By Yuji Nakasu

In The Extended Enterprise we have addressed how Glovia helps you succeed in challenges such as Responsiveness, Demand Driven Manufacturing, Lean, Global Manufacturing, and Collaboration & Integration technologies. Naturally, there are times when an Extended ERP system also has to have powerful solutions for more general business requirements, some of which can be more urgent than others.

This is precisely the case with the topic of corporate compliance and the recent Sarbanes-Oxley legislation in the United States.

Sarbanes-Oxley was enacted in 2002 to ensure that U.S. businesses and international companies listed on U.S. exchanges have adequate internal controls in place and that the information published in their financial statements is accurate. While Sarbanes-Oxley is primarily financial legislation, it has in fact grown into a much broader operational and IT issue for companies.

Because IT maintains the infrastructure that a business need to function on a day-to-day basis, IT plays a critical role in Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Since IT organizations are also responsible for the business applications, such as ERP, that provide much of the process structure and nearly all of the data required to comply with the key sections of the legislation, they must develop and implement proper internal controls to ensure that the applications they run, the processes they follow, and the data they generate can withstand audit scrutiny.

However, findings by analysts and others have determined that most businesses have not properly engaged their IT organizations, have not made IT budgetary allocations for the large and often expensive tasks ahead, and in many cases do not even have a representative from IT on their Sarbanes-Oxley compliance teams.

IT executives in public companies must become more involved in their company's Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts. They must begin to propose solutions and guide technology investments that will not only ensure compliance but will also improve operations and lower costs.

Included in this issue are a white paper and feature article on Sarbanes-Oxley, a Glovia Solution Highlight, and an informative article from Fujitsu Consulting concerning Sarbanes-Oxley systems.

In addition to our regular features, we are pleased to debut a new section, The Career Coach, in which an outside consultant shares thoughts on ways for professionals to improve their skills.

Finally, I hope you all know by now how much of a success the 2004 Glovia User Group Conference was in Orlando, Florida this May.

Hundreds of our customers, in one of our best-attended conferences in a long time, took part in what all agreed was our finest conference agenda ever. We explored Best Practices, with a strong emphasis on Lean Manufacturing, and a wide range excellent presentations from Glovia staff and customers alike were very well received by all.

I particularly appreciated the opportunity to interact with so many of you at the "Talk Back Live" sessions and at the customer presentations. All of us at Glovia now have an increased understanding of your needs and we are fully committed to work diligently to meet customer expectations of our product, support, and services.

I want to thank those of you who contributed to this success and thanks as always to the User Group Board of Directors for their time and effort in producing such a strong event that exceeded my high expectations. We have already marked our calendars for our next annual User Group Conference, in Long Beach, California from May 22-26, 2005.

Sincerely,

Yuji Nakasu
President and CEO
Glovia International, Inc.