TraceGains? Argues for Audits to Protect the Food Supply Chain

The mission at TraceGains (www.TraceGains.com) is to protect the brand of food and beverage clients by eliminating problems before product is shipped to the customer.   If a problem does occur this unique solution can minimize the brand damage by using patented recall trace-back and track-forward technologies. A recall alert can be initiated within minutes, reducing potentially bad news to one news cycle, and saving customers millions of dollars in long-term brand rehabilitation costs. The Recall Detective analyzes critical risk factors, going beyond material movement tracking; the Recall Minimizer provides instant multiple scenarios for reduced brand damage. 

TraceGains asserts that today the annual financial audit is taken for granted by any company that is trying to establish credibility, whether publicly-traded or not. The financial audit is very much a fixture in today’s corporate world; less than four short generations ago, it was viewed as a revolutionary innovation.

 

Corporate disasters have expanded the audit role beyond basic financial reports to include compliance updates on several corporate operational areas. Without third-party audits, stakeholders rely solely upon status updates from management to understand the state of a company. A traceability review offers similar reassurances. Expansions to previous audit protocols, such as the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, are usually a reaction to newly enacted government regulations or the most recent corporate misstep.

 

Recent events strongly suggest that it is now time to expand the external audit function to include an external review of a company’s traceability system.  This does not require over-reaching governmental regulation.  A decade of installing traceability systems for customers has shown us that only when a real-time process monitoring system is installed, and operational dashboards are provided to senior and mid-managers showing deviation from key operational business rules, will management perceptions synchronize more closely with reality.

 

 

 

Even after process-monitoring traceability systems have been installed, an external review is needed to make sure that any gaps are plugged. A traceability review is a stand-alone audit (following a formally prescribed set of procedures conducted by auditors or third-party companies that are traceability specialists.)  This is the only way that company directors, as well as existing and prospective shareholders, have the information they need to fully evaluate the company’s traceability risk.

 

During the traceability review, specialists need to analyze factors such as: (1) product movement across the company’s different legal entities, (2) identity preservation across various internal process transformations, (3) methods of collecting traceability information, (4) the type of information being collected with respect to the required reporting regulations, (5) the methods the company uses to retrieve regulatory information in the event of a tainted goods episode, (6) company process and business rule compliance monitoring systems, and (7) the company’s recall history.

 

 

TraceGains Inc.

www.tracegains.com

Marc Simony, Director of Marketing

traceability@tracegains.com

(303)682-9898

 

Patrick Taylor responds to an ITWorld.com article on audits

Patrick Taylor of Oversight Systems responding to the itworld.com article, “‘Proving nothing’ cuts compliance costs.” When you have a more detailed knowledge of your business, you will have easier and better audits. Continuous controls monitoring makes this easy. www.itworld.com

Benefits of SAS 70 Type I and Type II Audits

As a user organization, the benefits of a SAS 70 are quite abundant. First off, when the user organization requests a SAS 70 report from their service organization, they get an official document outlining the service organizations internal controls. Additionally, they see that the controls were placed in operation, with possible tests of operating effectiveness (if a Type II Report) being performed. Most importantly, the user organization can supply their external auditors with the service organizationâ??s SAS 70. In essence, this facilitates the user organization in auditing its financial statements. If no SAS 70 were present, the user organization would have to spend enormous time and effort in auditing the service organization for ensuring its compliance.

Service organizations receive significant benefits from this audit as well. To start with, it is a great way for a service organization to build trust with user organizations. Moreover, a SAS 70 report can entertain multiple customers’ audit requests. With no SAS 70 present, the service organization would likely spend too much time auditing â??themselvesâ? to entertain their customers requests, and less time conducting their business. Finally, a SAS 70 audit is the perfect opportunity to identify any weaknesses in your internal controls.

If you take a step back and look at these benefits to both user and service organization, it is clear to see that the SAS 70 is a powerful compliance tool currently being used and widely accepted by many industries. Combined with the fact that regulatory compliance legislation will only increase as time passes, one can clearly see the opportunities, but also the challenges that can lay ahead for a service organization.

Want to learn more about SAS 70 audits? Then receive SAS 70 sample reports from the official SAS 70 resource guide.

SAS 70 Training Video III | Type II Audits

SAS 70 training video discussing Type II audits, what a test period is, what Type II audits are used for, and information on SOX, GLBA, HIPAA, along with a discussion of the contents of a final report.

TraceGains’ Argues for Audits to Protect the Food Supply Chain

The mission at TraceGains (www.TraceGains.com) is to protect the brand of food and beverage clients by eliminating problems before product is shipped to the customer.   If a problem does occur this unique solution can minimize the brand damage by using patented recall trace-back and track-forward technologies. A recall alert can be initiated within minutes, reducing potentially bad news to one news cycle, and saving customers millions of dollars in long-term brand rehabilitation costs. The Recall Detective analyzes critical risk factors, going beyond material movement tracking; the Recall Minimizer provides instant multiple scenarios for reduced brand damage. 

TraceGains asserts that today the annual financial audit is taken for granted by any company that is trying to establish credibility, whether publicly-traded or not. The financial audit is very much a fixture in todayâ??s corporate world; less than four short generations ago, it was viewed as a revolutionary innovation.

 

Corporate disasters have expanded the audit role beyond basic financial reports to include compliance updates on several corporate operational areas. Without third-party audits, stakeholders rely solely upon status updates from management to understand the state of a company. A traceability review offers similar reassurances. Expansions to previous audit protocols, such as the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, are usually a reaction to newly enacted government regulations or the most recent corporate misstep.

 

Recent events strongly suggest that it is now time to expand the external audit function to include an external review of a companyâ??s traceability system.  This does not require over-reaching governmental regulation.  A decade of installing traceability systems for customers has shown us that only when a real-time process monitoring system is installed, and operational dashboards are provided to senior and mid-managers showing deviation from key operational business rules, will management perceptions synchronize more closely with reality.

 

 

 

Even after process-monitoring traceability systems have been installed, an external review is needed to make sure that any gaps are plugged. A traceability review is a stand-alone audit (following a formally prescribed set of procedures conducted by auditors or third-party companies that are traceability specialists.)  This is the only way that company directors, as well as existing and prospective shareholders, have the information they need to fully evaluate the companyâ??s traceability risk.

 

During the traceability review, specialists need to analyze factors such as: (1) product movement across the companyâ??s different legal entities, (2) identity preservation across various internal process transformations, (3) methods of collecting traceability information, (4) the type of information being collected with respect to the required reporting regulations, (5) the methods the company uses to retrieve regulatory information in the event of a tainted goods episode, (6) company process and business rule compliance monitoring systems, and (7) the companyâ??s recall history.

 

 

TraceGains Inc.

www.tracegains.com

Marc Simony, Director of Marketing

traceability@tracegains.com

(303)682-9898

 

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