Consistency of approach to auditing for BT Group Plc’s Internal Audit team
Ideagen has met the objectives we set out for the system when implementing it and over the years the software has developed within our department as we introduced annual planning, extending it to our SOX requirements and incorporating our Quality Assurance auditing.
With a team of around 90 staff, BT Group’s Internal Audit department is responsible for auditing all SOX work as well as controls being used within various parts of its complex global structure. A key function of the business, the team is also responsible for internal audit control, with external auditors such as PwC relying on their work when carrying out their own inspections within the BT Group.
Prior to sourcing and then implementing dedicated auditing software to help with the day-to- day running of the department, BT’s team operated mainly paper-based methods before opting to launch an internal and custom-built software solution.
It was at this stage that BT Group recognised a dedicated software product was required to provide better support, greater functionality and move them into working with modern systems that were in line with industry standards and ever developing requirements.
Mark Tyler, Information Systems Manager at BT Group Plc, explains: “The system we chose had toprovide us with a number of key areas of functionality that we felt had been previously lacking. This included making it easier to plan our audits for the forthcoming year as well as build an adequate report library.”
Audit Efficiency and Productivity
Initially implementing a legacy auditing system from Ideagen, known as Pentana Audit Work System (PAWS), BT Group took the decision to then move to PAWS’ successor Ideagen Internal Audit – a new application built on modern technology and providing a series of enhanced features for BT Group that PAWS could not provide.
Ideagen Internal Audit was bought by BT Group and implemented due to a number of factors. Ideagen brought with it;
- Modern technology and software
- Richer user experience
- Increased levels of functionality
- Ease of migration from their older systems
- Support for a dispersed team functioning in different countries
Mark Snook, Senior Internal IT Auditor at BT Group Plc, said: “Migrating our data from PAWS to Ideagen Internal Audit was a natural progression for us to be honest. As a department we knew exactly what we were looking for and it was the sheer volume of functionality in Pentana that met our demands that attracted us to the software. Not only that, there was a nicer feel and flow to using the software as well as it being built on a more modern platform. We were really impressed by it.”
Among the many initial benefits that BT Group’s Internal Audit noticed when implementing Pentana included its ease of configurability and customisation levels while its ability to provide adhoc filtering and to create views of a particular area was also a huge positive.
The core functionality is excellent. It’s comprehensive in providing a process to follow through your audit steps and milestone dates. This functionality in particular allows us to measure those key events in an audit – an extremely powerful area of the software and one that I haven’t seen in other systems I’ve used.
Mark Tyler added: “From the information stored in Ideagen, we are able to produce some very powerful reports using Reporting Services which provided us with an oversight of a particular area of the business. A lot of our work is focused on risk and around key areas of risk management internally and externally of the Group – we need to keep an eye on those large issues that could have a potentially huge impact on the organization. The information stored in Ideagen provides the audit committee with a level of assurance that management are doing what they say they are doing in mitigating those risks.”
Mark Snook added: “Our audit work is defined from the key risks within the organization and Ideagen compliments this by structuring the audit, starting off with the business objective, the risk to achieving that objective, the controls that mitigate it and then obviously being able to document our actual audit work. This structure is really important to us as it helps us achieve that consistency of approach which is crucial for our department.”
Because BT Group is large and a structurally complex organization, its Internal Audit department has configured its Ideagen software to meet the demands of its broad scope of works across the Group.
Mark Snook added: “We use the system in a different way to most Ideagen customers in the fact that we have split our system into three clients; one for our audit, one for SOX and one for quality audit. This multi-client approach has also allowed us to have a separate audit universes for each.”
Mark Snook added: “The core functionality is excellent. It’s comprehensive in terms of helping to document your audit work and testing but also in providing a process to follow through your audit steps and milestone dates. This functionality in particular allows us to measure those key events in an audit – an extremely powerful area of the software and one that I haven’t seen in other
systems I’ve used.”
Since the move to Ideagen, BT Group’s Internal Audit department has witnessed improvements in audit file and workflow consistency, improved visibility and review of files. Mark Tyler added: “Instead of focusing on developing our internal system, we can now dedicate our time to doing what we do best; providing more insightful MIS Reporting for management, increasing training on Ideagen and ensuring that the system is set up in a way that meets our people’s needs.
“Ideagen has met the objectives we set out for the system when implementing it and over the years the software has developed within our department as we incorporate new features into our business such as annual planning, extending it to our SOX requirements and most recently incorporating our Quality Assurance auditing. It has been flexible in meeting our evolving needs for our Internal Audit department at BT Group.”