University of Birmingham: Complete oversight of internal audit in one system

The challenge

“When I joined the team, the audit process was fully paper based”, recalls the Head of Internal Audit. “There were ring binders full of pages of printed paper and manual sign-offs. The potential for human error and duplication was much higher.”

The manual processes also caused bottlenecks when it came to building reports. As in most Universities, data was spread across many entities, so that locating and accessing the right data was in itself time-consuming for the internal audit team.

It became apparent that software would be essential to solving these challenges. Going paperless would also align with the University’s sustainability goals.

The solution

After considering several vendors, the team at University of Birmingham selected Ideagen. 

Ideagen Internal Audit stood out for its ability to support the team in improving its efficiency and in developing best practice:

• End-to-end supervision of the entire audit process in one system.
• Ability to connect the data through the whole system.
• Secure working environment that could be accessed by remote workers.
• A system that’s easy to follow and roll-out.

The result

Robust data and evidence

“What’s great is the connectivity you have all the way through the system. If you raise something in a particular area, you know it’s going to sweep all the way through."

“We now know that we have one version of the data, and we can guarantee there are no duplications, omissions or errors. It’s a far more robust and evidencable approach.”

Better control and oversight

“The main thing for me is that Ideagen gives me and the team better control and oversight of the end-to-end process. I can easily see progress on follow-ups at the same time as seeing progress on audits.”

Time saving and efficiency

“We’re saving several days per year now because our weekly progress reporting is quicker than it was before."

“The beauty of it is we don’t need to go through trees of folders. It’s all there, it’s connected, and it makes things a lot quicker."

“I also don’t need to search through and compare a range of Word or Excel files; the data is right there and it’s well presented. It’s far easier to access and we use far fewer clicks.”

Improved teamwork and communication

“It’s much easier to swap and share methods because Ideagen is the common language and software. You can go into somebody else’s file if you need to and see how they have tackled an audit."

“Wherever we work, we’re able to compare and review others’ work, support each other, and learn continuously.”

“Ideagen provides a structure that's straightforward to follow. New employees can learn our way of working and the process at the same time. This has made onboarding much easier and much quicker.”