UK staff act ignorant of Sarbanes - survey
August 10, 2005
Three years after it became law in the USA, fewer than one quarter of IT support professionals in the UK are aware of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act or its potential equivalents in Europe, according to a new industry survey.
Three years after it became law in the USA, fewer than one quarter of IT support professionals in the UK are aware of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act or its potential equivalents in Europe, according to a new industry survey.
Some 68% of support staff interviewed in the survey, conducted by Axios Systems (www.axiossystems.com) and the Help Desk Institute Europe (HDI), said they did not know about Sarbanes-Oxley or similar legislation which may be introduced in the European Union. Only 22% said they were aware of it, with the remainder unsure.
Sarbanes-Oxley has important implications for the Information Technology sector since financial documentation and controls in most organizations are heavily dependent on IT systems. If IT systems are not included in the audit process, it is highly likely that organizations will be unable to achieve compliance.
Regarded as one of most important pieces of legislation affecting corporate governance, financial disclosure and the practice of public accounting in the US for 70 years, the Act came into force in 2002. It is best known for its requirement that the Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer of an organization are personally responsible for certifying financial results.
“Organizations in the UK and Europe need to be more aware of US legislation and the possible introduction of similar laws in the European Union,” said Ailsa Symeonides, Sales and Marketing Director of Axios Systems, supplier of the award-winning Help Desk and IT Service Management (ITSM) software solution, assyst.
“The lack of awareness of Sarbanes-Oxley is not a big surprise since this is American legislation and the respondents are in the UK,” she added. “However, massive penalties can lie in store for senior managers if they do not exercise proper governance of their companies, and the use of ITSM can be a vital tool in ensuring compliance.”
assyst has been built around the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®), internationally accepted guidelines for Best Practice in ITSM. ITIL® is a core part of the foundation of the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) model which has been selected as the framework of choice for external auditors performing IT audits for Sarbanes-Oxley.
In the Axios-HDI survey, a total of 78% of respondents said they believed ITIL® was extremely or fairly important, echoing the growth in importance and worldwide adoption of ITIL® in the IT Service Management community.
Axios Systems is a leading provider of Best Practice-based IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions. Our customer-centric approach combined with our award-winning solutions, ensure customers worldwide can align their Service and Support organizations with the overall business goals. Our core solution, assyst, intuitively steers users through the ITIL® processes. Axios Global Services provides a range of consulting, project management and training services. Our commitment to Best Practice is demonstrated through being the first to achieve BS 15000 certification which has now become, ISO/IEC 20000, the International standard for ITSM. Axios is headquartered in the UK, with offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.
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