ZoomInfo
How the largest tech IPO in years get SOX-compliant systems in just 30 days.
Read the case study
“Our SOX audit team said we had the best controls for an organization pre-IPO that they had ever seen”
— Dave Witty, Director of Financial Systems at ZoomInfo
Dave Witty has helped businesses get ready for SOX before.
But when he came onboard as ZoomInfo’s Director of Financial Systems, he knew it would be a unique challenge. The company was poised to be one of the biggest tech IPOs in years — and with a lean NetSuite team focused on automation and scalability, Witty needed powerful tools to meet their audit requirements.
Audit Readiness Made Easy
Too often, audit leaders in Witty’s position will take a reactive approach to the problem.
They’ll struggle to pass an audit using saved searches and other out-of-the-box tools, without addressing the broader issues that make accurate information hard to find. The result is a lot of stress and lost productivity — as well as a cycle that gets progressively more expensive with each audit.
“I knew that we were headed towards an IPO,” he told us recently. “My role was to proactively set us up to be SOX compliant ahead of the game.”
Fortunately, Witty had Strongpoint on his side. "It was a no-brainer. You always go to the leader of the marketplace, and Strongpoint is the leader in this space. It’s a key tool that every NetSuite manager should have on hand,” he said.
We set up ZoomInfo’s account with a comprehensive set of tools for segregation of duties, change control, ITGC controls and security.
“It has literally done everything you guys said it was going to do.”
You always go to the leader of the marketplace, and Strongpoint is the leader in this space. It’s a key tool that every NetSuite manager should have on hand
The automation that Strongpoint builds in to protect the system is unlike anything else on the planet!
Before and After
ZoomInfo — initially founded as DiscoverOrg — is a Washington-based company offering sales and marketing analytics via a SaaS platform. When Witty joined, it was the fastest-growing SaaS-based company in the world, going from $90 million in annual sales to over $500 million in just two years.
One downside of that rapid growth is that the company never had a chance to implement best practices around ITGC change control. “We had some very, very convoluted processes,” Witty told us.
The solution? Automating change control using Strongpoint’s continuous audit functionality. With Strongpoint embedded in ZoomInfo’s critical financial systems, every change is checked against pre-existing policies — anything that goes wrong is caught and sent to the appropriate resource for correction. Best of all, the entire process is captured in audit-ready logs that demonstrate compliance across the entire system.
"The automation that Strongpoint builds in to protect the system is unlike anything else on the planet!” raved Witty.
Ready for Audit — and Beyond
The conventional wisdom is that getting audit-ready in advance of an IPO is a time-consuming, stressful process. However, with Strongpoint in place, “we were a SOX-compliant organization that had full control over our entire environment within a month.”
But it wasn’t just ZoomInfo that had praise for Strongpoint. The independent auditors brought on to guide the company through their IPO told Witty that, when it comes to SoD, change control, ITGC and security, “our accounting and finance department is the best set up they’ve ever seen.”
Ultimately, however, for public companies, getting SOX compliant is only the first step. Continuing to evolve a business as it manages the challenges of growth requires flexible systems that can adapt to change. Which is exactly what Strongpoint helps with once the initial audits are done.
“Strongpoint gives me complete visibility and control of my systems, so I know what’s going on,” Witty says. "I have full confidence that my environment is safe, happy and healthy.”
Strongpoint gives me complete visibility and control of my systems, so I know what’s going on... I have full confidence that my environment is safe, happy and healthy.
Get a Free Audit Readiness Assessment
ZoomInfo's 30-day journey to SOX compliance began with a 30-minute consultation. Fill out the form to book your own meeting with our team — we'll review your system and processes, immediately identify any red flags for SOX compliance, and help you build out a path to audit-readiness, at a pace that works for you.
