People do not like change. Despite the improvements technology can have, firms stick to old, out-dated systems for their operations. This has left companies with inefficient workflows, prone to mistakes.
One area that is no different is within auditing, which is often laden with old spreadsheets and word processing documents. Diligent has outlined seven reasons why it is important to change.
Trapped data
The first is that data in electronic documents can become trapped. Old systems make it impossible to search, reference, analyse, export, report on or access on mobile devices. Without access to this, teams cannot make the same high-level of insights.
Data integrity
Similarly, documents can be changed or manipulated by anyone. Without any clear traceability, it removes the confidence in data, with anyone able to access information or change important information over the life cycle.
Maintaining relationships
Information within a document cannot connect with other data sources. Even if there are hyperlinks or embedded features, they are often unreliable. Diligent added that systems relying on deep document integration are prone to data loss when files are corrupted, edited by other users or moved.
Fragile links
Additionally, hyperlinking information between documents relies on metadata embedded in documents with references stored in the software system. Having a reliance on an external stored refence leaves the possibility for links to be broken. It is also impossible to archive or export an audit without breaking the links.
Time consuming
Rolling audits forward becomes time consuming. It stated that when rolling an audit forward, the team would need to update each document manually to avoid errors.
Software updates
Diligent stated that file integration within audit software often breaks when document-editing applications are updated and file formats change. These updates can cause documents to be updated, which can mess with the information stored inside.
Administration
Creating and managing document-embedded metadata needs legacy audit systems that have complex plug-ins to be installed and maintained for each machine. This already creates more time burdens for security teams and can bring issues when tools need updating or support for a tool ends.
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