The client.
As councils experience rapid digitisation of their operations, an exponential growth in data across all business functions follows. With this shift, internal audit teams face the challenge of remaining relevant to their clients and stakeholders, as traditional audit methods become insufficient to handle the vast amounts of data available. To stay effective, data analysis needs to become a core component of internal audit projects.
Recognising this, the Vice Chair of the London Audit Committee, a collaborative body of Heads of Internal Audit from various London Authorities, approached us to design a comprehensive training workshop. The goal was to equip internal audit teams with the skills to harness data analytics and enhance their auditing processes, ensuring they could adapt to the demands of a digitised world.
Training Requirement.
Excel Support.
Power BI Support.
Project goals.
- Develop a workshop for internal auditors that introduced core data analytics concepts.
- Empower auditors to integrate data analysis into their audit processes, enhancing their relevance and effectiveness in a data-driven environment.
- Accommodate diverse skill levels, from beginners to advanced users, ensuring all participants could meaningfully engage with data analytics.
The solution.
We worked closely with the client to understand the challenges internal auditors within local authorities faced.
We set out to design a workshop introducing data analytics concepts relevant to the challenges, these were: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics.
For practical analysis, we utilised Excel and PowerBI as this empowers auditors with popular and readily available tools for effective data handling.
To foster strategic thinking and application of data analytics we structured the workshop around the who, what, where, when, and why.
To structure the workshop, we organised it around the core principles we as an organisation follow: Plan, Import, Prepare, Analyse, and Results.
We also included hands-on exercises and chose real-world audit scenarios and data within Procure-to-Pay (P2P) processes to allow for immediate application.
We purposely made the learning structure flexible to accommodate diverse skill levels to ensure meaningful engagement for all participants.
Post-workshop material was also developed and designed with the intention of revisting and recapping this workshop in the attendees own time if they wished.
A more tailored, advanced workshop was on offer for attendees and their teams interested in further developing their data analytics capabilities.
Empowering auditors through a practical, hands-on workshop, bridging skill gaps and driving impactful, data-driven decisions across local authorities.
The outcome.
Delivered to over 165 internal auditors representing more than 35 local authorities.
A staple workshop for the client, delivered over 15 times in the past 3 years.
9 out of 10 attendees came away feeling more confident with Data Analytics in Internal Audit.
An excellent introduction, I had some idea of the basic principles from the outset but limited knowledge of the techniques to apply.
A workshop attendee.
