How has Sarbanes-Oxley impacted the demand for SAS 70 examinations?
A. Sarbanes-Oxley was enacted to rebuild investor’s trust in the financial reporting of public companies by increasing the transparency and oversight of corporate financial reporting. Inherently, improved financial reporting assures reliable and robust internal controls throughout an organization’s financial systems. SOOX clearly states that the outsourcing of a business process does not relieve the user organization of the responsibility for ensuring that adequate controls over the business process are still in place. As a result many companies are relying on the SAS 70 standard when evaluating the robustness of controls at service organizations. Today, companies need practical assurances that their service providers have implemented appropriate controls over business processes and information technology. A SAS 70 audit is the de facto standard for demonstrating the existence and effectiveness of internal controls at a service organizations.
