Called Oracle DBI for Compliance, the solution helps companies keep track of their compliance responsibilities by providing embedded reporting and analytics weaved into Oracle’s Internal Controls application.
The software includes pre-built key performance indicators and dashboards and reports that present performance and risk information to business managers.
Internal Controls Manager was initially born as a response to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance pressures. It is shipped as part of Oracle’s E-Business suite.
The application documents and tests internal controls and monitors ongoing compliance efforts, thereby allowing companies to pinpoint potential compliances issues, such as ineffective controls and unmitigated risks.
We’ve now included new key metrics [in Internal Controls Manager] focused on compliance, such as completion of sub-certification, which we’re surfacing as part of a broader DBI framework, said Nigel King, senior director of application development at Oracle.
Oracle launched its DBI tool a couple of years ago as part of a strategy to make BI more pervasive, explained Joe Thomas, Oracle’s senior director of BI applications.
Compliance is no exception to that. If you’re using BI to optimize your business processes then understanding the compliance element is a key part of that, he said.
Thomas said that Oracle DBI for compliance differs from other so-called compliance tools, which he called bolt-ons targeted at compliance officers only.
He said that by aligning DBI’s analysis and reporting closely to Oracle’s compliance application will draw in a much wider audience and provide better opportunities for process optimization.
Oracle DBI for Compliance is really an extension of its Enterprise BI Suite that was launched in March this year.
The software is really Oracle’s answer to operational BI since it embeds analysis and reporting capabilities across various modules of the Oracle E-Business transactional application suite, including financials, human resources and supply chain management.
Oracle DBI isn’t a standalone solution. It’s a feature of our transactional applications. Every one of those applications has corresponding DBI content, including, now, Internal Controls Management.
Right now Thomas admits that DBI is geared to work primarily with Oracle’s E-Business suite. But he said that would change over time.
We’ve bought in some interesting analytic technologies from Siebel [Systems] that work with heterogeneous data environments.
He expects to announce upgrades for DBI sometime in the mid-October timeframe.
