In-Depth
Advice from the front lines
- By Alan R. Earls
- June 1, 2005
Barry Goldfeder at Loral Space & Communications warns against enterprises
trying to be too high tech when implementing compliance tools. “In
my opinion, for any system to be effective, you need a working manual system first
before you automate,” he says.
Despite the inefficiencies, the manual process can be valuable, Goldfelder
says. “We started first with the manual approach and we modified them
to fit the COSO framework.” Loral created a “book” using Excel,
which was cumbersome but accessible and easy for everyone to understand. Then,
once things worked to everyone’s satisfaction, the spreadsheets were uploaded
into ICM, the tool he purchased from Oracle.
Trying to go straight to an automated tool is dangerous, Goldfeder
warns. “If you bite off more than you can chew, you will fall in the quicksand,”
he adds.
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to Master the Sarbanes-Oxley Challenge
About the Author
Alan R. Earls is a technology and business writer based near Boston.