As the business world adopts a 24/7 timeframe, more companies are instituting controls that operate continuously. Talecris Biotherapeutics, a North Carolina-based maker of medical treatments, put in place a system that lets both business heads and the audit group keep tabs on controls.

The effort began as Talecris prepared to go public, a change that "meant that we needed to be able to focus everyone on controls," says Mary Ann Tourney, the company's senior director of internal audit. Given the audit department's size, automating testing of controls "would allow us time, with a small staff, to accomplish over 100 audit tests every week automatically, look at the results and engage the business process owners in looking at their own controls," Tourney says.

Talecris has two units: Talecris Biotherapeutics, which uses blood plasma to make treatments, and Talecris Plasma Resources, a chain of plasma collection centers.