Automated document delivery helps SA firms comply with Sarbanes-Oxley

Many South African companies and groups are listed in the US, which makes them subject to the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act.

Some of these companies have their primary listing on the JSE and a secondary listing in the US, with subsidiary listings in other countries; others have their primary listing in the US.

These are companies such as Telkom, Gold Fields, Sappi, Sasol, AngloGold Ashanti, Highveld Steel, Durban Roodepoort Deep, Randgold Resources and Randgold & Exploration.

Their commonality is that once they are listed on a US-based stock exchange such as the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, they need to comply with the requirements of SOX. This is the Act promulgated in 2002 and aimed at improving public trust in corporate accounting and reporting practices.

SOX was designed to improve corporate accountability, control and governance. As a result, publicly traded companies must increase the timeliness, transparency and accuracy of corporate reporting.

Businesses and their CEOs, CFOs and other officers face stiff fines, sanctions and even jail time if they fail to comply with the new guidelines. One of the consequences of SOX is that all publicly traded companies must maintain all correspondence, communications, electronic documents, faxes and application data and records between themselves and their public auditors for five years.

In addition, SOX requires CEOs and CFOs to certify that statements in their quarterly reports are true and can be supported with all necessary documentation.

South African businesses listed in the US must implement systems and controls that improve information security and accuracy and provide a reliable audit trail for governed information.

One important tool that organisations can use to help address the challenges of SOX is enterprise fax and e-document delivery software. It helps organisations better meet regulations by providing secure and tamper-resistant electronic delivery, receipt and tracking of regulated corporate documents.

It can also enhance productivity and reduce costs while streamlining processes and improving the quality and timeliness of communicating with auditors, board members, business partners and regulating agencies.

Traditional delivery methods, such as postage, manual fax and courier services can breach SOX regulations because they require manual handling and expose documents to alteration or view by unknown or unauthorised people. In addition, these methods are often unreliable and do not always guarantee or confirm delivery.

Fax server software helps safeguard information accuracy by automating document delivery. Financial reports, correspondence with auditors and other corporate information can be electronically delivered in real-time, directly from any application to the intended recipient's fax or e-mail inbox with notification of receipt.

This eliminates the human factor when disseminating information and limits the opportunity for information to be altered or misrepresented.

With SOX, all communications, documents and workflows should both originate and be stored on central servers.

Fax server software offers a centralised server solution that integrates with an organisation's ERP, financial, imaging, archiving and other information systems on the network, to provide inbound and outbound document delivery via fax, e-mail or the Internet.

It operates as a centralised hub for electronically disseminating corporate communications and streamlines workflow processes to enable timely and reliable disclosure of corporate financial data.

The best fax server environments provide encrypted and certified e-mail delivery options that require passwords to access information, as well as electronic verification of receipt for better authentication.

Such features help mitigate the risk of information being altered and provide an added layer of security for organisations when they transmit corporate communications.

The solutions help to ensure that documents are not altered during transmission. Information is transmitted as image-based PDF or TIF documents via secure lines and then stored digitally on the fax server.

This helps organisations ensure information is not tampered with during transmission and that original data integrity is retained.

Since SOX requires publicly traded companies to maintain all communications, application data and records between themselves and their public auditors for five years, digital documents are important.

How they are delivered, who delivers and receives them and how they are stored can have significant consequences. Organisations must improve the efficiency and reliability of how they manage and track digital documents.

Fax server solutions process inbound and outbound fax documents and can be configured to store incoming and outgoing faxes electronically in a secured network storage device, archiving system or database.

Among other functions, they can also track fax history, provide verification of fax delivery, assign access passwords and route incoming faxes to employee fax or e-mail inboxes. This provides electronic storage and a deeper audit trail for covered documents to satisfy SOX tracking and storage requirements.

Local companies listed in the US that need to comply with the Act can meet requirements and also garner additional benefits simply by implementing a fax server environment.

* Giljam is sales and marketing director at AmVia which distributes RightFax in South Africa.