Kenneth J. Sole & Associates, Inc.

KJS MAKES AN EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT! Strategic Resource Management (SRM),?an independent advisory firm, headquartered in Memphis, TN, that serves financial institutions across North America and Europe, announced on July 11, 2024 that it has acquired Kenneth J. Sole & Associates, Inc. (KJS), headquartered in Holbrook, NY. KJS is a trusted banking technology consulting firm specializing in core processing platform conversion, migration support, and outsourced leadership for community, regional, and national banks as well as a myriad of credit unions. The company opened its doors in 1988 and has served many hundreds of financial institutions in its 35-year history. “We’ve been very intentional over the last two years about identifying ways to achieve our growth goals" said Brad Downs, CEO of SRM, "The acquisition of Kenneth J. Sole & Associates, Inc. is the next logical step in our progression,” “Ken and his team’s expertise is second to none, and his company’s values match ours in many ways. That’s critical to our decision-making process at SRM. I look forward to working with Ken and want to welcome his team members to SRM.” More info at: KJS website: https://kjsassoc.com/ SRM website: https://srmcorp.com/ Full press release: https://lnkd.in/ebMvXiJJ

KENNETH J. SOLE & ASSOCIATES, INC. MAKES AN EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT! Memphis TN, July 11, 2024: SRM (Strategic Resource Management),?an independent advisory firm serving financial institutions across North America and Europe, announced that it has acquired Kenneth J. Sole & Associates, Inc. (KJS), headquartered in Holbrook, NY. KJS is a trusted banking technology consulting firm specializing in core processing platform conversion, migration support, and outsourced leadership for community, regional, and national banks as well as a myriad of credit unions. The company opened its doors in 1988 and has served hundreds of financial institutions in its 35-year history. In addition to its core conversion support for banks and credit unions, KJS has delivered a host of other vital services, including project management, core optimization, staff augmentation, data rationalization, and mergers & acquisitions tech stack selection and support. “We’ve been very intentional over the last two years about identifying ways to achieve our growth goals, and the acquisition of Kenneth J. Sole & Associates, Inc. is the next logical step in our progression,” said Brad Downs, CEO of SRM. “Ken and his team’s expertise is second to none, and his company’s values match ours in many ways. That’s critical to our decision-making process at SRM. I look forward to working with Ken and want to welcome his team members to SRM.” Full press release info at: https://lnkd.in/eA27f-iB

TUESDAY TIPS: Enjoy Your July 4th Holiday With Gusto! ? It’s always good to enjoy a well-deserved day off and to celebrate it with family and friends. ? The management and staff at KJS wish you and yours a safe, enjoyable, relaxing Independence Day! We will be closed on Thursday in observance of the holiday, but our clients can always contact us 24/7, either by email at [email protected] or by leaving a phone message at 631-737-5200. We will reply as quickly as possible, typically within one business day.

TUESDAY TIPS: It Takes More Than Brick And Mortar To Build A Bank The formation of a new bank institution (a de novo bank) can be one of the most exciting, and also the most arduous, tasks that senior financial executives will ever undertake. The bankers who demonstrate this kind of entrepreneurial zeal will typically focus on several key elements: establishing the charter, raising the necessary capital, filing the required applications, obtaining regulatory approval,?building a physical branch and digital delivery system, identifying board members, and hiring?management and staff. Long before the doors of a de novo can be opened to the public, an IT provider must be identified, and all the systems, policies, procedures, and day-to-day operations of the bank must be established, tested, and documented. KJS has 35+ years of experience doing just that. The KJS De Novo Assistance Program provides skilled IT professionals with real-life experience, at reasonable rates. We will work closely with your team until they are fully up to speed and ready to stand on their own, so that your de novo bank will have the seasoned, well-oiled processes of a veteran bank, right from day one. ? At KJS & Associates, we pride ourselves on delivering quality services on time, on target, and on budget. Visit our website at: www.kjsassoc.com or contact us at 631-737-5200 today to learn how we can help you get your de novo bank open tomorrow.

TUESDAY TIPS: By Failing To Prepare, You Are Preparing To Fail That sage advice from Benjamin Franklin about the consequences of not being prepared is as relevant today as it was 250 years ago. The IT experts at KJS know that the best way to avoid failure is to have a contingency plan in place that can help you be prepared to deal with unexpected problems quickly and effectively. For 35+ years, we have been helping our clients prepare strong, reliable, documented contingency plans tailored to the specific needs and conditions of their overall corporate structure and organization. Rather than relying on standard “out of the box" plans, we tailor a plan that meets the specific needs and conditions of your organization, to help you mitigate as much risk as possible. Our planning process involves a detailed analysis of your operational infrastructure, by establishing a Functional Prioritization based on RTO and RPO metrics. Nobody can predict a car crash, or a downed power line, but everyone can predict the negative impact that an unexpected power outage can have on business operations. If your organization is in the dark about contingency planning, KJS can help you see the light. We pride ourselves on delivering quality services on time, on target, and on budget. Contact us at 631-737-5200 or visit our website at www.kjsassoc.com to learn more about what we can do today to help you be better prepared for tomorrow.

TUESDAY TIPS: When It Comes To Audit Remediation, A Little Common Sense?Goes A Long Way There are lots of ways to foster a successful remediation strategy. One way is to follow the findings of in-depth studies and complicated analyses produced by major accounting firms and research think tanks. ? Another way is to rely on the common sense and hands-on experience that comes from having lived through countless audits and developing a practical strategy for success. ? The staff at KJS has decades of ‘in the trenches’ experience and knows how to respond in ways that put common sense ahead of hypothetical theories. Those skills, developed through real-life experience, have taught us to appreciate these Seven Words of Wisdom regrading audit remediation: ? 1. ACT: You might be busy with other things, but the audit remediation response must come first 2. COMPLY: Don’t argue with auditors or regulators.?The good ones are just ‘calling balls and strikes’ and are only there to maintain order for everyone. 3. ANTICIPATE: Try to self-identify any potential findings in advance of the audit.?That kind of proactive approach can be better than a “Get Out of Jail Free” card in Monopoly. 4. PREPARE: Create an action plan to remediate each of the findings the auditors identify. 5. FORECAST: Some items may require additional budgeting to resolve, but the dirty little secret about that is: it’s an excellent way of getting funding 6. DELEGATE: Appoint a specific resource to organize the documentation for the audit and for the audit follow-up. 7. PREVENT: Never, ever, allow a finding to be repeated in the next cycle. ? At KJS & Associates, we pride ourselves on delivering quality services on time, on target, and on budget. Visit our website at: www.kjsassoc.com or contact us at 631-737-5200 today to learn how we can help you with your audit remediation tomorrow.?

TUESDAY TIPS: On Memorial Day 2024, Be Sure To Remember Those Who Paid The Ultimate Price For Our Country The entire KJS team hopes that you will enjoy the upcoming long holiday weekend and asks that you take a moment to remember those who served and sacrificed for our country. We honor all of them and their families on Memorial Day, and all through the year, and we believe that “We may not know them all, but we owe them all.” If you want to know more about KJS and Associates, please visit our website at www.kjsassoc.com or call us at 631-737-5200.??

TUESDAY TIPS: Critical IT Vendor Management Is Like Cleaning Out Your Garage: The Longer You Put off Doing It, The More Complicated (And Costly) It Becomes. For 35+ years, KJS has been helping financial institutions to augment and enhance their IT vendor management framework, with emphasis on reviewing and documenting client control considerations and audit findings in your vendor’s SOC 2 audit.?We produce and provide the review of the audit to you so that you can integrate it into your control environment. ? As a KJS client, we can help you evaluate the best practices implemented by your IT vendors to protect your data in these five key areas: ·????Security ·????Availability ·????Processing Integrity ·????Confidentiality ·????Privacy We can also help you determine the reliability of your IT vendor and identify how reporting exceptions are (or are not) being corrected, by asking critical questions, such as: ? ·????Risk Assessment Practices:?How effectively is your vendor detecting and identifying potential threats to your data? ·????Cybersecurity Controls:?What controls need to be put in place to mitigate those risks, and how effective are they? ·????Internal and External Communication:?How well does the vendor communicate when it comes to all elements of system security? ·????Monitoring, Prevention and Maintenance:?Are controls continuously monitored to ensure they continue to perform as expected? ? We have the skills and experience to know how to establish an effective SOC 2 framework for IT vendor management because most of our consultants were the head of IT in their respective financial institutions.?That’s why we do more than give advice; we roll up our sleeves and help you address, evaluate, and implement the policies and procedures that you need to feel confident about your SOC 2 framework, rather than putting it off for another day. We pride ourselves on delivering quality services on time, on target, and on budget. Contact us at 631-737-5200 or visit our website at: www.kjsassoc.com to learn more about how we can help you?minimize cybersecurity risk associated with vendor relationships, protect data, and verify that your vendors maintain effective, SOC 2 security standards. And if you ask nicely, we might even help you clean out your garage.

TUESDAY TIPS: Get The Right People At The Right Time For The Right Price With Staff Augmentation For 35+ years, KJS has been helping financial institutions with staff augmentation services that: Increase Flexibility: by giving them the agility of adjusting their workforce rapidly, based on critical mission needs and goals, or in response to workforce requirements, market conditions, or seasonal business demands, all without disrupting ongoing operations Improve Access to IT Expertise: by providing access to a pool of highly skilled IT professionals who have expertise in specific domains or technologies, to help navigate any potential skills gap Enhance Scalability: by enabling them to scale their teams up or down quickly and efficiently, without needing to commit to long-term hires or facing mass layoffs Reduce Onboarding Time and HR Costs: by helping them to lower the costs associated with recruiting and training, and the benefits and other expenses involved with full-time employees We pride ourselves on delivering quality services on time, on target, and on budget. Contact us at 631-737-5200 or visit our website at: https://kjsassoc.com to learn more about how we can provide the kind of staff augmentation that help you increase hiring flexibility, improve access to IT expertise, enhance scalability and lower your onboarding time and employee overhead costs.

Don’t fall into the trap of “save everything - storage is cheap” or “the auditors want us to save everything”.