Yes, Aha! that’s what Energen a diversified energy holding company said when it came to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Sounds surprising? Energen in their effort to comply with the SOX was looking to automate its internal controls for auditing and compliance issues.

Energen administrators manually accessed information online, download it onto spreadsheets and then analyzed it. With Approva’s BizRights, compliance was no more an issue for Energen. BizRights provides an industry standard format for auditor’s to assess the user’s rights and separation of duties. BizRights automate the processes, eliminating the need for additional staff for SOX compliance.

In the wake of the ‘Corporate 9/11’—the corporate financial scandals that rocked the nation and stockholders led to a need for better controls. To provide greater financial control and transparency among public companies, the Bush government passed Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. Analysts consider SOX to be the most significant change to federal securities law since Great Depression. The act aims to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures.

Key sections of the SOX Act of 2002 require public companies to provide greater “internal controls,” auditing capability and real-time reporting for their financial systems. This means controls and checks at various levels.
Many organizations consider SOX an non-issue, they often repeat—‘we have systems in place to monitor’ or ‘our employees are loyal,’ but errors need not be planned by anyone, they just happen. Whether it is Sally, or Sam using the system, even a typo can cause errors. From an idea to a law SOX has now become a $5.8 billion industry.

From the CEO to CFO to the accountant, SOX has far-reaching implications, everyone uses various controls, providing a single solution to meet multiple needs may not be possible. Most organizations use multiple ERP systems and look for solutions that works with multiple platforms. BizRights from Approva will just solve those problems. An independent application that can be deployed across ERP platforms, customizable to business processes and rules, Approva is here to stay.

Established in January 2002, Approva has redefined the Enterprise Controls Management market to help companies move beyond mere compliance documentation. Prashanth Boccasam, CEO Approva says, “We will be around as long as accounting is around.”

Approva is his second venture after his first company Entevo Corporation that was acquired.
Every organization has multiple business processes such as procurements, payroll, to benefits, to all cash processes, which are many points of failure and intervention- that could lead to fraud, inefficiency and lack of compliance. It is here Approva hopes to cash in. Boccasam says, “Approva addresses two issues, compliance and efficiency. With Approva you transform your oops to Aha!”

“So for every Aha! I will charge a dollar,” says the enterprising Boccasam.

The Virginia based Approva claims the software provides administrators with greater control over exceptions. “It helps identify, resolve, mitigate and monitor exceptions round the clock,” says Boccasam.

Approva’s software cost is customer and customization centric. The software can be adapted to every organizations needs and controls. “The pricing depends on the customer size and complexity of customization,” adds the CEO.

Boccasam claims, BizRights software will enable everyone with a stake in corporate compliance collaborate on controls. “The strategy around it is how you build an exception management platform for CEOs and CFOs to quickly identify, document, remediate, ongoing management, and monitor business exceptions that happens everyday,” he says.

BizRights can be deployed in SAP, Oracle and PeopleSoft ERP platforms. While the software is highly customizable, they still adhere to business rules and processes in place.

“Other than reducing cost of audit, business risks, we help identify areas of improvement so that customers can ask their auditors for suggestions,” says Boccasam

Even though, SOX has created a huge market opportunity, it has also sprung up competition with many companies now providing SOX compliance solutions. The ERP vendors also provide some form of compliance. With such heavy competition, Boccasam sees opportunities, “Most organizations have multiple ERP systems. Problems in one system will not be solved by another. This requires a third party independent verification and validation system. And Approva provides that,” he says.

The complexity of ERP systems and their compliance tools does not provide greater visibility. To ease the complexity Approva provides a platform, a software tool kit that can be integrated with any all systems. “The greater visibility you have in your ERP system, the better control you have with your business and stakeholders,” he adds. Indeed, Approva, tag line goes ‘Greater visibility, better control.’

While much is said about product customization, the goal of SOX is to provide greater accountability and transparency in public companies. Boccasam does not miss a beat and pipes in, “Approva helps identify, document, test and manage in fixing issues along with ongoing monitoring.”

With venture capitalists in a skeptic investment mode, Approva is perhaps one of handful compliance solution providers to be funded. Approva completed Series C funding, increasing the total funding to $30 million.

In the ring second time around after Entevo Boccasam calls it much more fun. Call it cashing in on the trend, Boccasam quickly adds, “Sarbanes Oxley is like Hinduism, it’s a way of living, you have to live the life.”

Plain compliance would die down soon seeking new insights into the complex business environment. Approva’s ROI lies here, Boccasam says, “Compliance is not an end goal but only a milestone.” Options to control and authorize exception across processes will go a long way than just providing compliance.

Most of Approva’s development work comes out of their development center in India.
India. Bocassam started the development center in 1995 well ahead of the outsourcing trend.

Initially a part of Entivo that was later acquired. With both his ventures, Boccasam prizes hiring top employees, which is evident with the recent appointment of former SEC chairman Harvey Pitt as Director of Approva Corporation and he has also roped in Dr. Ashok Joshi, a key figure providing technical assistance to India’s super computer initiative—Param; to head the India development center.

Bocassam boasts of providing quality employees benefits in the industry including employee stock options not only for executives in the U.S. but in India as well. Both Entivo and Approva employees have stock options. He says “At Entivo our employees had stock options, when we sold the company; in India we created 49 millionaires.”

In a market filled with solution providers, Approva has a clear vision and focus in handling SOX. Boccasam aptly defines Approva as “Application independent, process centric and content rich.”