Technology Products Help Automate Compliance Processes

As insurers, brokers and agents scramble to bring their operations into compliance with new federal and state guidelines, technology vendors have developed new products designed to make that process easier and more cost effective.

Following are several of the recent tools announced by some of these vendors.

Mobius Management Systems Inc., a provider of content management software, has announced its ABS for Spreadsheet Compliance product–”a new solution that mitigates risk and eases the burden of regulatory compliance by centralizing and managing the lifecycle of business-critical spreadsheets,” the company says.

According to Rye, N.Y.-based Mobius, spreadsheet management is a new capability of the company’s Audit and Balancing System (ABS), designed to ensure the integrity and consistency of enterprise information by automating balancing and reconciliation processes that may produce errors when done manually.

The new product features ease of use for spreadsheet creators and reviewers, with users able to continue working primarily in Microsoft Excel while tracking and management functions take place in the background, says Mobius. Other features include secure user access based on permissions and editing privileges; automated change and version control that tracks changes on documents from version to version, including who made the change, what change was made and why it was made; and archiving of essential spreadsheets as business records.

“Errors can be either accidental or malicious,” says Mitchell Gross, CEO and president of Mobius, “but with the right controls in place, a business can create an audit trail that dramatically reduces the risk of disastrous consequences.”

Pricing for ABS for Spreadsheet Compliance begins at $25,000, depending on number of users and other factors, a company spokesperson says. The average price is $125,000.

The Blue Sage Group (TBSG) has announced Torch Control, a Sarbanes-Oxley internal control software tool that combines content with a document manager and audit reporting tools, “which enable companies to reduce the cost of compliance,” the company says.

Torch Control provides a SOX 302/404 compliance solution aimed at small and midsized companies, says Canton, Mass.-based TBSG. The program automates many requirements and “can be tailored for any business and implemented within a short three- to four-week timetable.”

The software “allows companies to manage Sarbanes-Oxley compliance programs within a completely accessible Microsoft environment,” states Diane Wolff, president of TBSG. “In addition, Torch Control has a ‘rapid stream’ feature to import pre-existing documentation into the software, and allows reporting in Microsoft Excel.”

According to the company, the software enables users to perform routine tasks of updating, evaluating, monitoring, reporting and testing internal controls “in a more time-efficient and operationally effective manner.” Users are provided with best practice examples, training materials, user guides and links to external resources.

Pricing for Torch Control begins at $10,000, a company spokesperson says.

Original Software has introduced TestDrive-Gold, an automated software testing product.