Microsoft Partners with BearingPoint for Compliance

Published: August 6, 2008

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft and BearingPoint have teamed up to offer a new product aimed at helping enterprises manage risk and comply with regulations. The new offering, called the BearingPoint Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance (EGRC) solution, is based on Microsoft technology and sold by BearingPoint.

BearingPoint is the McLean, Virginia, IT consultancy that was known as KPMG Consulting before it changed its name following the Arthur Anderson-Enron debacle in 2001. In addition to designing, installing, and managing IT systems for its customers, the company, which has 17,000 employees and about $3.5 billion in annual revenues, works with partners, like Microsoft, to develop management systems.

One of these products is EGRC, the newly announced risk management solution based on Office SharePoint Server 2007. EGRC is designed to identify areas of business that pose regulatory risk to customers--such as violations of Sarbanes-Oxley, J-SOX, Basel II, OMB Circular A-123, and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFD)--and to come up with a solution to the problem that doesn't break the bank.

The software utilizes SharePoint Server to distribute information about a customer's risk status to employees. For example, EGRC could send an e-mail notification if key risk indicators or compliance metrics are exceeded, and initiate a workflow to force the employees to take steps to fix the problem. As it does this, EGRC keeps an audit trail of all activities.

EGRC was initially developed for the public sector, but was widened to address the compliance needs of companies in a wide variety of industries, says Brian Scott, vice president of worldwide industries for Microsoft.

EGRC is offered by BearingPoint. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.bearingpoint.com.