PQ Corporation Implements Approva to Strengthen Access Controls for Worldwide ERP Deployment
Specialty chemical company accelerates compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and reduces ongoing costs for monitoring and auditing ERP control
October 10, 2006 - Reston, VA
Approva® Corporation, the leader in enterprise controls management software, today announced that PQ Corporation, a leading manufacturer of specialty chemicals, has implemented Approva’s BizRights® Platform and Enterprise Controls Suite to design, test and continuously audit their ERP access controls. PQ Corporation is using the Approva solution to assist them with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements ahead of the required deadline. (The SEC recently announced a decision to grant smaller U.S. public companies and some foreign companies more time to comply with regulations.)
“The Approva solution is enabling PQ Corporation to quickly identify and remediate segregation of duties exceptions in our SAP systems and to re-evaluate the number of controls we need to monitor by designing more effective and consistent user roles across our worldwide operations,” said Anne Jackson, information security analyst at PQ Corporation. “By using Approva we have significantly reduced the time and expense required to implement and sustain our ERP access controls and we’ve done it with minimal disruption to the organization.”
Some of the specific benefits that PQ Corporation has realized include:
- Reduced time spent identifying and remediating control exceptions: Using the Approva solution, PQ Corporation was able to utilize the out-of-the-box rules and best practices embedded within the software to remediate control exceptions with only one full-time person dedicated to the project.
- Reduced cost of monitoring and testing controls: By designing more effective and consistent roles for ERP users, PQ Corporation has rationalized the number of controls they need to manage and reduced the ongoing costs for monitoring and testing these controls.
- Stronger controls environment: By continually monitoring for control exceptions, PQ Corporation is able to independently verify the effectiveness of its controls and identify exceptions as they occur.
- Faster, automated detection of control exceptions during provisioning process: By using Approva to automatically determine if proposed changes to user roles will create control exceptions PQ Corporation has reduced the time required to manually review each user access request from hours to just a few minutes.
- Streamlined audit preparation: By using the automated testing and reporting capabilities in the Approva product, PQ Corporation expects they will be able to significantly reduce the time required to prepare for the audit of their ERP access controls.
“We are delighted at the benefits PQ Corporation is realizing from our products,” said Prashanth (PV) Boccasam, Approva’s CEO. “Their implementation is a great example of how companies are using our software to implement best practices and reduce the ongoing cost of compliance without devoting significant resources to the project”
About PQ Corporation
PQ Corporation is a leading producer of silicate, zeolite, and other performance materials serving the detergent, pulp and paper, chemical, petroleum, catalyst, water treatment, construction, and beverage markets. It is a global enterprise, operating in 19 countries on five continents, and along with its chemical businesses, includes Potters Industries, a wholly owned subsidiary, which is a leading producer of engineered glass materials serving the highway safety, polymer additive, metal finishing, and conductive particle markets. PQ Corporation was founded in 1831
About Approva
Approva® Corporation is the industry-leading provider of Enterprise Controls Management software. We enable business, finance, IT and audit professionals to automate the on-demand testing, closed-loop remediation and continuous, exception-based monitoring of controls within and across their business systems. Using our solutions, customers are able to significantly increase visibility into their controls, streamline the audit process, cost-effectively sustain their compliance initiatives and reduce exposure to mistakes, fraud and inefficiencies for business processes such as procurement, sales and delivery, payroll and financial close. In addition, our automated solutions act as key preventative and detective controls, further strengthening our customers’ financial and operational control environments. Global companies such as Campbell Soup Company, Colgate-Palmolive, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, DirecTV, Discovery Communications, McCormick & Company, P&G, Pratt & Whitney, Siemens and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts rely on Approva BizRights® Platform and Enterprise Controls Suite to reduce compliance risk, increase operational efficiency and flag exceptions to their business controls. For more information, visit www.approva.net.