SAS 70, SSAE 16, What’s in a Website Name?

Some dozen websites have the words “SAS 70″ as part, or all of, their domain name on the web. Given the departure of the SAS 70 audit by 2011, I commented recently that they must not be having any fun. An anonymous reader (“CPA”) wrote in to chastise me, to wit:

Does anyone think that… any of these firms didn’t realize that a change in the standard would eventually come? Seems to be small minded writing IMO.

“Eventually” doesn’t exist in too many business plans.

For many of these firms, their core business comes from SAS 70s, and their page ranking on search engines is critical. The shift from SAS70.com-type names to SSAE16.com-type names has to have a huge impact for such firms. That’s the “fun” part.

I checked out www.ssae16.com It’s “under construction,” and owned by a guy in Pennsylvania. He bought the web name in February 2009. I guess he realized a change in the standard would come!

Most amazingly, last week a small regional CPA firm in Maryland told my team that no such standard existed. They changed their minds later.