Managing Internal Control is a difficult and costly affair in many organizations, especially for those that have to comply to Sarbanes-Oxley Legislation. Hitachi Construction Machinery Europe (a worldwide leading manufacturer of construction equipment) was no exception to that.
Although Hitachi was able to demonstrate compliance with J-SOX/SOX regulations, the cost of doing so was excessive. Internal control was typically audit driven, resulting in a heavy workload for internal staff and high external consulting/audit fees. The paper-based documentation was labor-intensive, difficult to report, and virtually impossible to manage.
Hitachi’s aim was to shift to a more business-driven system of internal control supported (and where possible automated) by world-class software and hired IDS Scheer to set up and implement a controlled, harmonized, and integrated audit process that would enable both compliance with SOX and J-SOX and future process improvement initiatives.
The ARIS Solution for GRC is operative for almost a year now and the benefits become clear. Hitachi was able to reduce the costs of internal control by 40%! Communication and alignment effort was reduced through deployment of ARIS as the single point of truth. Existing process documentation is re-used. ARIS also enables the company to perform self-assessments and establish internal controls/audits. Reporting and monitoring activities have been significantly reduced.
.jpg)
Interested in how Hitachi realized these benefits? Have a look at the case study and read the details about how Hitachi overcame the practical hurdles in implementing internal control.
