Month: February 2005 (Page 8 of 8)

A few weeks ago Deloitte published a really useful, short whitepaper titled “Under Control: Sustaining Compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley in Year Two and Beyond.” (You can download the paper for free, but access requires registration.)

Recognizing that meeting first year SOX 404 compliance requirements was a real fire drill for many companies, the paper asks the important question of how to turn this into something that is sustainable. You should download and read the full paper, but I will pull out a couple of observations that seemed particularly important:

• Many companies approached their initial SOX compliance efforts as a “project.” To the extent that the project focus helped meet the deadlines, it was a good thing. But it is also a potentially crippling attitude that companies must consciously undo over the coming year. Internal control and SOX compliance requirements never end. They need to become part of daily operations, not a special project. Facing the need to “change gears” squarely will be important.
• The internal audit team often emerged as a central part of the compliance “project” in year one. That made sense for the first year, but may not be the right approach over the long run. Without more staff and resources, continued work on SOX would displace important internal audit work. Perhaps even more critically, if if internal audit becomes responsible for implementing and managing controls, they will not be in a position to provide an objective evaluation of those same controls.
• Information technology was often not well integrated into first year compliance efforts — the focus was on meeting the deadline, not on building a workable, sustainable system. Many companies will find that it is possible to make the process more efficient and sustainable by making strategic technology investments.

The paper is a nice overview of the problems faced by companies now that initial deadlines have been met. It is the kind of paper that I put in my files for future reference.

Opening Day Keynotes: Microsoft & Sun Debate; Forrester, CMS Watch, Yankee Group, Patricia Seybold Group and InfoTrends Analysts Discuss Content Management Trends

Contacts:
Evan Weisel
Welz & Weisel Communications
703-323-6006
evan@w2comm.com
Jeffrey Arcuri
Lighthouse Seminars
781-821-6634
jarcuri@lighthouseseminars.com

Cambridge, MA, February 1, 2005. The Gilbane Report and Lighthouse Seminars today announced that the Gilbane Conference on Content Management will take place April 11-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California. This event brings together 750 thought leaders and practitioners to provide attendees with actionable advice, techniques, best practices, and case studies to help understand and successfully implement content technologies critical to their businesses.

The Gilbane Conference on Content Management is unique in that the majority of its conference sessions are delivered by industry analysts and researchers to offer attendees a neutral and balanced market perspective related to content technologies and trends. The program is organized into five technology-specific areas: Content Management, Enterprise Search & Knowledge Management, Content Technology Works (case studies), Document & Records Management & Compliance, and Enterprise Information Integration.

The conference has three dynamic keynote addresses: 

— The opening keynote address is an industry analyst panel discussion comprised of experts from Forrester Research, CMS Watch, The Yankee Group, Patricia Seybold Group and InfoTrends/CAP Ventures. This panel will discuss the big issues affecting content management strategies, including market trends, technology, and best practices. The panel will discus the current market environment, but importantly, offer predictions about what to expect in the next 12-18 months.

— The second keynote is titled, “Microsoft & Sun: What is the Right XML Strategy for Information Interchange?” At one level this can be framed as a debate between Microsoft and Sun/OpenOffice.org – and that is a choice organizations will have to make, but it is more complicated than that. Attendees will learn what XML experts consider the best strategy for preserving and protecting critical business content in electronic documents.

— The day two keynote address complements the opening keynote on technology and trends by having end-users share their real-world implementations of content technologies.

In addition, there are four half-day intensive sessions on “Web Content Management Systems: Architectures & Products,” “Using XML in Enterprise Content Management: Technologies & Case Studies,” “Enterprise Search: Principles, Players, Practices & Pitfalls,” and “Taxonomies & Metadata for Business Impact.”

“We are focused on hosting an educational conference that includes everything IT Strategists and project teams needs to know in a hype-free environment that offers insights into existing and upcoming technologies necessary to implement content management applications,” said Frank Gilbane, Conference Chair. “Nothing can compare with the rich in-depth learning experience of being surrounded by subject matter experts and industry colleagues in a vendor-neutral environment who are at various stages of implementing initial, or second or third projects that you can learn from. Our event fosters interaction between all stakeholders in the content technology community, with the ultimate goal of increasing the successful implementation and deployment of content technology.”

Full event details can be found at: 

https://gilbane.com/conferences/San_Francisco_05.html

About Bluebill Advisors, The Gilbane Report
Bluebill Advisors, Inc. serves the content management community with publications, conferences and consulting services. The Gilbane Report administers the Content Technology Works(TM) program disseminating best practices with partners Software AG (TECdax:SOW), Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW), Artesia Technologies, Atomz, Astoria Software, ClearStory Systems (OTCBB:INCC), Context Media, Convera (NASDAQ:CNVR), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX), Trados, Vasont, and Vignette (NASDAQ:VIGN). www.gilbane.com.

About Lighthouse Seminars
Lighthouse Seminars’ events cover information technologies and “content technologies” in particular. These include content management of all types, digital asset management, document management, web content management, enterprise portals, enterprise search, web and multi-channel publishing, electronic forms, authoring, content and information integration, information architecture, and e-catalogs. http://www.lighthouseseminars.com