TALX, a provider of Equifax Workforce Solutions, uses Perforce ALM to help manage compliance with the most demanding security audits in corporate America—Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and SAS 70. TALX first implemented Perforce ALM ten years ago and their use of the product has grown with time. With the institution of Sarbanes-Oxley and TALX’s desire to become SAS 70 certified, they needed a system to help manage the required compliance artifacts.
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Why are TALX using Perforce ALM?
- Meets Compliance Regulations
- Cross-platform capabilities
- Scalability for future growth
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At A Glance
- Organization: TALX, aka Equifax Workforce Solutions
- Web Site: www.talx.com
- Headquarters: St. Louis, MO
- Description: TALX uses Perforce ALM to help manage compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and SAS 70.
While complying with SOX was mandatory, TALX chose to pursue SAS 70 certification as a competitive advantage and to give customers peace of mind that their data was secure. As a result, the company needed to carefully manage the compliance efforts and provide required data to auditors—without significantly increasing head count or draining resources away from core business efforts.
Ease of Use, Cross-platform Capabilities, and Scalability
“We were using [Perforce ALM] throughout the organization from the development team to the data center,” said Bryan Garcia, vice president of technology, TALX. “We’ve continued to expand our use of the product to different areas. So it made sense to consider TestTrack for our compliance needs.”
Ease of use, cross-platform capabilities, and scalability all factored into Garcia’s decision to implement Perforce ALM for compliance management.
“Users need to learn our systems quickly to make a contribution,” Garcia said. “Professionals pick up [Perforce ALM] almost instantly. We also have users with a variety of skill sets—from developers to business users. [Perforce ALM] allows them flexibility. Developers use the Windows client, while business users access the data with a browser.”
All the Data in One Place
Without Perforce ALM, TALX would have had to manually build an audit trail. With TestTrack, all the data is in one place. “It is easy to provide an auditor with the requested documentation,” said John Williams, director of compliance, TALX. “I simply generate a standard detail report provided with [Perforce ALM]. That report displays all the actions taken on a change in chronological order from the initial request through the final certification by QA.”
“An added benefit of implementing [Perforce ALM] to manage compliance,” Garcia said, “was that we didn’t have to re-engineer our process.”
The development team easily adapted Perforce ALM’s workflow to match their needs. It was even easier for the compliance department. They did not have to create any custom reports. They simply use the default detail report included with ALM to send information to auditors. The Perforce ALM item number is cross-referenced in TALX’s version control application so it is easy to coordinate the different activities with the actual changes in the code.
“Without a tool like [Perforce ALM],” said Garcia, “it would be much more difficult to manage the compliance process. [ALM] minimizes the need for the one-half to one full time employee it would take to manage an internal solution.”
For TALX, Perforce ALM provides improved employee productivity and reduced compliance risks. For their customers, the fact that TALX has a compliance tracking system in place gives them added peace of mind that TALX is a trusted steward of their data.