PHOENIX, AZ and OAKLAND, CA - June 26, 2008 - The Open Compliance & Ethics Group (OCEG) and Network Frontiers, a leader in IT regulatory compliance management, today announced a partnership to deliver the 2008 Unified Compliance Framework (UCF) a product of Network Frontiers at discount to OCEG members. The partnership will offer the latest version of the UCF's cross platform regulatory management controls at a substantial discount to OCEG members based on their level of participation in OCEG. UCF has mapped thousands of controls from Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, CobiT, FERC, Basel II, PCI (Payment Card Industry) data standards and many others across the globe, into a master hierarchal framework.

"The UCF harmonizes IT controls from over 400 international regulatory requirements, standards, and guidelines from both technical and legal perspectives," said Dorian Cougias, CTO of Network Frontiers. "Rather than testing and asserting compliance for each individual regulation, IT organizations use the UCF to save time and money by distilling compliance requirements to their essence and asserting compliance across multiple authority documents simultaneously."

"OCEG is delighted to work with Network Frontiers to offer the latest IT UCF components to our members at a special discount," said Scott Mitchell, CEO of OCEG. "Compliance requirements are constantly changing and growing, and the UCF continues to increase the breadth and depth of legal coverage of technical requirements. Our members will benefit from low-cost access to UCF's comprehensive and harmonized approach to mapping common controls across regulatory authorities and authority documents."

The UCF organizes IT processes into 12 IT Impact Zones. Each zone identifies one area of policies, standards, and procedures, such as Audits and Risk Management or Systems Continuity. Within each IT Impact Zone, an organization can map overlaps between multiple authority documents, create a control list for each impact zone, and clarify conflicts created by overlapping authority documents.

"The Unified Compliance Framework supports IT compliance management by focusing on commonalities across regulations and applying a standardized control structure" according to Lane Leskela, OCEG Vice President of Technology Programs. "Unified Compliance's approach to IT compliance is highly compatible with OCEG's focus on the development and delivery of global standards in governance, risk and compliance management that reduce cost, limit liability, and leverage the value of related technologies and services across organizations."

About the Open Compliance & Ethics Group

OCEG is a nonprofit organization that provides:

OCEG - Open Compliance & Ethics Group

OCEG - Open Compliance & Ethics Group

OCEG is the only nonprofit offering comprehensive guidance, standards, benchmarks and tools for integrating governance, risk and compliance (GRC) processes. Our unique platform and organizational structure helps you take advantage of contributions from thousands of experts and companies - many of them just like yours. Our guidance, benchmarking, custom tools and communities of practice help you perform - not just comply. OCEG offers value you can exploit today, tomorrow and as your company grows.

More from OCEG - Open Compliance & Ethics Group