David McCann, CFO.com | US
October 22, 2008

I'm not with ACL

Mike, I'm not with ACL, I'm with a grassroots organization, the TexasACL User Group.

But when the article claims that this software is "filling a void" and talks about testing 100% of the population and continuous monitoring---but fails to even reference other products that make the same claim (whether it be ACL, IDEA, TopCAATS, or ActiveData---all of which I mentioned in my original response) then one has the challange if this article served it's purpose.

If the author wanted to demonstrate that this product is truly different from the others, then the author needed to address how it compares and why it is different from IDEA/ACL/ActiveData/TopCAATS. By failing to even acknowledge that other options exists, it appears as if the author might not even realize that other options exist and relied to heavily upon the word of Reliant!

Posted by Porter broyles | Oct 29, 2008 11:12 PM ET

Sounds very intriguing

Sounds like a very promising solution. I'll be interested in taking a look at it. Not sure why the guy at ACL thinks his company should be included in every article CFO runs. I like that CFO didn't water down the article by trying to include everyone.

Posted by Mike Montgomery | Oct 29, 2008 10:32 PM ET

What about ACL/IDEA

As the President of the TexasACL User Group, this article was brought to my attention because if failed to mention two established vendors in the field---ACL and IDEA.

Nothing in the article indicated anything that ACL and IDEA can't already do---and have a 20+ year proven history doing. ACL and IDEA have more than one trial client and can work on multiple systems. Both can be purchased for signficantly less than the price quoted in the article.

I don't mind CFO introducing a new vendor, but to do so in a manner that implies that this vendor is unique and offers something new---both of which are dubious claims---without talking to its obvious competition is negligent. Heck, even if you limited this to fledgling companies, I know of two others that are struggling to get a foothold in the audit profession (ActiveData and TopCAATS).

Porter Broyles
President TexasACL User Group
www.texasacl.com

Posted by Porter broyles | Oct 24, 2008 4:32 PM ET

Interesting

"designed to monitor and audit 100 percent of transactions and events, rather than a sampling"

Hard to imagine how you would capture that. Seems to be a huge integration challenge. Not to mention who would have time to sift through that much information. Interesting idea though.

Posted by Gavin Terrill | Oct 23, 2008 1:34 AM ET

Great

Great ! Let's hope it works as advertised.

Posted by Wael Bibi | Oct 22, 2008 8:21 PM ET