QED Completes SSAE No. 16

QED Engages Brightline to Conduct Service Organization Controls Report

QED Financial Systems announces availability of an Independent Auditor's Report on a Description of a Service Organization's System and the Suitability of the Design of Controls (SSAE No. 16).

Many years before the Sarbanes Oxley Act made the Statement on Accounting Standards No. 70 (SAS 70) Audit a necessity for publicly held companies, QED recognized the importance of standardizing the internal controls used to provide QED software as a service and the benefits these controls provide to our clients and partners.

QED Financial Systems is privately held and owned and although not subject to the same requirements imposed by the Sarbanes Oxley Act for SAS 70 audits, believes that the services provided to QED clients and partners must be commercially reasonable and reliable.

QED engaged Brightline, a licensed Certified Public Accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, to conduct an independent Service Auditor’s Report in accordance with the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 (SSAE No. 16) as set forth by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

The SSAE No. 16 is an enhancement to the former standard for Reporting on Controls at a Service Organization, the SAS 70. SSAE No. 16 enhances the SAS 70 with up to date international service organization reporting standards (the ISAE 3402) and is effective as of June 15, 2011.

Brightline completed the Service Organization Controls type 1 (SOC 1) report under the SSAE No. 16 standards for QED in the 3rd Quarter of 2011 and this report is now available to QED clients. Brightline and QED will continue the SSAE No. 16 engagement to prepare and publish an SOC 2 report expected in the 2nd Quarter of 2012.

In addition, QED has partnered with Directlink Technologies to provide and manage a new client and partner data center facility on behalf of the Company. Directlink Technologies’ facility is a SAS70 Type II, tier certification level 3 (as certified by the Uptime Institute) full redundant and fault tolerant data center located in Reading, Pennsylvania.

This facility provides a scalable and repeatable technology environment for QED including high-speed data transport, data center colocation, and managed technology services. Directlink Technologies has an extensive broadband fiber optic network servicing the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions of the United States, a 300,000 square foot high tech office complex with 80,000 square feet of data center space, an extensive and fully functional data center supported 24x7x365 and an experienced application development and support organization.

Essential to Directlink's capability is their fiber optic network that houses central office hubs for six primary network carriers and is the central hub for 29,000 miles of FirstEnergy Telecom fiber on a Cisco network infrastructure. The data center and technology center, including 80,000 square feet of raised floor data center space is located in a resilient building structure above and below ground located 60 miles from Philadelphia and 125 miles from New York City. The energy service consists of separate primary substations on three switchable 3 Megawatt lines with 13.2 KV per line. Redundant emergency power is provided by three 500 KVA parallel, wet cell UPS units and multiple 1250 KW generators with 15,000 gallon diesel fuel capacity supplied under two separate service contracts. Redundant cooling service is provided by three 230 ton Trane units (two with heat recovery) and one 250 ton Trane unit. Halon gas fire suppression is employed throughout the data center using early warning sensors in all hot aisles.

The 20 acre Directlink Technologies campus is manned 24 hours a day with operators on duty to provide any level of services needed. Card-key access to computer rooms can provide any level of security needed, including secured computer rooms with limited entry, bolstered by a full-time guard service with CCTV camera coverage of the entire campus.

About QED Financial Systems, Inc.:
QED Financial Systems, Inc. provides comprehensive portfolio management and accounting software platform as a service (PaaS) to asset managers, investment advisors, hedge funds, plan sponsors, treasuries, and other buy-side firms.  More than 1 trillion USD in collective global assets are managed internationally on the QED platform.

About Brightline:
BrightLine is a licensed Certified Public Accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Brightline is one of the few CPA firms in the United States accredited as a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) company by the PCI Security Standards Council. BrightLine is an accredited ISO/IEC 27001:2005 (ISO 27001) certification body with the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB), the U.S. accreditation body for management systems. BrightLine is the first provider that can perform SAS 70 audits, SSAE assessments, PCI-DSS compliance validation, and ISO 27001 certification services.
Originally known as “SAS 70 Solutions”, BrightLine was the first CPA firm in history to have SAS 70 audits as its primary service line. Following rapid market penetration, Brightline’s SAS 70 / SSAE 16 practice has grown to a size comparable to those of the “Big 4” global accounting firms making BrightLine one the largest CPA firms in the United States without providing traditional accounting services, such as financial statement audits or tax preparation services.

Should you wish to obtain additional information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with a QED representative, please contact Judy Rosa via telephone at 856.797.1200.