Indeed, Clarke was drafted into CA last year when the company was attempting to put its house back in order. Prior to CA, the exec was CFO at Compaq, where he worked on the merger with Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ).
But CAs drive towards compliance is still a work in progress. In a statement released today, the company confirmed that it had identified two weaknesses in its internal controls under Section 404 of SOX. These relate to financial reporting on the companys restatement of its financial results, and a deficiency in maintaining an effective control environment for its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operation (see CA Files FY05, Affirms Guidance).
In the statement, Bob Davis, CAs chief financial officer, said that the company has acted swiftly and decisively to correct the problems. "We have made substantial progress and will work diligently over the coming months to complete the task," he added.
Clarke's references to SOX today, however, were aimed at improving its profile as one of the major players in the identity management space (see CA Intros eTrust IAM Toolkit and Identity Management Heats Up).
Users are certainly looking at these technologies, although there is a feeling in some quarters that existing offerings don't have the breadth of functionality that organizations need (see CIOs Face Identity Crisis).