Shaw Industries Selects Oversight Systems' Continuous Monitoring Solution
Streamlines and Improves Accounts Payable Process Review
ATLANTA (September 25, 2007) – Oversight Systems, the leading provider of automated continuous monitoring solutions, today announced that Shaw Industries Group, Inc., a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., has selected Oversight's continuous monitoring solution to streamline, automate, and boost the effectiveness of the ongoing review of their accounts payable and procure-to-pay processes. The Oversight system replaces a labor-intensive in-house approach that incorporated manual auditing processes and the use of other auditing software.
"Our previous approach only gave us retrospective views of our data, up to six months after-the-fact," says Jim Kirkpatrick, Director of Internal Audit for Shaw. "It was very rigid, and we had to massage the data a ton to get the answers we were looking for. We really needed a solution that would give us more tangible results, in real-time."
The solution they selected is Oversight Systems' continuous monitoring software. Oversight serves as a "virtual auditor," enabling Shaw to uncover erroneous financial transactions, duplicate records, and potential misuse in their procurement and accounts payable systems. Oversight's software combines an audit data warehouse, advanced analytics and automated resolution workflow into a single, integrated application that continuously inspects each transaction for errors, control violations and fraud. Oversight's analytics combine the tests and heuristics used by forensic accountants, auditors and fraud examiners to precisely identify fraud, misuse and errors in business transactions. Based on this analysis, Oversight's intelligent workflow system then flags potential "exceptions" and presents the results back in a user interface designed to make the resolution process efficient.
"The Oversight Procure-to-Pay module came with a library of 130 pre-defined integrity checks. This meant that we were able to get started with the system and see value right away," Kirkpatrick explains. "Even before we fine-tuned the analytics for our specific needs, the Oversight system has already identified around 100 duplicate vendors in our system. More importantly, by enabling us to easily identify the root cause of such errors, Oversight is helping us develop and implement best practices for our transactional processes."
Kirkpatrick cites the system's continuous transaction monitoring and workflow management features as key differentiators between Oversight and other solutions that Shaw considered. "Other vendors we talked to simply said "we can't do that', when we asked for this kind of functionality," he says.
Implementation of the solution has also been very straightforward, according to Kirkpatrick. "Getting the Oversight system up and running was easy and fast. Initial set-up during the first two weeks required only about eight hours of my time, total. The Oversight team is very dedicated and responsive."
Given their early success with the Oversight Procure-to-Pay implementation, Shaw is looking at expanding the system to automate continuous auditing of their travel-and-expense, procurement card transactions and other business processes in the near future.
About Shaw Industries
Shaw Industries, Inc., a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., is the world's largest manufacturer of tufted broadloom carpet (www.shawfloors.com). Headquartered in Dalton, Georgia, Shaw sells carpeting and rugs for residential and commercial applications throughout the United States and exports to most markets worldwide. Through its network of commercial dealers known as Spectra Contract Flooring, Shaw sells flooring products and provides project management services. Shaw also offers hard surface flooring through the brands Shaw Ceramics, Shaw Laminate Flooring and Shaw Hardwoods.
About Oversight Systems, Inc.
Oversight takes continuous monitoring to the next level by combining an audit data warehouse, advanced analytics and workflow into a single, integrated, application. By inspecting each step of individual transactions across systems, Oversight identifies errors, control violations and fraud to drive higher levels of performance and compliance. Oversight's platform automates the entire life cycle finding problems in business processes, fixing those problems and proving the problems were resolved. Oversight is the solution of choice for those CFO's, CIO's and CISO's serious about compliance and enhancing their financial performance. For more information, visit www.oversightsystems.com.
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