With the heightened focus on corporate governance in general and compliance in particular, companies are weighing more than ever the potential effect of technology on their compliance programs—both to get the job done, and to make the job more complicated. The blueprint to see how technology can help or hinder compliance efforts is a “technology […]
Technology
Posted inInternal Controls
Beyond Delete: Intelligent Email Policies
Corporate email retention policies continue to be driven by fears of litigation, leading many companies to adhere to strict “save it until you can delete it” procedures. But more nuanced alternatives exist for companies that want their email policies to be motivated more by business needs than legal risks. Kennedy “Some companies just don’t get […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Spreadsheet Controls, Without Going Crazy
Companies trying to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 are finding that one of the toughest—and yet most essential—areas for establishing controls over internal processes and procedures isn’t even required under the law: spreadsheets. BNSF Railway recently went through the process. The company, a subsidiary of the $13 billion Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., […]
Posted inData Privacy
Managing Privacy Compliance As A Public Company
Driven by increased regulatory scrutiny, a spate of headline-grabbing security breaches, and a subsequent flurry of state legislation, privacy issues now sit high on the list of concerns that keep corporate executives awake at night. Bender The amplified focus on privacy issues has companies scrambling to comply with a slew of increasingly complex privacy regulations, […]
Posted inTechnology
SOX Rollback Bill Detailed; SEC And Korea; XBRL
On the heels of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision that all public companies will be subject to the standards of Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley, Congressional lawmakers responded with a legislative bill to make compliance with the internal controls reporting provision voluntary for some companies. Feeney U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., along with 16 co-sponsors, […]
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
As Savings Grow, E-Proxy Services Boom
Paperless proxies are saving corporations millions of dollars. At Automatic Data Processing alone, the $8 billion outsourcing giant says its customers save more than $700 million annually by using ADP to communicate with their shareholders electronically, eliminating the cost of printing and mailing materials. And as ADP racks up profits from the business, competitors are […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Failure Of XBRL; Few Takers, Many Fears
Several weeks ago the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that its new extensible business reporting language had reached a milestone, with twice as many companies participating in this year’s pilot program as last year. Unfortunately, the news also shows that XBRL has miles and miles ahead of it, too. The pilot program so far has […]
Posted inTechnology
Linux And SOX: Compliance Issues May Be Overstated
The freewheeling world of open-source software has unsettled the financial reporting community lately with rumors that using improper versions of the popular Linux operating system might violate the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The twisty discussion was sparked last month when Wasabi Systems, a Virginia-based developer of Linux-based data storage software, suggested that other software makers might be […]
Posted inTechnology
Report: IT Spending On Compliance Triples Since ’04
Spending on technology to grapple with Sarbanes-Oxley and other compliance obligations is consuming voracious amounts of corporate IT budgets, as companies double or even triple their expenditures, according to a new survey. The Gartner Group says preliminary results from its 2005 financial compliance survey show companies will increase their IT spending on financial compliance management […]
Posted inData Privacy
FTC Enforcement Raises Questions On Data Security
The Federal Trade Commission seems to be stepping up enforcement activity against companies that don’t safeguard customer data, and has heightened expectations for how that data must be protected. Until recently, the FTC only targeted companies that had broken promises they had made regarding data security, notes Deborah Birnbach, a partner with the law firm […]
