Make sure to read the following tip for a sneak peak at just some of the great content that will be presented at the GRC2012 conference in Milan, June 6-8.

The following snippet has been taken from Turnkey Consultings's Carlos Jamies's presentation “Lessons for using continuous controls monitoring to reduce risk in important financial processes”.

Understanding Continuous Control Monitoring (CCM)

• The actual control sits within the configuration in your backend system
• CCM monitors the status of these controls, and alerts when exceptions are found
• It can assess the effectiveness of internal controls on a regular basis
• Is a software solution which provides real-time status of internal controls
• Mainly automated-type controls can be continuously monitored
  by CCM
• CCM is achieved by linking a rule in the tool to an executable program in the back-end system (e.g., SAP ERP)
• There are over 120 standard rules available in PC
• Requires table logging enabled in the backend system
• CCM can save time and labor costs, as well as prevent money being lost due to fraudulent activities

**An example of CCM can be an alert sent to the control owner triggered by changes to system parameter settings (configuration controls)

Benefits of CCM

• Controls are easier to operate (less room for error)
• Controls take less time/overhead to operate
• You can embed escalation procedures to ensure controls are operated
• Control documentation is stored centrally, resulting in lower overhead for audit teams and control operators
• Internal testing and control self-assessments are stored centrally, resulting in less overhead communicating test plans and results to external auditors
• Making internal audit more efficient so that focus can move from compliance to optimization

I look forward to seeing you at the event!

-Allison