Tuesday, January 18, 2005

The Silver Lining In SOX

Most large public companies are in the throes of their first annual audits under the financial reporting provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Processes have been documented, risks defined and controls put in place, yet few companies have made the fundamental changes to financial systems and processes that will enable them to comply with the law efficiently.

Consider the impact on competitiveness and profitability if you could close financial reports more quickly, provide accurate and consistent information to the field sooner, and expand the scope of financial data to include more operational figures and predictive performance indicators.

Long-term solutions for SOX compliance all but demand financial systems redesign. Rather than take a piecemeal approach focused on compliance alone, look for process and system changes that will have a broader impact. By eliminating manual steps and automating wherever possible, you can improve finance department efficiency and corporate decision-making while also building in compliance controls and avoiding costly auditing steps. You may even discover the capabilities needed to support process improvement already exist — unused or underutilized-in your enterprise resource planning (ERP), business intelligence (BI) and reporting systems.

The Silver Lining In SOX

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