Now’s time for a digital audit

By Claude Spiese Senior advisor of Digital Advisory Services at Grant Thornton Vietnam claude.spiese@gt.com.vn

Regardless of the size of your business, or where it is on its digital journey, few can answer these questions with confidence – and so it may be time to take a step back and conduct a digital audit.

The imperatives of digital transformation are now widely understood. These include realising quantum improvements in business performance; pre-empting disruptive digital challenges; and pivoting to more profitable, scalable, and resilient business models.

However, unless you are a startup, you have to start with what you have and where you are, and the way forward is usually not clear. You may need an independent assessment to see where you are, how you are doing so far, what else is out there, and what your options are.

Digital auditing can be the first step towards digital transformation, but it also serves as an independent checkpoint which should be repeated along the way. The audit should be conducted independently from your digital transformation vendors and consultants, who may not see the full picture, and who may be reluctant to raise honest criticisms on how things are going. It can serve as an indispensable means of supporting your management in juggling all the moving parts of digital transformation.

Grant Thornton Vietnam’s Digital Audit Methodology focuses on providing assurance of the three pillars of digital: benefits, risks, and controls. Our service leverages real world expertise, plus the best practice standard audit methodologies of GT International and ISACA.

We deploy data analytics in testing and evidence-collecting methods to more accurately identify and mitigate risks that legacy audit methodologies may miss. We follow the easily understood steps of plan, perform, and deliver. Our practical real-world approach delivers client-specific (not boilerplate) observations and recommendations which answer the questions managers want answered. Digital auditing goes beyond the traditional IT audit. More and more, the organisation’s digital systems and practices are not conceived as IT systems and are not managed by the IT department. A wide review of everything digital which impacts the business or could impact the business, whether internal or external to the firm, is in order. A traditional IT audit will not catch all that.

For more information on Grant Thornton Vietnam’s Digital Advisory Services, please visit the website at: grantthornton.com.vn/services/Digital-Advisory