Compliance.

Movaris, a provider of task automation and financial control management software, has released Version 8.1 of its Certainty application for Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance. The release is the fifth since the Cupertino, Calif.-based company launched Certainty in 2003.

The latest version incorporates knowledge about the needs companies have discovered in working to address various aspects of Section 404, the section concerned with internal controls assessment. With that, it really addresses "year two" compliance issues, David Sprague, director of product marketing, said in an interview.

Version 8.1 offers a series of new features, particularly change management functionality that allows companies to manage the volume and impact of business changes to the financial control environment, such as reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions and personnel changes.

Sprague says this includes: summary testing to record the test effectiveness of collections of controls; mass user-assignment updates; mass updates to control hierarchies; and the ability to capture snapshots of the control hierarchies in place at any point in time. An important element for year two compliance activities, he notes, is for executives to be able to quickly reassign key projects if people who had been doing them leave or move into other posts.

To promote control activity analysis, Certainty allows users to export activity information into user-friendly Excel spreadsheets for "slicing and dicing," or to drill directly into the details provided by Certainty.

Sprague says that Movaris has more than 60 corporate customers and concentrates on serving medium-sized to large companies.

Web: www.movaris.com

Material for this column has been developed in most cases from promotional material supplied by the companies, which have not paid to appear in this column.