Big Four Accounting Firm Meets Audit Challenge
DaRT unravels the complexities of SOX & Oracle EBusiness Suite

The Problem
Increased Requests & SOX Overwhelm the Audit Process

With corporate governance issues and the accompanying legislation rapidly overwhelming many of their clients, large accounting firms have received a significant increase in audit requests. This Big Four firm needed a more scalable, streamlined solution for their client audits in order to handle the demand.

Excel had been the traditional tool used to gather and analyze information. However, the increase in audit requests plus the complexities of new Sarbanes-Oxley requirements produced an overwhelming amount of data. Thus, the majority of time billed to the client was spent on manually gathering and entering data, rather than on important analysis and value-added services.

Each auditor traditionally relied on a small group of internal experts to consult on the highly technical areas of each audit. Specific technical mandates in the Sarbanes-Oxley law and the explosion of requests increased the requirements of that small group. Qualified hires with appropriate talent were difficult to find, and the firm was not able to train employees fast enough to adapt to the changing Sarbanes-Oxley landscape.

The Risk
Potential Compromise in Audit Quality

Gathering and entering data had proven so time consuming that little time remained for the qualitative analysis that Sarbanes-Oxley requires. The select group of technical experts was stressed and time worn by both the sudden increase in audit requests and the new Sarbanes-Oxley intricacies – and as a result, accuracy came into question. When additional experts proved difficult to find, it became evident that unless the data gathering process could be streamlined and standardized, the quality of the audit could be in jeopardy.

The Goals
Time and Portable Resources for Accurate Data Analysis 

Senior managers of the technical and global software sourcing groups worked with their offices to establish the following product purchasing goals:

• Scaleable: A single tool must be able to audit any client’s Oracle Applications user security without regard to the business practices, industry geography, client operating system, setups, etc.
• Easy to Use: The tool must be intuitive and easy for its users - auditors in the field who may not have technical knowledge of Oracle Application User Security.
• Portable: The solution must be a desktop tool that each individual auditor could install on his or her machine themselves, without the need to rely on a data center or technical support.
• Fast: The tool must be able to handle large volumes of data, quickly.
• Accurate: The tool must give the auditors complete confidence in its results.
• Easy to Manage, Maintain and Rollout: The tool must be managed by existing staff and not add to overhead expenses.

The Consequences

• Is not efficient in gathering and analyzing large amounts of data
• Takes too much allowable project time for data gathering, compromising analysis
• Is not a scaleable, repeatable process
• Is prone to human and clerical errors

• Rely heavily on a data center approach
• Rely on multiple tools that are difficult to manage - no one single tool met the firm's needs
• Do not provide output information that is always accurate

The Solution - DaRT
Designed for Auditors

DaRT (Data Retrieval Tool) for Oracle Applications was designed and built for auditors. DaRT captures Oracle Applications user access and security information from any client in the world. It then imports the information into a Microsoft Access database and reviews areas where there may be a conflict of interest. DaRT also provides an intuitive navigation to the entire Oracle Applications security mechanism and compiles reports on inactive users, vanilla responsibilities, user-to-function access, function-to-user access, conflict of interest and other pertinent audit reports.

The DaRT Results

This Big Four Accounting Firm has reduced the time it takes to gather and enter data by 2000% using DaRT. Thus, important qualitative analysis can remain the central value of the audit. Additionally, DaRT allows auditors to serve many more clients in the same amount of time and with even greater accuracy. In its global rollout, DaRT can accommodate the needs of any country and be easily installed by the auditors themselves regardless of their laptop or computer model. The tool is highly intuitive, so the expense of additional support staff has become unnecessary. The core team of technical experts is now free to consult on higher level tasks since the auditors can perform more of the audit on site themselves. DaRT has been so thoroughly tested by the internal technical experts, that auditors have the confidence to match DaRT results against both competitor tools and canned reports. Auditors are able to provide their clients with a highly competitive, quality end product.

Legislation Addressed
Sarbanes-Oxley