Henssler Financial Finds a Suitable Match

As the Henssler Financial Group grew, it began searching for a new audit solution that could handle its expansion. The firm, which manages more than $850 million in assets, needed a system that would allow it to monitor and audit data viewing and database changes, as well as comply with both government record-keeping regulations and internal audit policies.

The Entegra data integrity solution created by Lumigent Technologies seemed to be the most efficient answer to Henssler's problem. The system is designed to allow enterprises to monitor how data is accessed and modified, and by whom. It creates audit trails and reports to satisfy security and privacy regulations, and enables medium-size firms like Henssler to cost-effectively meet the compliance requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, the USA PATRIOT Act and SEC 17a-4.

"Until I came across Entegra, which was in beta when I found it, there were no other options," says Henssler's Chief Technology Officer, Tim O'Pry. "It was simply a matter of evaluating the product and comparing what it did with the so-called tried-and-true methods."

The tried-and-true methods O'Pry speaks of involve using triggers or application modification -- both of which he claims are time-consuming to create and painful to maintain. "When I considered the amount of time it would take to create our own audit system using those other methodologies versus using an off-the-shelf product like Entegra, we actually had an ROI within the first twelve months," he adds. O'Pry began evaluating Entegra in September 2002, and Henssler went live with the system about a year later. After nearly two years, the CTO is starting to see some room for minor improvements, specifically in Entegra's purging data capabilities.

"Entegra will give you the ability to keep everything -- every update, every insert, every delete. But a lot of times, that's more than you want," O'Pry says.

It's important to note that the system does have the ability to purge, but users must choose either to keep data indefinitely or automatically purge a repository after so many days. The problem lies in the fact that it's an all or nothing function; Entegra will purge everything older than the specified number of days.

"I want to be a little more granular," says O'Pry. "There are certain tables -- audit activity -- that I want to keep for seven years for SEC requirements, but there might be some I only need to keep for six months, simply because they're not data that's affected by government or internal regulations," he explains.

Although the CTO hopes to see this problem addressed in upcoming versions, he finds no compelling reason to move to a different system. "I'm not aware of anything that does everything Entegra does, even today," he says.