Automating compliance with business rules

Interesting entry on SOX compliance in the "compliance pipeline" today - Prediction No. 2: Manpower Reductions.  In it Mitch says:

That can only mean one thing: Companies are substituting sustainable automated processes for manual approaches to compliance management. And the good news is that such automation will also reduce the manual processes that auditors will need to perform and help drive down auditing costs as well.

The automation of compliance has always been one of the key drivers for the use of business rules management systems and with good reason.

• Business rules allow those who understand the regulations to manage the implementation of those regulations.
• Business rules make it quick and easy to change how a regulation is implemented when court rulings, auditors of the government change the rules.
• Business rules can be easily logged as they fire, making it possible to show that every decision was compliant with those rules.
• Executives who must certify that the rules have been followed can actually read the rules being enforced in the system rather than having to trust that the code does what a programmer says it does.

And so on. There are more entries on the blog around compliance.