SOX IT Internal Control Support

Compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) still includes many gray zones. How to maximize results and efforts within limited time and resources? Coordinate opinions of various stakeholders and lay the foundation for development of controls and compliance. PM Global supported a time-critical IT internal control and accomplished the project without delay.

A foreign-affiliated company was urged to achieve substantial improvement in the expansion of SOX compliance in Japan because internal control of overseas headquarters was set as standard. For IT general control, the company had to define how to control ICT because the way SOX had been dealt with was half-way through until then. The company also had to think how to instill SOX compliance within the busy workplace. Piles of issues were waiting for solutions such as how to find and reach agreement with foreign auditors without being swayed by their theory of how controls should be like, or how to implement document management and communication plan.

Firstly, we defined roles and responsibilities of relevant persons together with systems and confirmed intents of headquarters and auditors. Secondly, we explored control objects which are feasible in Japanese workplace and defined necessary processes based on COBICT and ICTIL. Afterwards, the compliance expanded its scope to remaining departments, subsidiaries and sub-contractors.

As response to the client’s requirement, PM Global helped preparation for SOX compliance with a variety of tasks including smooth management of SOX compliance project team, negotiation with relevant persons, document management and arrangement of interpreting and translation within a limited time.