Audit Firms

To keep pace with increasing demands for corporate assurance, companies have relied increasingly on their external auditors to perform rigorous and objective audits. However, a fragmented audit process and an "over-the wall" approach to data transfer leads to duplication of effort, inefficiencies, higher audit deficiencies, and greater restatements. Increased auditing standards, like the PCAOB's Auditing Standard No. 5 (AS5), now demand a whole new level of accountability, including a more focused, top-down and scalable approach. Both the audit partner and the audit client must work more closely together in order to achieve compliance with the standard.

There are a number of audit workpaper tools in the market today, but they do not view the audit process as a "collaborative event' between the audit firm and their clients. These tools also make it difficult to adhere to AS5, which requires an audit of the internal controls over financial reporting that is integrated with the audit of the financial statements. Since these tools are traditionally non-scaling desktop solutions, they are also expensive to license and maintain.