According to Jeff Frank, vice president at Lawson Software, manufacturers are increasingly turning to IT to help manage their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. "Organizations have identified a need to integrate and automate their CSR processes and information," asserts Frank. "They're getting limited value from their ERP systems to help them manage their CSR programs, and are looking to their ERP vendors for solutions."
An internal control system based on a pre-existing ERP framework can centralize the information you need to manage CSR activities within any functional area (finance, HR, supply chain management, manufacturing) and across your enterprise, says Frank. His approach focuses on four areas:
- Documentation. A central repository of all governance, risk management and compliance related documents that is accessible to auditors and managers, and where documents can be updated as close to real time as possible.
- Testing. Tracking testing activities, including what was tested, when and by whom, results and remedial actions when testing failed.
- User interface. To communicate all key information to the appropriate audiences through an intuitive, secure, role-based, user-defined portal.
- Monitoring. Enabling organizations to manage key events/transactions within their ERP and other business applications and present any significant or material events to the appropriate audience.
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