Unified project grid puts regulatory projects in the IT safe zone

Regulatory compliance just got a bit easier, thanks to the Unified Compliance Project (UCP). Undertaken by the Seattle-based IT Compliance Institute (ITCI), UCP's goal is to map requirements and eliminate overlap in some 60 regulations and accompanying standards.

The effort required

to comply with this profusion of regulations often spawns piecemeal approaches that lead to redundant efforts and duplicate costs. "It's confusing—a real alphabet soup," admits Cass Brewer, director of education and research for ITCI. Not only is there Sarbanes-Oxley, but there's AS2, COSO, COBIT, TREAD, ISACA, WEEE, and others, all of which governing bodies must deal with.

"To date, companies have largely approached regulatory compliance in a project-based fashion," says Brewer, adding that there is little oversight to guard against redundant and inconsistent efforts to meet regulations. "The UCP provides a standardized view of regulatory requirements," says Brewer, "which enables companies to compare in a practical and tangible way the need to meet requirements across multiple regulations."

The UCP, codeveloped with Network Frontiers , a Los Altos, Calif.-based IT product research group, was a two-year endeavor to map and match requirements, and post the work online as a service to ITCI members. "It is essentially a series of tables that makes it easy to look across any number of authorities to view IT controls a company must follow and sign off on," Brewer explains.

Each regulation is broken down by what ITCI terms critical "IT impact zones." Each zone is then mapped to the more than 60 standards and regulations to reveal a holistic view of what is mandated. The goal is to facilitate a strategic approach to reducing compliance costs, limiting liabilities, and maximizing investments.

"When companies understand where requirements for information security, records management, and other IT goals align, they can more easily leverage technology across multiple compliance efforts," maintains Brewer.

ITCI membership is free. Information on the Unified Compliance Project can be found at: www.itcinstitute.com/ucp .