That's because the federal law requires business managers to continually identify, monitor and verify that they have effective financial controls in place.

Now that most large publicly held firms have gone through at least one round of meeting these so-called Section 404 requirements, many executives have recognized the need to automate those controls processes in order to make those activities repeatable and cheaper to maintain. Big companies like Time Warner Inc. and The Dow Chemical Co. each devoted hundreds of thousands of man-hours in 2004 to manually identifying, evaluating and testing their business and IT controls.

"We have to figure out how to make [Section 404 controls verification] more efficient," says Ron Edmonds, global accounting director at the Midland, Mich.-based chemical manufacturer.

Some companies have invested in software to help them automate their controls activities. Here's a look at five companies that have taken the plunge, the functionality they like best in the third-party compliance packages they each use and what features they'd like to add.

Constellation Energy, Baltimore