Arellecompatible), EDGARization, and taxonomy support Risk Sustainability SOX SEDAR Investor Relations Mutual Funds Section 16 Managerial Reporting Board Reporting Private Company Internal Reporting Enterprise Risk Reporting ORSA Recovery and Resolution Plans Stress Test Reporting CCAR / Capital Planning Sustainability Reports Annual Integrated Reports Data Collection and Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act) compliance reports System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) operated by the Canadian Securities Administrators required for all Canadian public companies Manage and interlink data for investor-related communications such as earnings release, call transcripts, presentations and FAQ book processes Mutual Funds can improve industry-specific reporting through streamlined data aggregation and linking of data and text from prospectus to SAI and annual reports Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act requires shareholders with more than 10% ownership to disclose through Forms 3, 4 and 5 Data collection and support for managerial reporting such as monthly operations, budgets and forecasts, and strategic planning Distribute and communicate with board members through various digital paths including desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices Wdesk functionalities support private internal reports for monthly or quarterly operational updates, budget and forecasting, strategic planning, etc Collaborate and support enterprise risk management issues related to finance, legal and other departments such as The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the Treadway Commission Conduct Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) reports Banks with more than $50 billion in assets are required to submit Recovery and Resolution Plans to the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Dodd-Frank requires bank and investment firms with more than $10 billion in assets to conduct systemic risk stress tests Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) is an annual review by the Federal Reserve to assess bank financial risks Build sustainability reports with GRI-certified customer managers and submit to CDP or DJSI Implement annual integrated reports and publish through various digital paths including desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices Support internal data collection and management processes such as supplier codes of conduct certifications Source: Verdantix, Workiva Verdantix Ltd Reproduction Prohibited. 4

5 spending time on the process. Similarly, ebay was able to cut 20 days out of its 10-K preparation time compared to the previous year. Aggregates survey and certification responses. Wdesk software also provides capabilities to support data collection and certification through automated electronic surveys. Users of Wdesk often require general ledger sign-offs or SOX, 10-Q and 10-K sub-certifications. The certification feature streamlines sign-offs by providing a user interface dashboard with realtime updates on progress such as number of responses received versus those that are pending. Surveys are delivered via a unique online link, and automated follow-up s can be set up to remind respondents. The survey and certification functions are used by firms such as Orbitz, an $850 million travel services firm, and FirstMerit Corporation, a $947 million diversified financial services firm, for employee surveys and 10-Q review questionnaires. Uses a cloud-based subscription model. Workiva offers Wdesk through a cloud-based subscription model that leverages Google App Engine. Customers can purchase access through monthly renewals with account sizes varying by number and type of solution desired. Workiva also offers five different seat levels: contributor (respond to data and certification/surveys only), reviewer (comment only), creator (create and own reports), manager (oversee different creator accounts) and filing manager (file with SEC and other organizations). Traditionally, corporate report creation and review cycles have been heavily Word-, Excel- and paper-based. By providing cloud access, Workiva improves turn-around time for report publishing. Real-time digital distribution can also occur through desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices. Supports firms in anticipating regulatory and voluntary reporting needs. While primarily a software firm, Workiva also offers one-on-one customer service managers as well as an online help forum called The Community for user Q&As to help aggregate common questions and solutions. The Workiva team and advisory board includes subject-matter experts such as the former L Oreal Director of Sustainable Development, the co-founder of XBRL International consortium, and the former Chairman of FASB. Wdesk remains on top of voluntary reporting and future regulatory requirements through Workiva-branded webinars and thought-leadership white papers. Sustainability Leaders Should Leverage CFO Investments In The Workiva Platform The Workiva Wdesk software provides a single platform for corporates to collaborate, build and review financial and non-financial reports. Heads of sustainability should view the Wdesk software as a tool that can help them: Improve sustainability reporting without installing additional software. With over 2,000 firms including 60% of Fortune 500 firms already using Workiva, your CFO is likely already using the Wdesk software. According to our global survey data, less than 25% of Chief Sustainability Officers have complete budgetary control (23%) or full decision-making authority (17%) for sustainability reporting (see Verdantix Global Sustainability Leaders Survey: Budgets And Priorities). Heads of sustainability at firms that are already using Wdesk should leverage the software to improve reporting processes. Verdantix Ltd Reproduction Prohibited. 5

6 Streamline complex data collection, aggregation and disclosure. Any report that requires data to be collected through multiple functions or regions can be facilitated through Wdesk, so why not use it for sustainability reports? All firms benefit from a simplified reportcreation process, regardless of whether they are just starting out with sustainability reporting or tackling more complex integrated reporting. Existing users of the Wdesk sustainability reporting solution include a handful of Fortune 500 firms. This illustrates the potential for multibillion dollar firms with an international presence to use the system successfully. Simplify the process for converging financial and non-financial reporting. Integrated reporting and non-financial materiality metrics are increasingly becoming a priority problem that needs to be addressed by finance teams. According to the 2014 Deloitte CFO and Sustainability Survey conducted by Verdantix, 83% of CFOs are always or frequently involved in setting the sustainability strategy at their firm. Global drivers, such as the US Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, EU non-financial accounting directive and South Africa Johannesburg Stock Exchange listing requirement for integrated reporting, will increasingly require finance and accounting directors to accept ownership of both financial and non-financial reporting (see Verdantix EU Directive On Non-Financial Reporting Will Bite In 2017). Develop new reporting workflow to support supply chain disclosures. Supplier transparency and product disclosures are complex processes. They not only involve multiple functions such as procurement, legal, risk and quality assurance, but also require communication and process management through multiple supply chain tiers. Heads of sustainability attempting to tackle supply chain disclosures should adapt the Wdesk data collection, survey and certification tools for supply chain risk management processes such as obtaining signatures on supplier codes of conduct and requesting information on the chemical content of products. Wdesk can complement other solutions provided by firms such as 3E Company, CGI, ecvision and GreenSoft Technology. Verdantix Ltd Reproduction Prohibited. 6

7 About Us Verdantix is an independent analyst firm. We provide authoritative data, analysis and advice to help our clients succeed in the world of sustainable business. Through our global primary research and deep domain expertise we provide our clients with strategic advice, revenue generating services, best practice frameworks, industry connections and competitive advantage. Our Research Coverage ENERGY EH&S SUSTAINABILITY Building Energy Efficiency Energy Software Energy Policy Energy Services Energy Strategy Energy Technologies Industrial Energy Renewable Energy Smart Grid Utilities & Infrastructure Arctic Economy Carbon Climate Change EH&S Software Environmental Risk Environmental Services Product Lifecycle Assessment Resource Scarcity Sustainable Cities Water Employee Engagement Social Responsibility Sustainability Assurance Sustainability Communications Sustainability Consulting Sustainability Innovation Sustainability Reporting Sustainability Software Sustainability Strategy Sustainable Supply Chain How Our Clients Benefit Through annual access to Verdantix reports, data and webinars as well as drawing on the expertise of the analyst team, our clients achieve the following: Faster internal sign-off for project funding and annual budgets Improved strategic decision-making on energy and sustainability Enhanced understanding of competitive position Accelerated revenue growth for energy and sustainability offerings Reduced risk in supplier selection Increased brand profile in the energy/sustainability ecosystem Contact Us Verdantix Ltd Reproduction Prohibited. 7