Oversight Systems In The News Archive 2005

December 2005

Teaming Up To Tackle Risk
For many organizations, the term risk management can serve as a sort of institutional Rorschach test. Executives challenged to define and describe it tend to perceive what they want to see, and in articulating their thoughts on the subject reveal their disciplinary heritage, experiences, and priorities.

December 2005

Sarbanes-Oxley Report Card Is Mixed
Three years after the law was enacted, has it made a demonstrable difference in the level of corporate fraud? Opinion is divided, at best, though there's a general feeling that corporate governance has improved.

December 2005

The Negative Impact of Sarbox
Sarbox has a negative impact on the morale of the employees responsible for compliance. Companies need to find ways to alleviate the burden of daily compliance in order to reduce employee frustration and attrition and to keep good employees in the pipeline for senior positions, whether CFO or CEO.

Dec. 6, 2005

Survey: Economic Crime On The Upswing
While the Oversight Systems survey focused specifically on fraud in the United States, the majority of respondents said the current interest in institutional integrity will fade in the next five years or has already begun to fade.

November 2005

Take A Lesson On SOX
Companies that take a strategic approach to implementing SOX can derive business benefits from compliance.

November 2005

The Process Improvement Payoff
The finance function shopped for an A/P monitoring tool and settled on an application from Oversight Systems that automatically detects irregular payments to suppliers. The software was installed as the company's first-year Section 404 work neared a close at the end of 2004. By the middle of this year, the tool had already helped American Electric Power reduce its A/P costs by 75 percent.

November 28, 2005

Bad News on the Responsible-Data-Management Front
It may be discouraging to the IT people who have been managing the bulk of the effort required to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and other data security regulations, but a new survey found that SOX has not changed the financial accounting or reporting cultures within U.S. businesses.

Nov. 28, 2005

Study: Sarbanes-Oxley Law Not Changing Technology Business Culture
Survey respondents agree that SOX serves to identify fraudulent activity, but they do not believe the recent cultural change among U.S. business leaders toward "institutional integrity" and fraud prevention will stick. Only 17 percent believe there will be a "shift" among technology business leaders to institutional integrity.

Nov. 19, 2005

Despite high-profile scandals, the FBI has twice as many fraud cases as two years ago
The Oversight Systems 2005 survey on corporate fraud showed that while most certified fraud examiners view the provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley to be an effective tool in fraud identification, few think it will change the culture of business leaders.

Nov. 14, 2005

The 2005 Oversight Systems Report On Corporate Fraud
From the conviction of former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers to the acquittal of HealthSouth's Richard Scrushy, corporate fraud continues to make headlines. Four years after Enron's collapse, financial integrity remains a key issue for corporate America.

Nov. 10, 2005

Fraud Examiners Doubt SOX Will Change Culture
Most fraud examiners view Sarbanes-Oxley as an effective tool in fraud identification, though few think it will change the culture of business leaders, according to a corporate fraud report released by Oversight Systems.

Nov. 9, 2005

Continuous Controls Monitoring: Where To Start?
As accelerated filers complete Year 2 activities for Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) compliance, companies are investigating ways to automate activities to make compliance repeatable, sustainable, and cost-effective.

Nov. 7, 2005

Double Dipping on SOX: Some companies are leveraging Sarbanes-Oxley investments for business
At the end of 2004, American Electric Power Co. (AEP) began using software from Oversight Systems Inc. to help it monitor transactions in its accounts payable group. If a manager authorizes a purchase above his spending limit, the system recognizes it and spits out an exception report. The company plans to extend the use of the software to its accounts receivable department by year's end. "We should see some operational savings once we go through another [Section 404] cycle" because AEP will be able to cut back on some of its internal controls testing.

Nov. 4, 2005

Survey: SOX Effective in Identifying Fraud
Oversight's survey explains that most fraud examiners view the provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley to be an effective tool in fraud identification, though few think it will change the culture of business leaders.

Oct. 31, 2005

Key Findings From Fraud Examiners
The top-level findings show that even in the more heavily regulated business environment, the incidence of fraud continues to increase. Sixty-seven percent of the respondents indicated that institutional fraud is more prevalent today than five years ago, and another 27 percent said there has been no change level of fraud activity.

September 2005

How is Your Company Managing Risk?
Although enterprise risk management is one of the hot strategic business tools that companies are employing right now, many firms still have a long way to go toward proper execution, two recent surveys found.

Sept. 27, 2005

Despite Growing Concern to Manage Risk, Most Companies Struggle to Take Action
The 2005 Oversight Systems Financial Executive Report on Risk Management reveals that 68 percent of financial executives say their CEO is placing greater emphasis on the management of all types of risk on a holistic basis.

Internal Auditing

August 2005

Is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act Worth it?
The benefits of SOX may include improved controls, a stronger ethical climate, better corporate governance, and more reliable financial information.

Aug. 22, 2005

Extending Continuous Monitoring of Capital Projects and Fixed Assets
By inspecting all routine non-judgmental transactions, Oversight identifies the errors that can cause overstatements of assets and of income and gives financial executives more time to evaluate discretionary items.

Aug. 18, 2005

Biting The Section 404 Bullet
"People are moving towards a risk-based approach to managing controls," says Patrick Taylor, CEO of Oversight Systems. "Compliance is bigger than these legal regulations, though. It's all about operating a business with less financial risk."

Aug. 17, 2005

Reduce the Time and Resources of SOX Compliance
The combination of OpenPages' SOX Express and Oversight 3.5 will enable organizations to merge internal controls test and review information with real-time transactions and business activities in financial systems to prevent risk, fraud and error in core business processes including Order to Cash; Procure to Pay; Employee Pay; Financial Accounting and Reporting; and Capital Projects and Fixed Assets.

Aug. 16, 2005

Oversight 3.5 Expands Continuous Monitoring To Capital Projects & Fixed Assets
Oversight Systems Inc. today brought out Oversight 3.5, which extends its continuous monitoring capabilities to the accounting of capital projects and fixed assets.

Aug. 12, 2005

Retaining a Talented and Dedicated Staff: The Hidden Cost of Sarbanes-Oxley
Consultants. Rising audit fees. Dozens of new internal auditors. Executive meetings. Revenue-generating projects put on hold. While executives seek to drive down these substantial compliance costs, another expense of SOX compliance continues to rise: employee morale and job dissatisfaction.

Aug. 10, 2005

Retaining a Talented and Dedicated Staff: The Hidden Cost of Sarbanes-Oxley
Nationwide, companies invest more in training and retaining good employees than they do on nearly any other business expense. Corporate knowledge or time in the saddle is time-consuming to achieve and costly to replace. That's why the overall job dissatisfaction of employees responsible for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance is turning the heads of corporate executives.

Aug. 9, 2005

Companies Eyeing ERM, But Few Are Implementing
While the vast majority of executives say they are thinking about enterprise risk management, few appear to be implementing it across their organizations' business processes.

Aug. 2, 2005

Survey Finds CEOs Placing Greater Emphasis On Managing Risk
The survey shows that only 35 percent of financial executives say their company has formally trained executives and business line managers to assess the probability of various types of risk.

Aug. 2, 2005

Oversight Systems Survey Finds CEOs Placing Greater Emphasis on Managing Risk
The Oversight Systems report shows the majority of financial executives surveyed say their CEO is very interested in risk management, but corporate America has yet to act to address this concern.

Aug. 1, 2005

Uncover Patterns In Processes
Complex-event processing consists of monitoring the whole set of events that make up a business process and can help companies comply with regulations.

July 2005

CFOs Battle Sarbanes Stress in the Ranks
As CFOs set their sights on sustaining Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, they are having to work hard to keep up their troops' morale. When asked to identify their biggest challenge in sustaining their Sarbanes-Oxley effort, 46 percent say maintaining the morale of employees charged with compliance tasks.

May 16, 2005

Implementation of Audit Standard No. 2, An Audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting Performed in Conjunction with an Audit of Financial Statements
Many of the larger public companies have recently filed their first assessments of the effectiveness of their internal controls, as well as the related reports from their auditors. There is evidence that the benefits of the internal control requirements are already being realized,1 and investors have expressed strong support for the goals of Section 404, including the increased transparency that the provision provides.

May 2005

Virtual Auditor
Financial forensics technology, a relatively new category of software, is generating considerable interest among CFOs and finance managers charged with compliance responsibilities. Innovative best-of-breed products in this category automatically scan finance systems to detect irregular transactions

April 21, 2005

SEC: Sarbanes-Oxley rollback 'unjustified'
About 79 percent of 222 financial executives surveyed recently by Oversight Systems said their companies have stronger internal controls due to Section 404, said William McDonough, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), set up by Sarbanes-Oxley to oversee auditors.

April 21, 2005

Testimony of William J. McDonough, Chairman Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Before the Committee on Financial Services
McDonough: "In light of this work, many companies have already reaped benefits from the internal control reporting process. For example, 79 percent of 222 financial executives recently surveyed by Oversight Systems reported that their companies have stronger internal control after complying with Section 404. Seventy-four percent said that their companies benefited from compliance with the Act and, of those, 33 percent said that compliance lessened the risk of financial fraud."

April 21, 2005

SEC: Sarbanes-Oxley rollback 'unjustified'
About 79% of 222 financial executives surveyed recently by Oversight Systems said their companies have stronger internal controls due to Section 404, said William McDonough, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), set up by Sarbanes-Oxley to oversee auditors.

April 20, 2005

Pull Up Your SOX
Employee morale - not cost - may be the biggest threat to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

April 12, 2005

Financial Executives Highlight Concerns/Benefits Of SOX Compliance
Oversight survey shows that maintaining employee morale is the top concern for maintaining Sarbanes-Oxley compliance (46 percent). Reducing the costs of compliance was a close second (45 percent).

April 12, 2005

Employee Morale Threatens Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance, Driving Companies to Automate Manual Processes, Reports New Oversight Systems Survey
The Oversight survey reveals that most financial executives say that after implementing SOX requirements to remediate control deficiencies, most companies have seen bottom-line business benefits.

April 4, 2005

Hard-Won Lessons from the Compliance Front
Oversight can help us automate a lot of the supervision and auditing for compliance.

March 21, 2005

Gaining Strength From Sarbox
AGL Resources has implemented business-process-management software from Oversight Systems Inc. to test its entire population of procure-to-pay transactions to pinpoint possible errors or fraud and plans to use that as part of its Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts this year. It's also designing new tests of its internal controls

March 8, 2005

Oversight Over Financial Controls
3.0 release of product fills in enterprise resource planning gaps, serves compliance, and catches fraud.

March 7, 2005

Oversight 3.0 Expands Continuous Monitoring
Oversight Systems Inc. has announced the launch of Oversight 3.0, which extends its transaction integrity monitoring solutions for the order-to-cash and financial accounting & reporting business processes.

March 7, 2005

Oversight Debuts New Financial Transaction Monitoring
Oversight Systems Inc., Atlanta, today unveiled Oversight 3.0, which extends its transaction monitoring capabilities to order-to-cash and financial accounting & reporting processes.

March 7, 2005

Comply with regulations and save your company time and money.
Wouldn't that be nice? Well, Patrick Taylor claims it's possible if you use Oversight, his company's namesake "transaction integrity monitoring" tool.

March 4, 2005

Oversight Systems Survey: S-Ox a 'Good Investment'
Individual accountability, fraud safeguards, error reduction and board empowerment all seen as benefits of Sarbanes-Oxley; however overwhelming majority of executives say Congress should revisit the legislation but support sections 302, 404 & 409 of the law.

February 2005

SOX: Measuring the Costs and Searching for Tangible Benefits
After spending millions in 2004 to comply with the first phase of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), compliance officers and financial executives should evaluate their return on compliance.

February 2005

Upfront: Sarbanes-Oxley's Impact on Shareholders
Spending on compliance is a mixed blessing for investors, say finance executives. How much benefit are shareholders getting out of the investments businesses are making to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley?

January 2005

Financial Executives Evaluate SOX Compliance
A majority of financial executives (57 percent) say Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance was a good investment for stockholders

January 2005

Due Diligence: Beyond the Financial Statements
Unlike finely polished financial statements, internal controls and transaction integrity are hard to spin; any varnish quickly wears off when scrutinized.

January 2005

Financial Execs Call SOX A "GOOD INVESTMENT!"
While a majority of financial executives polled feel that compliance with the sweeping Sarbanes-Oxley Act was beneficial for shareholders and has bolstered internal controls at their respective companies.