Date Posted: 3/22/2006
Quartus Solutions to Distribute Prodiance Spreadsheet Compliance Edition
Prodiance Revs Up Sales Channel in the UK
San Ramon , Calif. and Weybridge, UK – March 20, 2006 – Prodiance Corporation, a world leader in delivering comprehensive business solutions for improving compliance with today’s corporate, regulatory and legal mandates, and Quartus Solutions, a leading UK supplier of financial compliance optimization solutions, today announced a partnership that expands the Prodiance sales channel in the UK market. Under the terms of this agreement, Quartus Solutions will distribute the Prodiance Spreadsheet Compliance Edition solution to organizations in the UK seeking to tighten compliance over the use of spreadsheets in key financial processes.
The Need for Financial Spreadsheet Controls
“Spreadsheets are powerful and flexible tools for performing complex financial analyses,” said Ken Charman, managing director at Quartus Solutions. “However, their portable and complex nature exposes organizations to unacceptable compliance risks, including lack of traceability, lack of security and data integrity, lack of change controls, and insufficient monitoring of key inputs and outputs.” Financial spreadsheets are known to contain complex formulas, custom macros, and links to other spreadsheets and databases, increasing the likelihood of errors.
UK Regulatory Drivers and Mandates
Spreadsheets are used extensively in the UK financial markets for a variety of key business processes, including fund management, credit derivatives, market simulation, settlement, special bookings, performance management, asset liability matching, and portfolio optimization. While Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Section 404 compliance mandates are driving organizations in the US to apply tighter financial spreadsheet controls, organizations in the UK are facing similar regulatory mandates, including the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), Basel II, IFRS, Higgs, and the UK Companies Act.
For example, under the Basel II directive, central banks must establish effective operational risk controls, and financial analyses performed in spreadsheets can directly affect regulatory capital if appropriate controls are not in place. Under the emerging MiFID regulation, additional scrutiny will be placed on the adequacy of spreadsheets as a Front Office tool for “Best Execution”. In the US, leading tax and audit firms are now recommending that organizations apply new controls to remediate financial spreadsheets, and with Basel II, MiFID and similar mandates, spreadsheet controls over financial reporting in the UK market are quickly emerging as an area for improving compliance.
Applying Sustainable Spreadsheet Controls
"We’re very pleased to be working with Quartus Solutions in the UK market," said Dr. Soheil Saadat, president and CEO of Prodiance Corporation. "Their domain expertise in delivering risk and compliance solutions in accordance with COSO and Cobit standards, combined with the Prodiance Spreadsheet Compliance Edition solution will help organizations take a proactive approach to mitigating risks and applying sustainable controls for financial spreadsheets.”
About Prodiance
Prodiance Corporation is a world leader in delivering comprehensive business solutions and best practices for improving compliance with today’s corporate, regulatory and legal mandates, and boosting productivity for knowledge workers. With proven technologies and solutions for financial spreadsheet control and remediation, management of electronic evidence, automation of key business processes, and federated search for eDiscovery, Prodiance leverages a 15-year history in delivering solutions for highly-regulated markets. Organizations across the financial, legal, real estate, telecommunications, entertainment, aerospace and defense, health care, educational, manufacturing, and engineering & construction markets have trusted Prodiance as a strategic partner to achieve their goals – driving down the cost of compliance, automating key business processes, and better leveraging corporate knowledge assets. Prodiance Corporation is an independent, privately held corporation based in San Ramon, California. Additional news and information about Prodiance solutions, products and services is available at www.prodiance.com or by calling 1-866-569-5678.
Prodiance PR Contact:
Eric Perry
(866) 569.5678
About Quartus Solutions
Quartus Solutions is a leading supplier of professional services and solutions in the areas of enterprise risk management, financial compliance, operational risk and corporate governance. From its London office it supplies large-scale project management, compliance cost reduction and optimization services and advice on the selection and implementation of compliance tools. Quartus is a leading UK supplier of Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) project support. Quartus customers are primarily drawn from UK Top 250 companies and UK companies registered with the SEC. For further information on Quartus Solutions, products and services visit www.quartus-solutions.com or call +44 (0) 7743 055.
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