Tech Vendors Form Compliance Advisory Group

A group of information technology vendors is developing guidelines and best practices for businesses struggling to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other government regulations.

The collection of companies, called the Compliance and Management of Electronic Information working group, is working under the auspices of the Internet Law Policy Forum. The group will develop and publish best practices, checklists, and summaries of legal and regulatory requirements to provide compliance guidance for businesses.

The group will hold forums where technology vendors, regulated entities, government leaders, and policy experts discuss the impact of compliance law on businesses, and develop recommendations and guidelines for companies to facilitate compliance without hindering business operations.

The group includes Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, Network Appliance, Open Text, Oracle, Plasmon, Sun Microsystems, and Veritas Software.

The cost of compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act alone will be $6.1 billion this year, according to AMR Research. Companies are subject to a plethora of other regulations to boot. Compliance often requires costly investments in technology such as information-life-cycle management, data storage, content management, and records-retention systems. The working group will attempt to guide companies in choosing technology needed for compliance programs.

Says David Yockelson, executive VP at market research firm Meta Group, "Enough confusion exists surrounding the new regulations to justify a forum to help end users attack compliance."