Company size defines Sec. 404 compliance effort.

While companies continue to grapple with Sec. 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley, they do so in different ways.

Only 21 percent of small companies--those with a market cap of less than $75 million--view software as critical to Sec. 404 compliance, compared with 33 percent of larger companies. Almost one-third of smaller companies don't plan on using software applications, compared with 11 percent of larger companies.

And who's in charge of the initiative differs as well. For large companies, 25 percent favored dedicating a compliance officer and another 25 percent said the task should be shared among all senior management. But 40 percent of smaller companies believe the internal audit department should shoulder the burden.

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