Protiviti Celebrates Success of the Protiviti Patent Programme with First Patent Awarded to Firm

Protiviti has officially secured its first patent, a significant milestone in the company's history of innovation

The newly patented process solves for automated audit artifact reconciliation and achieves cost-saving benefits for SOX testing and internal audit activities

MENLO PARK, Calif., Dec. 10, 2024 – Protiviti has been awarded a patent – for Systems and Methods for Automated Audit Artifact Reconciliation - by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The newly patented process dramatically cuts the time required to test for unauthorised access, which is a common SOX and operational risk, and provides organisations with greater confidence in their controls in minutes, rather than days. This patent is a testament to the success of the company’s Global Patent Programme, launched in 2022, which encourages continual innovation among employees and furthers its goal to deliver groundbreaking solutions to clients.

The patent is a novel and unique combination of algorithms that execute “fuzzy matching” on names, to identify unauthorised access from users that have been terminated, thereby expediting the testing of controls in this key, and often problematic, area.  This flexible innovation can also be used in the assistance of user access reviews (UARs), which can take months to execute and are often ineffective.  This solution allows users to execute access comparisons that would have normally taken several days down to a few minutes.

“Logical access controls are a leading SOX and operational control failure among companies of all sizes and are time consuming to execute. Through this patented process, we can help clients expedite and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of processing full populations tests to identify issues quickly,” said Jeremy Wildhaber, Senior Director, IAFA Technology Enablement at Protiviti. “This patent is not just about the recognition of our current capabilities but also about paving the way for future innovations at Protiviti.”

“The patented technology solves a critical pain point for our clients and also reinforces Protiviti’s standing as a leader in cutting-edge technological advancements that address real-world challenges,” said Andrew Struthers-Kennedy, global lead for the Internal Audit and Financial Advisory practice at Protiviti.

“We are committed to delivering innovative solutions for clients,” said Ashley Cuevas, global lead, Innovation at Protiviti. “Key to that is the Protiviti Patent Programme, which we formed in 2022 to facilitate the development and protection of our people’s innovative ideas.”

The patented solution is a component of several dozen accelerators that exist in Protiviti’s Technology Accelerator Platform, which brings market-leading packaged automation, analytics and AI-enabled solutions to address common challenges in Internal Audit and SOX.