Despite robust internal-control practices, many organizations are having difficulty keeping their ongoing compliance costs at a reasonable level. Smart companies, however, are keeping costs down and maintaining top-notch compliance programs.

The study revealed a significant discrepancy in the compliance management costs incurred by the top- and bottom-performing organizations. Most participating organizations cited the use of some type of compliance technology. The research suggests that organizations with a higher level of automated controls exhibit lower overall cost and greater efficiency. 

"What this study reveals is that organizations with highly effective internal controls systems and processes in place don't necessarily spend the most to achieve top performance," said Lisa Higgins, chief operating officer for APQC.

The benchmarking research and consultative experience have identified five success factors as key enablers of success in the internal controls process.

• Executive Support -- Senior-level support is seen as critical to delivering an internal controls compliance process and infrastructure.
• Communication -- Ongoing compliance communication plans in the overall compliance process is beneficial.
• Process Owner Accountability -- Reinforcing control ownership and accountability at the control owner level aids in strengthening the value of compliance within an organization's culture.
• Risk Assessment -- Conducting risk assessment supports a more efficient compliance program by potentially reducing the frequency of external control tests.
• Software Tools -- Over 75 percent of the participating organizations employ a software tool within their compliance program. In addition, top performers employ a compliance management or other software tool potentially as a means to streamline the compliance process and reduce costs.

For purposes of this research "top performing" organizations are defined as those with overall top quartile performance across five metrics related to the internal controls process in the areas of cost, efficiency, and cycle time.