IT Audit Review
IT Audit Review
In today’s hypercompetitive business landscape ,every business has to have an IT function to leverage business value. But how do you know in the rapidly changing tech environment that the technology you have in place is really the best that you can run?
About this service
They may not excite enthusiasm, but the processes by which business transactions are dealt with underpin your business operation. Could you be doing things more effectively or at less cost? Do any of these symptoms or statements apply to your organisation?
- Staff dissatisfaction with slow PCs or systems e.g comments like “ Our systems a bit slow today..”
- Periodic failures or hiccups in the IT systems with comments like “Sorry our systems is down”
- Difficulty in recovering old backed-up data e.g. "I can't find my email"
- High costs in maintaining traditional on premise systems and infrastructure its "£xxx thousand for a new server rack"
- Constrained connectivity and remote access e.g. "It really slow accessing my work from home"
- A lack of understanding with software licensing or high license renewal costs, "Microsoft have asked for a software audit"
- Duplicative and non-complementary processes and the emergence of ‘information pockets’ and ‘black holes’ across the organisation, "I cant answer that - they haven't filed the info"
- Delays in fulfilling customer expectations, meeting deadlines and producing reliable management information
- Management information based upon spreadsheets produced off-line from the main system(s).
If these look familiar, or if a major change is planned, the business may benefit from an independent IT Audit. Such a review is also relevant when core computer systems are being changed or you are taking on a new business. No matter how good it may be, a new system will not ensure that what people do around it is optimum for the organisation. It is, however, usually an excellent time to re-appraise and update existing practices to make best use of the functionality contained within the new systems.
What this service provides
Our starting point is to gain an understanding your overall business strategy, processes and anticipate the demands using interview of staff and surveys. We then audit your set-up - this may include, but is not limited to:
- Computers and ICT hardware, PCs, Smartphones, Server and infrastructure like firewalls and networks ;
- Software and business systems like accounting, transaction processing, reporting marketing, web and HR;
- Data management, manipulation and storage
- IT Resources - including IT personnel and reliance on key people or external suppliers;
- IT governance and budgets (including any bespoke software development you may undertake);
- IT management processes and interruptions or interference caused by inadequate security, backups etc and legal and compliance issues.
Best practice
Our consultants are experienced IT professionals and thus whist auditing your systems they incorporate a good understanding of industry best practice standards such as agile software development, information security management standards e.g. ISO 27,000 and ITIL service management standards.
Aligned with best practice they have a knowledge of up-to-date technologies, be it cloud (say infrastructure as a service or software is a service), virtualisation and real-time collaboration technologies.
The deliverable
Depending on your requirements, you will receive an IT Audit report, an action plan and a workshop - making our output practical and accessible to you.
Sometimes we provide your incumbent IT team or suppliers with guidance or mentorship to carry out the changes and at other times we will use technically minded implementation consultants to carry out your work.
Why and when you might need this service
Larger businesses will have internal audit functions and periodically will make sure they are at the leading edge in technology efficiency and effectiveness by performing an IT audit.
Growing businesses don't stand still either – they constantly change in order to cope with and take advantage of market and economic conditions. All too easily, however, the underlying technology and processes that support the day-to-day operation get left behind and become outdated and operationally focused staff can lag in understanding current best practice tech. This is where the CEO, finance director or IT director will seek to audit their technology.
How this service benefits your business
- Gives you a strategic bird's eye view of your technology position
- Achieves greater effectiveness and efficiency of operations
- Reduces IT risk
- Ensure the business keeps pace and leapfrogs the the competition
- Enables faster processing of information, giving reduced costs and more readily available management information
- Avoids 'information pockets' and 'black holes' by ensuring that systems complement each other and do not duplicate processes.