2007-03-19 18:42:28 -
ANNAPOLIS, Md., March 19 /PRNewswire/ -- USi (http://www.usi.com/), an AT&T company and a leading Application Service Provider (ASP), today announced that it has successfully completed an American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) SAS 70 Type II examination for the seventh consecutive year. In doing so, USi once again establishes its adherence to one of the stringent, industry-accepted auditing standards for service companies and provides additional assurance to its clients, through an independent auditor, that its environmental safeguards and logical, physical, and change controls operate effectively.
"SAS 70 Type
II reports assure our clients that our operational processes and controls meet high standards for the security and reliability of the systems we manage for our clients," said Josie Ollinger, USi's Director for Audits and Compliance. "Because clients can take advantage of USi's controls, they often have to implement fewer controls and procedures within their own accounting and IT infrastructure. Plus, our SAS 70 examinations eliminate the need for each of our clients to audit USi individually, which saves them time and money," she added.
Regulatory changes in recent years, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, require companies to obtain assurance on the integrity of their data. SAS 70 Type II examinations can help confirm that access to information is limited by physical and logical controls and that this access is internally regulated. USi chooses to undergo AICPA SAS 70 Type II examinations two times a year, providing our clients with a frequent assessment of our environment by an independent auditor. The examination includes design assessments and operating effectiveness tests of USi's infrastructure, physical and network security, maintenance procedures, infrastructure change management, environmental safeguards, problem management, and reporting control procedures. These examinations, conducted by independent auditor Ernst and Young LLP, can help USi clients save time and money because the report created as a result of the examination process can be used by clients during audits of their own financial statements.
USi has a long history of comprehensive auditing and compliance. In addition to its semi-annual SAS 70 Type II examinations, USi has also completed various regulatory audits for specific clients, including compliance with HIPAA requirements for healthcare data privacy and protection and compliance with the public company financial reporting internal control aspects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. As a member of the BITS' Financial Institution Shared Assessments Program's steering committee, USi works with the committee to develop criteria for new assessments that will be shared across financial institutions, all of whom will themselves conform to these strict security criteria.
ISO 9001:2000 certifications were recently granted to USi's Global Delivery Center in Bangalore, India, and its facility in Hyderabad, India. In Bangalore, the certification covers Hosting, Management, Professional and Customer Support Services for Ariba, eBusiness, Messaging, Oracle, Peoplesoft, and Siebel applications and associated lifecycle activities, and in Hyderabad, it covers those services as well as Customization, Coding and Testing of eBusiness, Peoplesoft and Ariba applications.
In addition, the company once again has completed the re-issuance of its SysTrust Seal, which signifies that processes, procedures, and policies meet specific principles and evaluation criteria for security, availability, and processing integrity as set forth by AICPA and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA).
About USinternetworking (USi)
USi is an AT&T company and a leading Application Service Provider (ASP). USi delivers application management, managed hosting, remote management, eCommerce development and hosting, enterprise messaging and collaboration, professional services and software-as-a-service enablement. USi's clients have access to a broad, diversified portfolio of service offerings, including: Ariba(R), IBM(R)WebSphere(R), MarketLive(R), Microsoft(R), Oracle(R), PeopleSoft(R), and Siebel(R), as well as eCommerce solutions developed and delivered by USi. USi's SaaS Enablement program gives Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) the immediate advantage of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) by delivering their software to a larger client base through USi's hosted model. Additional information about USi and USi's services is available at http://www.usi.com/.
"USi" and the block logo "USi" are the registered trademarks of and the same entity as USinternetworking, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Source: USinternetworking
