Region: Philadelphia
Industry: Manufacturing
Service Line(s): Risk Management Services
Supported carve-out and initial public offering of significant business unit, debt refinancing and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
"AC Lordi helped us to define and hone our Sarbanes-Oxley compliance methodology, and it has been extremely successful. Through their hands-on, experienced approach we got Big 4 quality with a personalized touch."
Harry Mumma, Former Vice President – Internal Audit
Company Background:
Crown is the world's packaging leader and an innovative force in breakthrough packaging technologies. They have operations in 44 countries and employ 28,000 people.
Business Challenge:
Before AC Lordi arrived, Crown management had already performed a risk assessment to identify the population of risks in key areas deemed to be the most at risk. They needed additional resources to help educate the process owners on the implications of Sarbanes-Oxley and COSO, and manage the planning, documentation, and testing of the major processes.
AC Lordi Consulting Solution:
AC Lordi set up separate teams for documentation and testing. The documentation team interviewed process owners, documented processes, and helped identify key controls that mitigated the risks. They worked with the process owners to identify potential risks and develop risk rankings to minimize the amount of documentation needed. The testing team worked independently to determine sample sizes based on frequency of occurrence, identify additional work needed to be done, and help prepare documentation for testing by their external auditors. The testing team worked closely with their auditors to ensure that any processes that did not meet testing requirements were quickly corrected before moving on to the next phase of the process.
Value Delivered:
By using our risk ranking procedures, Crown was able to test fewer areas and obtain a more cost-effective solution to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Since we tested the controls, Crown was also able to cut down on external audit fees and the overall involvement of their auditors. Crown improved its system of internal controls and boosted shareholder confidence by identifying control gaps and mitigating those risks. They also obtained documented proof as evidence of testing as required by the new regulations.