Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance: Meeting Short-Term Goals and Delivering Long-Term Value

For over a decade, finance groups have strived to transform their role from independent scorekeepers to business partners who are focused on developing top-line approaches to corporate success. With the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the Act), some CFOs fear compliance will minimize Finance's role and overshadow the value the group can bring to the organization.

Daunting requirements and the evolving landscape for year one certification have forced many companies to initially take a short-term approach to compliance and forego opportunities to adequately plan, improve processes, and implement enabling technologies to support compliance activities in year two and beyond. Companies have an ability to redirect their efforts. Decisions made now, during the completion of initial compliance, will have a significant impact on the efficiency and costs of ongoing compliance. Parson Consulting recommends that organizations re-evaluate their compliance programs from the following four perspectives: Ongoing compliance, Remediation prioritization, Process improvements, and Operational structures and efficiency. This article provides a high-level overview of each of these areas. Upcoming issues of Knowledge@Work will discuss each perspective in greater detail.

Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance: Meeting Short-Term Goals and Delivering Long-Term Value

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