Widespread complacency over compliance
Widespread complacency over compliance
The META Group has discovered that many organisations are confused about how to deal with new compliance regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and believe that compliance procedures will not impose major changes to business and IT processes.
The research was found through META Group's Organisational Trends in Sarbanes-Oxley and Regulatory Compliance Issues study of enterprise compliance strategies.
Only 55 percent of organisations surveyed believe that compliance will change their use of external or outsourcing services, and only nine percent consider the expected changes to be major.
John Van Decker, vice president with META Group's Enterprise Application Strategies services said: "Companies must address the fundamental confusion surrounding the impact of compliance on the organisations.
"The effects of SOX will be felt across the board, especially within the IT function. Organisations need to understand and prepare for compliance measures that will influence everything from reporting, to auditing, to supply chain management."
In addition, 29 percent of companies said they are likely to outsource functions more as a result of compliance with SOX regulations, whilst 19 percent are expected to outsource less.
17 percent do not expect compliance to have any effect on outsourced work, while a full quarter indicated that they had no way of calculating the impact.
Van Decker added: "Organisations are just as responsible for ensuring the compliance of outsourced IT systems and processes as they are for those systems maintained internally.
"This accountability will present a challenge to organisations, since they must assess whether their outsourcers' controls are compliant and adequately documented. Companies cannot do this without first understanding the fundamental impact compliance measures will have on all business processes, particularly outsourcing."
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