SOX has started to make 3000 shops toe the line

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is already having an impact on HP 3000 customers’ timelines for making transition choices. A July 15, 2005 deadline is approaching for documenting business processes to satisfy US regulators. HP 3000 customers are reporting that SOX is dominating their IT spending this year at companies who are public or use public financing. An AMR Research report says Sarbanes-Oxley is grabbing 42 percent of compliance-related IT spending, and more than a third of companies plan to increase Sarbanes- Oxley spending this year. A recent survey showed companies will spend an average of $3 million and 30,000 hours dealing with section 404 of the Act, which revolves around internal controls. And the US government has not granted a single extension, not even for smaller public companies.

The March 11 regional meeting of the CAMUS manufacturing user group included a briefing on SOX; customers posting on the HP 3000 newsgroups have been asking for help on how to make the IMAGE audit trails clear enough to satisfy regulators. Terri Glendon Lanza, the CAMUS Midwest president who contributes to HP 3000 support company the Support Group inc.’s newsletter, told CAMUS members that SOX is not just ISO for accountants. “Not true, I learned at a presentation at the Sears Tower on February 24,” Lanza wrote to CAMUS members. “Making sure that a company’s financial books show an exact valuation actually reaches throughout the organization.

“Initial efforts centered on accounting reporting, but now general business processes are also reviewed for any potential financial risk. This review lends itself well to making cases for implementing best practices in various areas such as purchasing, inventory management, and supply chain functions. Besides those benefits, officers of the organization will avoid the ‘orange suit syndrome’ (jail time).” For more details contact the Support Group inc. or Lanza at www.askterri.com.