Beyond Compliance: The Business Value of Sarbox

Investing in Sarbanes-Oxley could offer a competitive edge, according to a recent TowerGroup report. The report suggests that investing appropriately could be an opportunity to change how the organization tackles related IT transformation.

"In the compliance mindset, which is manifested in a quantitative and qualitative top-down approach, risk and control data is extracted from across diverse business lines for comparison purposes. Measurable business improvements will be confined to a focused set of actions," the report says.

The report also says that forward-thinking institutions will look beyond the immediate concerns of Sarbanes-Oxley and "pursue the legislation's broader strategic opportunities for risk mitigation, operational efficiency and business-process transformation." In order to do this, the organization must look at compliance issues as a whole and leverage other improvements made for issues such as the USA Patriot Act and Basel II.

The recommendation? A bottom-up approach to interpreting data and records from various sources. The report suggests that rules-based engines, business-process models and quantitative analytics be used to mitigate risk and improve operational efficiency. Ultimately, this information will provide essential information that will help managers make better decisions at a lower cost.

For more information: www.Towergroup.com

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