|
|
|
Features
< Back
Sarbanes Oxley : Technology : Financial Controls
Sustain Compliance Over The Long Term
By
Robert Hagger
|
|
Robert Hagger
CEO
Datawatch Corporation
|
Sarbanes-Oxley Can Mean Business as Usual
Most enterprises affected by compliance and Sarbanes-Oxley regulations have completed the groundwork of documenting financial reporting structures, processes and controls, even as it remains a time-intensive struggle to achieve true compliance.
The next challenge is to identify and leverage technology solutions that help sustain compliance over the long term. Such solutions will distribute responsibility for monitoring of controls to the appropriate managers and minimize the ongoing time and effort required for maintenance.
Report Mining technology is one such time-saving, resource-saving solution.
Report Mining technology enables the transformation of report-based information, such as accounting transaction reports, into live, actionable data, alone or in combination with data from other sources. By leveraging existing enterprise information sources, including greenbar, ERP and PDF file reports, and data, Report Mining enables a ?business as usual? enterprise IT environment, as opposed to the "technology at all costs" approach -- the building of compliance-specific solutions from scratch.
Solutions such as Report Mining can also ensure accountability for those managers tasked with compliance, enabling systematic review and sign-off through defined workflows.
Ideally, these solutions enable automation of the monitoring of critical controls. A long term solution will eventually be integrated into many enterprise applications, with the ability to extract data and monitor key control activities, delivering the timely reporting that S409 demands. If ever there was a business environment designed for Report Mining, Sarbanes-Oxley ? and the other current compliance imperatives ? has certainly created and defined it.
Compliance and reporting tasks seems simple enough on the surface, but the requirements are extensive. Controls must be monitored and tested on a regular basis to ensure they are performing adequately. Documentation must be updated and maintained. Management must be able to support its assertions that financial data and reports are accurate. Material weaknesses must be identified and reported in a timely manner. Resolution of issues must be tracked and reported. Finally, the control environment must be evaluated.
To view compliance as a largely IT issue is to assume that IT can be tasked with fully understanding all the additional needs of enterprise departments, in a real time and changing environment. It is preferable to allow compliance, audit and finance teams direct access to existing data and reports, using their accumulated knowledge and Report Mining skills to monitor and control these vital processes.
The enterprises that will reap the most rewards are those that leverage technology solutions that allow them to efficiently meet these requirements, with a minimum of manual effort. Report Mining fulfills this key criterion. But what such enterprises do not need is more, and more expensive, technology.
Truly beneficial solutions will also support more than just compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley. The same solutions can generally be applied across the enterprise, to document, evaluate and monitor processes and controls in all areas. This need not be limited to financial reporting. The methods and procedures that are applied to achieve compliance for Sarbanes-Oxley, notably Report Mining, can also provide the foundation for an enterprise report management program.
The goal of enterprise report management is to provide executives with greater understanding and transparency into their enterprise and operations, enabling them to make better management decisions. IT auditing can apply a system of measurement to enterprise?s internal processes, providing management with an understanding of their system?s strengths and weaknesses. This allows resources to be assigned to the appropriate areas to address weaknesses and to exploit areas with competitive advantages. Better corporate performance is the certain prize awaiting those enterprises that adopt such a proactive approach to 21st century compliance.
Technology can and will help in the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance imperative, but enterprises should be wary of ?technology at any cost? marketing, and instead concentrate on the right solutions designed to leverage all existing enterprise sources of information, and implement no more new technology than is necessary to enhance existing process. Once again, ?business as usual? wins, trumping ?technology at any price.?
August 2005
|
|
|
|
