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Dean Foods has advantageously utilized ACL Analytics Exchange (AX) for accomplishing quite a few important corporate milestones. The deployment of ACL technology has resulted in enhanced efficiency enabling Dean Foods to conform to the control pre-requisites of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) IT User Provisioning.

Dean Foods has not only decreased its dependence on manual reviews but has also augmented collaboration between the IT and Internal Audit departments. The company has also been able to decrease its expenses associated with technology licensing and third-party audit by half.

Dean Foods has experienced rapid growth following the acquisitions of several organizations. As a result it had to merge together the numerous varied databases, ERP systems, and order-to-cash processes of these organizations. As the access rules were very different in all the systems, Dean Foods’ IT department was not able to track privileged user activities in an efficient manner. They felt the need to deploy a centralized tracking system with strong SOX controls. The organization therefore introduced an IT-driven automation project, and selected the AX technology for deployment.

Chris Jackson, owner of User Provisioning Process at Dean Foods said, “ACL’s internal control analytics software has been a great help as we automate our processes and streamline critical systems. We’ve been able to improve efficiency in meeting Sarbanes-Oxley IT control requirements and drastically cut time spent on manual analysis of privileged user activities.”

As noted, the deployment of ACL AX technology has benefitted Dean Foods. The organization has been able to operate in an efficient and secure manner, thereby alleviating the risks. The organization has allowed access to and analysis of data from any source with the goal of tracking user access activity across all company systems. As a result Dean Foods has cleared the full-year SOX IT User Provisioning audit.

Aaron Werth, director of Consulting Services at ACL said, “Explosive, sudden growth through M&A activity commonly leads to fragmented business systems and databases, making it difficult to manage risk. By establishing an automated process to close the loop on control exceptions, AX technology efficiently enables more robust internal controls and risk mitigation.”