Best of Both Worlds: Why Automated Transaction Monitoring is Better

Recently, I read an article on the Wall Street journal about an SEC official giving a talk on how an effective compliance program can limit FCPA risk in the Pharmaceutical industry. Among actions cited by SEC official are vendor reviews, expense controls, escalation protocols, internal audits. While not just for Big Pharma, these actions can significantly impact any compliance program, (for those who want to engage in one, as Oversight’s Chris Rossie speculates in this blog post.)

 Of course we all know that the big challenge faced by those companies interested in bettering their compliance program is how to do those actions effectively and cost efficiently. In this blog post about the Avon FCPA violation, Oversight’s Chris Rossie speculates that annual automated monitoring of Avon’s card spend would be less than 1% the $135 million in fines they paid out of the FCPA.

In fact, the 2012 Morgan Stanley declination demonstrated that ongoing transaction monitoring is effective way to handle those risks. Better still, cloud analysis is making software costs more affordable than ever. Spreading the cost of analysis across multiple clients, we’ve been able to achieve a breakthrough in costs in our own Oversight Insights On Demand™ (IOD) software. As such, we’re seeing more and more companies use IOD in T&E and P2P.

Leveraging the power of the cloud has also allowed us to put a lot of effort into making the process itself: from data acquisition to the use of our software- more efficient from the perspective of the end users who have to live with an automated expense audit tool every day.

Really, by adding automated technology into your compliance program, you’re getting the best of both worlds: a better and more cost efficient compliance program. Insights On Demand for FCPA is better and easier than any other tool out there.