Many auditing and assessment firms use their own home-grown system to manage client engagements. Usually, the system is built on Excel. Some companies have invested substantial time and money into their internal processes for running engagements—as much as several tens of thousands of dollars! Unfortunately, most internal solutions distract from your core business, costing you […]
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. You begin a client engagement to assess their compliance, only to discover they’ve done the bare minimum since their last assessment a year ago. No one can remember where key documents are, processes are out of date and new staff are clueless about requirements. It’s going to […]
Cyberattacks are increasing every year—across industries, and among companies of every size. As a result, companies are turning to cyber liability insurance to protect their organizations and reduce their risks. But many companies are in for a rude awakening, because they’re not handling their insurance correctly. When you apply for cyber liability insurance, you need […]
Agility and innovation. Those are two words you probably don’t associate with internal auditing. And that’s a problem, according to a new report by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), titled “Global Perspectives and Insights: Agility and Innovation.” The report makes a bold claim: if internal auditors are going to remain relevant and add value […]
My first experience with compliance was over a decade ago. My boss came by and dropped the PCI compliance requirements into my lap. Thus began 18 gut-wrenching months that culminated in an audit where I had to prove that we had done everything under the sun to meet compliance. That experience was mind-numbingly painful. There […]
As much as you enjoy working with clients on engagements, sometimes compliance assessment can feel more like babysitting than anything else. Don’t get me wrong—your clients are great people, and you’re grateful for their business. But let’s be honest a moment: some of your compliance engagements require a lot more individualized attention, and more of […]
Compliance impacts a broad spectrum of people across your organization, and even your vendors. Compliance affects IT, but it also impacts your hardware and software development teams. It has implications for the Sales team—especially how they treat information during the sales process, or handle payment information. HR touches compliance-related data every time they do hiring, […]
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect on May 25, 2018, and within 24 hours Google and Facebook had both been targeted with non-compliance complaints. There’s a lot of confusion about GDPR—who it applies to, how to become compliant, and what happens afterward—and businesses are scrambling to get their arms around the whole […]
Your compliance auditor has a vested interest in your success—but a successful engagement is a LOT easier when you make it easy on your auditor to sign off on your compliance. Auditors are looking for clients that are willing participants who take compliance seriously. They love working with companies that want to do compliance correctly […]