ARGOS Reduces SOX Compliance Costs Through:

Effective Methodology and Architecture

ARGOS's unique new methodology and compact Regulatory Compliance Architecture slash the overhead, time, and costs of internal audits. This in turn, results in a substantial decrease in the time and costs of the external audit confirmation.

Efficient Internal Audits

ARGOS reduces the costs of internal audits by:

• implementing state of the art Regulatory Compliance Architecture. The need for companies to adopt such architecture is supported by experts such as the Gartner Group, which says "By 2006, public companies that do not adopt a compliance management architecture will spend 50 percent more annually to achieve Sarbanes Oxley compliance."
• vastly improving the quality of the documentation of internal controls
• reducing the duration of internal audits by as much as half

ARGOS's typical billable time spent onsite for the GCC portion of each internal audit is only 400 hours, and has never exceeded 500 hours. This will be of great interest to potential clients who are used to SOX engagements that can approach, or even exceed 1,000 hours. With ARGOS, the expenditure is cut in half.

Reduced External Auditing Time

The ARGOS system further cuts costs by slashing external auditing time. As described by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), "The more clearly management documents its internal control over financial reporting, the process used to assess the effectiveness of the internal control, and the results of that process, the easier it will be for the auditor... This should translate into reduced professional fees for the audit..."

The thoroughness and clarity of ARGOS documentation makes it so easy for the auditor that it typically reduces external audit time by 25 to 50 percent!  This especially important when most companies are facing rising audit costs. In a survey of 217 companies, Financial Executives International has found that the sharp increase in hours charged per audit engagement has caused the average cost of SOX compliance to be 39 percent higher than companies expected to spend.

It is therefore more important than ever for management to turn to ARGOS!