Which will be the most growing business line of the auditing world within 5-10 years?

That is a loaded question. The author has not defined what is meant by the most growing business line; is it in terms of revenue or size of practitioners or ...? I do agree that unless Sarbanes-Oxley is overturned, it will still be SOX but I will quickly add that even SOX is not necessarily a one-stop shop. The SEC as well as the Communications regulatory authority and the courts are still defining the future of SOX; constantly and effectively revising SOX.

My professional opinion is that the next 2-5 years will see increased hy-brid of SOX such as the type of services we currently provide - eBLARM -e Business Legal Audit and Risk Management. As opposed to the traditional/classical auditing regime which look at paper form, eBLARM focuses purely on online (eBusiness) transactions within the business goals and risks assessment (and management) of the exposures resulting from online transactions. These specialised rather than generalised niches are the future. The question thus becomes, not which business line of the auditing world will grow most in terms of revenue ... but instead, which of the sub-sets (groups) of the above auditing business lines will increase the most. These niche businesses are already springing up.

For instance a colleague work for a German company that specialises in Meta-Consultant to companies. Their specific tasks are to: • Determine and analyses the internal consulting situation; evaluating the consulting projects completed up to that respective point in time [scoped]; and creating profiles of consulting firms. Including: - Investigation of the Consulting Firms, Project Topics, Consulting Expenses and Interviews with Owners- Examining survey forms to Project Owners and Previously-Contracted/Other Consulting Firms. OthersOne last thought; unless a dramatic event prompting the enactment of SOX-like Act in the other categories occurs, such as the cases ENRON, ARTHUR ANDERSEN, MCI WORLDCOM, SOX and the niche services outlined above will continue to dominate. For more information about eBLARM and similar niche services contact me at emajr@post.cz.

Edward Asu FCMI M_o_R practitioner