As businesses contend with a tumultuous risk landscape, many boards look to the unique insights of their audit teams to determine the best path forward.
But delivering impact isn’t always easy, especially as risks continue to evolve and multiply.
At this year’s General Audit Management Conference (GAM), over 1,000 audit professionals convened in Grapevine, Texas, to explore the latest trends and best practices in internal audit, with an emphasis on how auditors can serve as strategic advisers to the board.
Mining Data for More Strategic Insights
In the session “Using Data to Drive Insights for Leadership,” Viktor Culjak, Director of Consulting & Advisory for Diligent, spoke with Dieu Tran, Director of IT Risk from Mercy Health, about staying aligned with the board on key priorities.
Culjak shared how integrated analytics can help audit teams become more proactive partners by improving data quality and allowing internal auditors to analyze large amounts of data, ultimately leading to more valuable insights that can be used to advise the board on specific risk areas.
By applying data analytics, audit teams can view risks in the context of the wider business strategy for a better understanding of what keeps their organizational leaders up at night, while also prioritizing risks based on likelihood and impact.
And risk isn’t the only area that data analytics can shed greater light on — they also provide a clearer picture of an organization’s compliance status, so audit teams (and risk and compliance departments) can help drive continuous improvements.
With those insights, auditors can deliver more meaningful reports that demonstrate progress, pinpoint areas in need of remediation and address top concerns for boards.
More Effective Presentations to the Audit Committee
Equally important is how those reports and insights are presented. In the session “Drive Unprecedented Clarity for the Audit Committee,” Phil Lim, Director of Product Management for Diligent ACL Analytics, demonstrated how audit and analytics technology drastically reduces the amount of time required to make audit committee-ready presentations.
Lim explained that, using tools such as ACL Analytics and Diligent HighBond, auditors can automatically populate their templates with fresh KPIs, rather than adding information into Word or PowerPoint documents manually. This cuts preparation time by 60-90%, while also reducing the risk of human error.
For operational deep dives, auditors can assemble curated storyboards within a matter of minutes. These customizable visuals deliver the key information that boards and executives need in order to make critical decisions, and in a format that's easy for them to understand.
With less time spent on presentations and more time to think about overall business strategy, auditors can identify risks that may stand in the way of the board’s objectives, moving audit teams beyond a "check-the-box" function to strategic advisers that can help enact change.
As attendees at the 2023 GAM conference saw, audit management software with built-in data analytics makes it easier for internal audit teams to deliver higher-quality insights the board can act on.
Learn how the Diligent Audit Management solution and ACL Analytics automate control testing and centralize workflows, allowing your teams to provide a new level of assurance in less time while demonstrating the value they bring to the board and organization as a whole.
