B&S Insider Questions Compliance Claims

NEW YORK -- The need to comply with regulations governing corporate data has sent most companies begging a range of professionals, consultants, and service providers for help. But this month's report from Byte and Switch Insider (www.byteandswitch.com/insider) – Compliance Services: Help or Hindrance? – explains that not all compliance services deliver the goods.

A lack of standards about compliance policies and procedures makes it tough to ensure that outside consultants follow best practices. In some instances, even top-notch firms have botched compliance projects. What's more, research shows that big firms can neglect fine points, while small ones can fail to address some major issues. Worse still, some advisers may suffer from conflicts of interest that impair their objectivity.

To avoid disappointment, companies must know what they need before they get on the phone to a service provider, even if they don't have all the fine points covered. "Companies that rely too heavily on an outside firm for guidance appear to be at risk of getting less than they're paying for – or worse, trouble they didn't expect," says Mary Jander, Byte and Switch site editor and author of this report.

The report outlines the basic elements of a compliance project, then explains how attention to expertise, cost, objectivity, and standards (as available) can ensure successful use of services.

In addition, the report examines the pros and cons involved in engaging services from the following sources:

This report examines services from the following public companies: Accenture, BearingPoint Inc., Capgemini, Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), Datalink Corp., Detica Group plc, Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS), EMC Corp., First Consulting Group, The Hackett Group (a division of Answerthink), Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Global Services, (a division of IBM Corp.), Iron Mountain Inc., Kasten Chase Applied Research Ltd., Protiviti Consulting, (a division of Robert Half International Inc.), Sun Microsystems Inc., Tata Consultancy Services, and VeriSign Inc.

Private companies covered in this report include Adexis Inc., Cohasset Associates Inc., EVault Inc., GlassHouse Technologies, Manakoa Services Corp., Stelex Inc. and Virtela Communications.

Compliance Services: Help or Hindrance? is available as part of an annual subscription (12 monthly issues) to Byte and Switch Insider, priced at $1,350. Individual reports are available for $900.



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For review copies, members of the media may contact:

Gabriel Brown
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