Scientific Debuts Compliance Tool For Excel Spreadsheets

Enterprise content management (ECM) software developer Scientific Software, Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., Tuesday unveiled what it describes as the only ECM solution to help organizations achieve regulatory and corporate compliance for Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

Scientific Software Remediation Services for Microsoft Excel is being offered as a tool for organizations to audit, track and control changes to corporate spreadsheet templates. It provides a cell-by-cell audit trail, a cell locking mechanism controlled by the ECM repository, a differencing tool, and the ability to lock out certain Microsoft Excel functions and menus to prevent tampering with macros and formulas.

Organizations will use Remediation Services for Microsoft Excel to ensure that standard spreadsheet templates are reliable, authentic and maintained with high integrity, according to Scientific Software. Designed specifically for enabling compliance with corporate and regulatory mandates for managing electronic records, including finance departments seeking improved compliance with respect to Sarbanes-Oxley controls, accountants performing routine audits and balance sheet calculations, or investment firms conducting portfolio analyses for clients.

Available immediately, Remediation Services for Microsoft Excel compliance features include: integration with Scientific Software Enterprise Content Manager (ECM) for access control, versioning, audit trails, electronic signatures, indexing and searching of spreadsheets; cell-by-cell audit trail to track changes to data and formulas at the cell level; a differencing tool to visually compare differences between two spreadsheets or two versions of the same spreadsheet; a cell-locking mechanism that uses the ECM security model and permissions, eliminating the need to remember passwords when someone leaves the company, or when a spreadsheet is opened several years later; ability to disable the Microsoft Excel hot keys and menu items to prevent unwanted tampering with macros and formulas; full-text, metadata and advanced searching of spreadsheets provided via a desktop integration with Enterprise Content Manager; support for "active archival" to permanent media and records retention policies.