"IT Solutions for Sarbanes Oxley Act"

An independent special report on IT solutions for publicly trading companies seeking compliance with the Sarbanes Oxley Act.

What's this report contains

This report, "IT Solutions for Sarbanes Oxley Act", reviews fifty-two (52) solutions that are designed to assist US publicly-traded companies meet their Sarbanes Oxley Act compliance requirements.

Page count: 102 Pages.

Sample Chapters

Executive Summary
Over $35 billion was lost at the start of this millennium by investors in US stock markets. To a large degree, this collapse was instigated by illegal manipulation of corporate financial reporting—better know as “creative accounting”. [Read More]

Facts and Figures
More than 50% of respondents said they do NOT have a formal document that identifies all the processes that are undertaken to get financial data into the general ledger for close. [Read More]

Axentis - Governance & Compliance Management System
Axentis warn that while companies work furiously to ensure compliance with the SOA requirements, most are focused on ‘getting in compliance’ rather than staying in compliance. [Read More]

Fujitsu Software - Infrastructure Solutions
Fujitsu Software released the next generation of its Interstage Suite, which it dubs “one of the world's broadest families of application infrastructure software products for designing, developing, and managing scalable, customized mission-critical applications.” Interstage facilitates the management of processes and content, and supports Web services.[Read More]

Resultor — Employee Confidentiality
Resultor's Direct & Confidential solution claims to be the only Sarbanes-Oxley disclosure product that promotes a corporate culture encouraging legal and ethical practices and better business results. [Read more]

Sabrix - European Union & Sarbanes Oxley Act Compliance
The San Ramon-based provider of enterprise tax applications recently released a new version of its Sabrix VAT Manager and Sabrix Global Tax Manager applications, including enhanced capabilities for European Union and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. [Read More]

Voicelog - Employee Hotline
VoiceLog LLC, who provides call recording services, unveiled its employee hotline service, VoiceLog SARBOX, which is designed to meet the needs of publicly-traded companies who are required to provide such a hotline under section 301 of the Sarbanes-Oxley bill passed in 2002. [Read More]

Sample Chapters

Companies reviewed in this report

·          ACL — CONTINUOUS CONTROLS MONITORING

·          ACCENTURE — FIRM (FINANCIAL INTEGRITY/RISK MANAGEMENT)

·          ADOBE — DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS

·          AXENTIS — GOVERNANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

·          BEARINGPOINT — COMPLIANCE SOLUTIONS

·          BINDVIEW — DECISION SUPPORT CENTER

·          BISYS — REGULATORY SERVICES

·          CHIMES — WORKPLACE BUDGET METRICS

·          CLICK COMMERCE — MANAGING INDIRECT SALES CHANNELS

·          CGIS — HOTLINE SYSTEMS

·          DETERMINE — CONTRACT PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

·          E-SOL — LOW COST SMB SOLUTIONS

·          FEA — ENERGY RISK MANAGEMENT

·          FILENET — DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

·         FUJITSU — INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS

·          GOLD WIRE — INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT

·          HANDYSOFT — SARBANES-OXLEY ACCELERATOR

·          IFS — SOLUTIONS FOR 203, 404 & 409

·          IBM / KPMG — LOTUS SOLUTIONS

·          IBM — SUITE OF SOX SOLUTIONS

·          ILOG — SOLUTION ACCELERATOR FOR COMPLIANCE

·          INFOSTEP — COSO AND COBIT CONTROLS

·          INTEGRIFY — SECTION 404 COMPLIANCE

·          INTERWOVEN — PROTECT PROGRAM

·          ISYS — DOCUMENT STORAGE

·          OPTIKA — RECORDS MANAGEMENT

·          IXOS — LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT

·          STEELPOINT — COMPLIANCE & LITIGATION RISK MANAGEMENT

·          METHODWARE — ENTERPRISE RISK ASSESSOR

·          MANTAS — SOA FOR TELCOS

·          MESSAGEGATE — EMAIL COMPLIANCE

·          MOVARIS — COSO FRAMEWORK

·          NEXTANCE — RISKS IN CONTRACT PROCESSES

·          OPENPAGES — DOCUMENT & PROCESS MANAGEMENT

·          PEOPLESOFT — ENTERPRISE INTERNAL CONTROLS ENFORCER

·          PERISCOPEIQ — COSO-CONSISTENT ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK

·          PROVIDUS — SARBANES-OXLEY & BASEL II

·          PROFORMA — FINANCIAL PROCESS & CONTROL MODELS

·          RESULTOR — EMPLOYEE CONFIDENTIALITY

·          FOCUS — DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

·         SABRIX — EUROPEAN UNION & SOA

·          COGNOS — ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS

·          SAP — COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

·          SAS — INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS

·          STELLENT — CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

·          FORTH GENERATION — 8 STEP PROCESS

·          UNISYS — WIRELESS EXECUPOINT

·          VIGNETTE — DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

·          VISAGE — MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

·          VOICELOG — EMPLOYEE HOTLINE

·          XYTHOS — INTEGRATED COMPLIANCE

·          ZEQUEL — DYNAMICPOLICY

·          APPENDIX A – FACT AND FIGURES

Report page count: 102 Pages.

Executive Summary

Over $35 billion was lost at the start of this millennium by investors in US stock markets.

To a large degree, this collapse was instigated by illegal manipulation of corporate financial reporting—better know as “creative accounting”.

This resulted in the parading of top executives across TV screens as they were traipsed into courts of law, and in its wake the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which intends to tighten internal controls over financial reporting.

Since then, many public companies charged with meeting these compliance guidelines have struggled to determine just exactly what they’re required to do. Indeed, the long enforcing arms of SOX compliance legislation will reach down into all types of corporate nooks and crannies.

SOX differs from other compliance guidelines, in that the IT Department plays a critical role in supporting the mandatory requirements.  

And as the compliance deadline beckons, the screw is turning on IT Departments who prepare for an extremely rigorous audit.

This special report, “IT Solutions for Sox Compliance”, outlines over 50 software solutions that should enable IT Departments comply with guidelines. It reviews a broad spectrum of solutions ranging from mammoth end-to-end systems, such as those from SAP, to more specialized products, for example technologies for email or hardware.

If your company is subject to SOX compliance and you’re involved in IT activities, you could benefit from the information contained in this report.

Companies affected by SOX include:

• All USA publicly traded companies, each of their divisions, and all of their wholly owned subsidiaries.

• Non-USA public multinational company engaging in business in the U.S.

• Though SOX is not mandated for private firms, noises have been made that private firms should explore how to comply with the spirit, intent and letter of the law.

While the majority of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act focuses on checks and balances at the highest levels of an organization, four of the 36 sections have specific ramifications for the IT department, including:

Effective: Immediately

CXOs must certify that they have reported any deficiencies or significant changes in internal controls to the audit committee. The recording of this certification will most likely require an IT solution for each step in the process, security features and archiving tasks in relation to each certification. 

Effective: June 15, 2004 or April 15, 2005

Each annual report requires an "internal control report" stating that management is responsible for an adequate internal control structure including an assessment of the control structure's effectiveness.

Effective: June 15, 2004 or April 15, 2005

The auditor must attest to—and report—the CXO’s assertions regarding its assessment of the effectiveness of its internal controls.

Effective: Not yet determined

Companies will be required to disclose additional information concerning significant important changes in its financial condition or operations.

Effective: Immediately

This section penalizes those found tampering with records, documents, or other objects with the intention to impair an object's integrity or availability.

As financial structures vary from company to company, there is no ‘silver bullet’ that ideally suits every affected public company. However, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board briefing paper (July 29, 2003 Roundtable) suggests that:

"The SEC's final rules specified that management must base its evaluation of the effectiveness of the company's internal control over financial reporting on a suitable, recognized control framework that is established by a body or group that has followed due-process procedures, including the broad distribution of the framework for public comment."

Therefore, to meet compliance objectives, CIOs must design, develop and support the underlying processes and procedures that will support their respective needs.