Upgraded software offers enhanced reporting, flexible auditing methodology
Vienna, VA, and San Francisco — April 2, 2004 — HandySoft Global Corp., a business process management (BPM) solutions provider, and Enterprise Web services provider Plumtree Software today announced version 2.0 of the SOXA Accelerator. The solution adds new compliance functionality to the SOXA Accelerator, released in June of 2003, which has a growing roster of Global 500 customers, according to the companies.
HandySoft said the enhanced version was created to help public companies address the challenges they face as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. SOXA Accelerator 2.0 now provides updated reporting capabilities for improved control and administration and enhanced support for Sarbanes-Oxley Sections 302 and 404. Section 302 requires CEOs and chief financial offiers of public companies to personally certify their company's financial results quarterly and annually. Section 404 requires that public companies report annually on the effectiveness of their reporting process and internal controls, and requires that external auditors attest to the company's conclusions.
According to a December 2003 Outlook by AMR Research, "Money will need to be earmarked to pay external staff, with technology expenditures exceeding $1 billion in total ... Where more than half of companies originally viewed Section 404 requirements as involving only financial processes, now 79 percent consider that compliance mandates must include finance, operations and IT processes."
In an October 2003 AMR Research report, analyst Eric Austvold stated: "BPM will become a cornerstone of long-term active compliance by putting a ceiling on the rising costs of compliance through the automation of manual audit tasks, rules-based enforcement of policies, and as a common platform that coordinates Sarbanes-Oxley related activities." (BPM Software is a Cornerstone of Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance)
"Our customers have been telling us that they need help in the areas of financial process control, tracking and enforcement, so the SOXA Accelerator 2.0 makes it easier for companies to compile, monitor and view reports of important financial data critical to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance," said Daryn Walters, vice president of worldwide marketing and strategy for HandySoft. "More importantly, companies are realizing that they can leverage the benefits of process design, control and enforcement beyond corporate governance and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance to institutionalize best practices, save time and money, and improve the way they do business."
The companies said the expanded capabilities of the SOXA Accelerator 2.0 include new section 302/404 rollup and certification enforcement, where workflow and forms completed by each business unit's managers or executives on a quarterly or annual basis help a company determine if any material changes which would impact the company's financial metrics have taken place.
It also offers enhanced visibility and reporting of financial data with a new dashboard that provides a graphical view of key performance indicators and pre-configured reports concerning the financial controls of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
"The first version of the SOXA Accelerator was well received because it was a comprehensive application that combined BizFlow's BPM capabilities with our suite's collaboration, content management, search and personalization. The SOXA Accelerator 2.0 adds compliance dashboards and incorporates Sarbanes-Oxley frameworks from the major audit firms," said Plumtree CFO Eric Borrmann.
