webMethods debuted webMethods for Compliance, a new solution designed to verify the completeness, accuracy and validity of transactions and business processes in accordance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other regulatory requirements. Built with the technology components of webMethods Fabric(TM), this new solution provides businesses with the ability to continuously and automatically monitor their compliance control points without the risks or costs associated with manual testing and controls. At the same time, the process integration, assembly and optimization capabilities offered by webMethods for Compliance can also be used to further streamline and enhance these fundamental operations, which means enterprises can use their compliance investments to achieve continuous process improvements as well.

David Mitchell, president and CEO of webMethods

Building and sustaining compliance controls has proven costly for most corporations. According to AMR Research's John Hagerty [AMR Research Alert - Active Compliance is Becoming a Reality March 24, 2005], "Making compliance repeatable, sustainable, and cost-effective must become the priority for ongoing investment. Continuous monitoring and automated testing is maturing in approach and applicability to be considered for evaluation now rather than later."

Without standardized business processes, or integration between business units or divisions, companies often rely on manual monitoring and spot-testing to verify compliance agreement, which provides limited predictability or certainty. Alternatively, webMethods for Compliance brings extended visibility into these high risk enterprise business processes, provides for continuous monitoring of process controls, and standardizes and automates resolution procedures. As such, enterprises can significantly reduce compliance costs and realize other benefits through the automation and real- time monitoring operations enabled by webMethods for Compliance.

"The monitoring, analysis and evaluation of internal controls is labor intensive, costly and often fails to flag issues in time to take corrective action," said Arnold Huffman, vice president, Global Strategic Business Solutions, webMethods Inc. "webMethods for Compliance leverages the proven capabilities of our business integration product suite to fully monitor critical business processes so that real-time alerts of potential and actual violations can be consistently enacted. Automation of this process is critical and can produce significant savings for the corporation."

Designed for rapid implementation, webMethods For Compliance encompasses the following components within an integrated platform:

- Business process automation and management -- Allows business users to model and execute business processes encompassing a variety of certified requirements, such as e-Signoff and other authenticated approvals.

- Continuous controls and monitoring -- Mitigates risks by proactively identifying material events and violations in real-time.

- Compliance dashboard -- Provides users with additional, end-to-end process visibility with correlations to key performance indicators, graphically depicted.

- Document management -- Improves and secures information flow by controlling and managing all control and disclosure procedures.

One of the key benefits offered by webMethods for Compliance is greater predictability by which enterprises can track key real-time operational and business metrics without the need for additional programming. Furthermore, these monitoring and alerting features also provide users with the ability to better anticipate and predict future patterns in business operations based on comparison with past activity for a given time of day, day of the week, and time of year. Alerts are automatically triggered when key performance indicators or control points move out of range relative to historical norms and the previously-seen anomalies detected with webMethods' patent-pending 'fingerprinting' technology.

Additionally, having faced the need to fully document and test their core business processes in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and other mandates, enterprises today have a far greater understanding of the numerous weaknesses, bottlenecks and manual execution inherent in many of these processes. Through the use of webMethods for Compliance, enterprises can take advantage of a single integrated platform to not only monitor these processes for ongoing compliance, but to also automate and optimize them for improved business performance and additional cost savings.

"In today's regulatory climate, there are many vendors offering compliance solutions. Many of these compliance solutions focus on the documenting and reporting aspects of regulatory compliance. These are important, but only part of the technology needs," said Lee Dittmar, principal, Deloitte Consulting. "Automated controls monitoring will be an important area of focus. Plus, many CFO's today are leveraging their compliance efforts as an opportunity for business improvements. Technology is key to supporting these broader efforts, addressing both compliance and performance."