The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investing $54 million to make over its 20-year-old public company disclosure system from a form-based electronic filing system to a real-time search tool with interactive capabilities.
According to an SEC statement, the commission does not require companies to file their information in interactive format using Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), an XML-based specification for exchanging financial reports over the Internet. This is mainly because the XBRL labels are not completed and the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval database, nicknamed EDGAR, can’t use the extra capabilities of XBRL, the statement says.
EDGAR is the SEC’s primary system for accepting company filings and providing information to investors.
The SEC says three contracts will close that gap, paving the way for universal XBRL filings by companies.
“[This announcement] demonstrates the commission’s firm commitment to interactive data and represents a significant milestone on the road to achieving that goal,” says SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in the statement. “The new system will make
it easier both to file information with the commission and to use it. For investors and analysts, it will represent a quantum leap over existing disclosure technologies. For companies, it will mean easier and less costly compliance with SEC requirements.”
McLean, Va.-based Keane Federal Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Boston-based Keane Inc., was awarded a six-year, $48 million contract to upgrade, maintain and ultimately replace EDGAR.
As part of the project, Keane will lead a team of partner technology companies, including BearingPoint Inc., Microsoft Corp., Rivet Software Inc., EMC Corp., Akamai Technologies Inc. and Vistronix Inc.
Initially, Keane says, it will support tens of thousands of corporate securities insurers, investment companies and individuals who file roughly 700,000 documents and data sets on EDGAR each year. Keane will work with the SEC to develop details for implementing a new filing and analysis system.
The new system will enable investors and analysts to directly search and analyze disclosed information using automated tools, rather than perform manual searches, re-key data or pay to have data translated into more usable formats, Keane says in the statement. The interactive data built into the system will make information filed with the SEC more useful and affordable for investors, analysts, filers and regulators, according to Keane.
The SEC has also committed $5.5 million to complete the writing of XBRL computer labels, or taxonomies, so that companies in all industries can electronically file their financial reports. The SEC awarded this contract to XBRL U.S. Inc., which is responsible for developing the standard in the U.S. This work should be completed in less than a year, the SEC says.
The SEC has also awarded two separate contracts to Rivet Software Inc. and Wall Street on Demand Inc., worth a total of $500,000, to provide interactive investor tools on the SEC’s Web site.
Using the new features, investors will be able to view and analyze companies’ financial statements that are filed in XBRL. The SEC says the software tools will be available to the public for free.
Just because a Web search engine can’t find something doesn’t mean it isn’t there. You may be looking in all the wrong places. the Deep Web is a vast information repository not always indexed by automated search engines but readily accessible to enlightened individuals. here are some search strategies to put to use:
Be aware that the Deep Web exists.
use a general search engine for broad topic searching.
use a searchable database for focused searches.
register on special sites and use their archives.
check the Web site of your local public library.
call the reference desk at a local college.
References:
Archives