VARs Answer the Call For Compliance

Old habits die hard, and adjusting to new ones can be even harder, especially when they are related to Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Barometer reports that U.S. multinational companies are looking to technology for improvements in future SOX compliance efforts. Nearly half of the 131 CFOs and managing directors interviewed by PwC say their companies have made only satisfactory use of technology in those efforts.

The VAR opportunity? Overall, 29 percent of the senior executives surveyed said their internal IT departments have been only somewhat helpful in their use of technology to meet compliance requirements, and 5 percent said their IT departments were not helpful at all. According to PwC, effective use of technology is directly linked to the success of SOX compliance. Clearly, solution providers' expertise will be crucial to effective technology-compliance initiatives where internal IT departments fall short.

VARBusiness' own research shows that VARs have already jumped on the compliance bandwagon. A snapshot of VARBusiness 500 executives surveyed in the second quarter of this year revealed that 59 percent had established in the past 18 months a compliance practice to take advantage of opportunities relating not only to SOX, but to HIPAA and the Patriot Act.