BOSTON, MA, July 24, 2007 -- LogicManager, the leading provider of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) software, announced today the release of LogicERMTM v3.0, a product enhancement created to help companies take advantage of the new top-down, risk-based audit standard referred to as ‘AS5’. In response to heated criticisms that compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley is overwhelming capital markets and public accounting firms are eagerly reaping the rewards, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) announced in May 2007 final approval of their collaborative efforts to reduce companies’ SOX 404 burden of unnecessary costs.

“The market has demanded an ERM approach to refocus resources on what matters the most. After four years of trying to redirect SOX efforts, the PCAOB and SEC are now making it very clear with AS5 that SOX 404 should be executed in the same way a business approaches any large undertaking - before deploying resources, managers should strategically identify the highest risk areas,” comments Steven Minsky, CEO of LogicManager. “We are pleased to be able to provide a tool to help our customers reduce excessive internal costs and external audit fees while ensuring their SOX compliance.”

The LogicERM v3.0 release provides five distinct levels of decision support methodology to qualify and quantify scoping activity not currently included within current SOX solutions. These levels address entity-wide controls, significant accounts and disclosures, prioritization of process risks, comprehensive risk assessments by process owners and risk-based scoping of IT general and application controls.

Activities determined to have low significance in each of the successive five levels within LogicERM suggest where the internal and external scope of work can be reduced while providing systematic and objective documentation to justify the decisions made. LogicERM’s sharply focused scoping capabilities also leads to a more efficient and effective control environment by linking controls to root causes of risks and documenting the full chain of dependencies across the enterprise. This software solution dramatically reduces the downstream company-wide efforts needed to accomplish SOX compliance.

“We are in our fourth year of SOX compliance, and we selected LogicERM by LogicManager as our enterprise-wide SOX solution”, adds Connie Whitecotton, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Alfa Corporation. “It is natural that the leading ERM software vendor with the strongest track record in helping companies design and implement a risk-based approach to all areas of the enterprise should be the first to deliver a comprehensive risk-based SOX solution. With approval of AS5, it is incumbent now upon companies to craft and execute their own risk-based approach to SOX 404 and make that same approach available to their external auditors. Otherwise, companies likely will not reap the benefits intended by the SEC and PCAOB—at least not within the next few years or so. It’s difficult for external auditors to understand the intricacies of a company sufficiently to apply extremely effective scoping. If management applies a clear, AS5-aligned scoping process, however, external auditors can then concern themselves with auditing it…not creating it. Using the methodologies and best practices embedded in LogicERM, we expect to drastically reduce SOX 404 hours both internally and externally as well as consolidate all of our risk and compliance activities onto one platform.”

The SEC continues to confirm that smaller reporting companies with under $75 million in public equity will be required to comply with key provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In response to this, LogicManager also announces today the availability of a hosted version in addition to their traditional licensed version of LogicERM to provide these smaller reporting customers with a cost effective infrastructure and security for rapid deployment.

Few companies have escaped higher audit fees. A survey of 633 companies in the Fortune 1000 showed their audit fees on average rose more than 60 percent1. Organizations who would like to quantify the savings to be expected by implementing the LogicERM v3.0 software are welcome to use LogicManager’s new SOX evaluator tool. Please visit www.logicmanager.com for more information.

About LogicManager

LogicManager is the leading Enterprise Risk Management software provider for governance, risk and compliance. LogicERM uses unique taxonomy technology to uncover the root cause of enterprise-wide risks, streamlining controls and ensuring corporate goals are met. LogicERM lets you establish a successful ERM environment through increased risk-owner involvement. LogicManager co-developed the RIMS Risk Maturity Model for ERM used by more than 1,000 organizations worldwide.

[1] Sarbanes-Oxley mandates send corporate audit expenses soaring, By Andrew Countryman Tribune staff reporter, June 5, 2005