Results of Approva "Control Freak" Survey Series Reveals Organizations Face Significant Risk From Ineffective Controls Monitoring

HERNDON, VA--(Marketwire - May 24, 2011) - Approva Corporation, the leader in continuous controls monitoring (CCM) and audit automation software, today announced findings from its Control Freak Survey Series. The series, conducted in three parts over several months, queried hundreds of financial professionals at some of the world's top businesses, government organizations and education institutions on various issues facing their organizations -- from fraud to financial controls to risk and security.

Approva launched its survey series in September 2010 with a survey centered on fraud -- followed soon after by a survey on financial controls. The series concluded with a survey on risk and security. The survey results were sometimes surprising, with a common theme emerging: widespread awareness of risk but incomplete or inadequate implementation of controls to mitigate risk.

• In the first survey, which was focused on fraud, 50% of respondents reported knowledge of fraud within their organization within the past twelve months -- but only 35% worked at companies using software to perform automated monitoring to detect fraud.
  
  
• In the second survey, which addressed financial controls, 80% of respondents stated that the ultimate responsibility for accurate financial controls rests with the CFO or Controller -- while at the same time reporting that 75% of organizations still rely on manual controls to provide assurance that financial statements are accurate.
  
  
• In the final survey, which focused on risk and security, less than 25% of respondents believed their organizations were equipped to address internal threats, such as data breaches and theft of intellectual property. However, despite widespread awareness of the risk, 60% of respondents worked at organizations monitoring for internal threats just a single time each year -- or less.

"CCM is about transforming businesses to operate more transparently, with better efficiency and reduced risk," said Approva's vice president of marketing, Michael Evans. "But for that to happen, organizations need more than just an awareness of risk -- they need to take tangible steps to address it. That's why we're so vocal about encouraging the leaders we call Control Freaks to take action -- to take charge, bring stakeholders together, and come up with meaningful ways to address risk in day-to-day operations."

Each survey concluded with a question on how respondents would choose to spend time saved by implementation of automated CCM solutions. When results were calculated, the most popular answer given among more than 1,100 respondents was, "Spend more time with friends and family," followed by "Start an exercise regimen" and "Read more."

"Control Freaks are people, too," said Evans. "We developed this campaign in part to rehabilitate the stereotypical image of Control Freaks -- the people who work so hard to make our businesses run more efficiently, more smoothly and with less risk. This is a reminder that at the end of the day, they -- like all of us -- just want a little more time to hang out, work out, and even chill out on occasion."

Complete responses to the combined survey questions (including less popular responses such as, "Visit my mother," "Do Chores" and "Figure out where all the socks really disappear in the dryer,") as well as information on all things Control Freak are available at Approva's Control Freak headquarters at http://www.ilovecontrolfreaks.com.

About Approva Corporation
Approva® Corporation is the industry-leading provider of continuous controls monitoring software and is the industry standard at Big-4 audit firms. We enable business, finance, IT and audit professionals to identify, manage and prevent business exceptions in order to reduce risk, increase operational efficiency and prevent inappropriate payments. Global companies such as Bayer, DirecTV, Discovery Communications, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney and T-Mobile rely on Approva to deliver actionable and auditable intelligence of control breakdowns across their business systems, processes and transactions. Approva has certified integrations with Microsoft, IBM and SAP to provide a holistic Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) solution.
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