It is Crest Riders’ opinion that SOX on its’ own will not push clients’ into making big technology or process re-engineering improvements. Many firms are increasing the amount of documentation they have around internal control processes in an effort to adhere to Section 302 and 404 as a de minimis solution.

Crest Rider believes that this situation is analogous to that seen in the Operational Risk space. The initial SOX phase is driven by the need for control assessments and documentation generation with the secondary phase involving integration and control improvement through automation and re-engineering.

The industry trend is away from looking at each new regulation in isolation and picking a vendor that solves that particular regulatory need (indeed in the Financial Institutions space many regulations are being "lumped" together – SOX, Basle 2, KYC, USA PATRIOT Act…) – a holistic solution set is called for.

Crest Rider offers a fundamentally different approach to that currently offered by vendors, one which is derived from a business, rather than solely a regulatory, perspective;

• Adapters, rules-engines and workflow tools facilitate both manual and automatic capture of KRIs, Self-Assessments and transactional level information gives clients the ability to alert users of potential loss, or risk, events (predictive analysis) in adherence with Sections 302, 404 and 409
• Scenario generation via rules engines designed to facilitate control failure predictive analysis
• Ensure the ongoing operational resilience of financial systems and shorten reporting cycles
• Enable clients to attract and retain Directors and Non-Executive Directors by empowerment through using information visualisation tools to increase transparency
• Crest Rider solutions can be used to negotiate reductions in
  • Audit Fees, which have increased between 30 – 40%, as a result of the development of full audit trails
  • Directors & Officer/ Professional Indemnity Insurance Premiums (increased between 200- 400%)
    through the development of fully computerized audit trails
• Increase revenues through improvements in information acquisition and visualisation
• Mitigate Reputational & Strategic Risks
• Benefit ALL stakeholders – not just directors!

Crest Rider is developing a solution, with its’ associated partners which is based upon state-of-the-art technology used to detect failure in internal controls and empower directors through the use of information visualization technology.

An illustration of an "advanced" Sarbanes Oxley Solution