SOX Compliance Expensive But Worth It
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Tool vendor Virsa Systems has released results of a survey it commissioned on the benefits, expected of the notorious Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Only 2 out of 130 interviewed executives thought the Act was an necessary headache from which they would not receive any benefit. On the whole, executives found the legislation challenging to comply with but was a necessity. Roles of the executives included, finance, information and security professionals. Increased supervision and control of financial processes in themselves important. The benefits most frequently found were:-
Shortening the financial close period, reducing fraud and increasing board effectiveness were other reasons. The results largely mirror those heard during the SEC's recent roundtable on section 404. Everyone agreed it was a good idea, but was very expensive. Indeed over half of respondents said compliance measures had been "much more than expected." However 65% of them thought it would get cheaper after the first year. Much of the initial cost of compliance was a result of many companies needing to accelerate from a standing start, commented Douglas C Laird, senior vice president of Global Marketing for Virsa. "Companies have now realized the key element in sustaining compliance and achieving business benefit is through a preventative approach that incorporates automation of business process controls. This survey is evidence that enterprises are turning to software solutions like Virsa to reduce costs and gain greater vision into business operations. Soon companies will begin to recognize a competitive advantage through compliance."
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