$6Bn bill for Sarbanes Oxley

AMR Research estimates that companies will spend $6 billion on complying with Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requirements in 2006, on par with the $6.1 billion that will be spent in 2005. These findings are based on a recent study conducted by AMR Research in which over 300 business and IT leaders were surveyed on their Sarbanes-Oxley and broad compliance spending priorities.

In 2006, there will be key differences in how budgets are spent. Budgets allocated to internal headcount are expected to fall by 8% while the technology allocation will grow by more than 13% in real dollars over 2005 numbers. External consulting activities, which do not include audit fees, are expected to hold steady in 2006.

$2.3 billion (39%) - Internal labor / headcount
$1.9 billion (32%) - Technology
$1.8 billion (29%) – External consulting

Given that technology growth will be 13%, I would say that a large chunk of this will be security related, based on findings of a previous survey - see Security dominates SOX product spend

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