Data Analytics Strategy Vital to Internal Audit Effectiveness

New book provides road map to digital transformation through data analytics

LAKE MARY, Fla., March 13, 2018—Understanding where data resides and uncovering patterns and insights to enhance decision making and improve results can transform today’s business environment. Proper use of data and data analytics is equally critical to internal audit’s effectiveness and value to an organization.

Data Analytics: A Road Map for Expanding Analytics Capabilities, a new book from the Internal Audit Foundation and Grant Thornton LLP, explores how internal audit can harness the power of data analytics to address enterprise risks and controls.

The book, being released at The IIA’s General Audit Management (GAM) conference in Las Vegas, was written to help internal audit and chief audit executives understand the need to invest in data analytics and build a strategy for expanding analytics capabilities. It discusses significant elements of a data analytics effort, a framework for digital transformation, and how to identify the highest-value priorities.

“Analytics applications have the potential to transform how internal audit operates and should be a priority for any organization,” said IIA President and CEO Richard F. Chambers, CIA, QIAL, CGAP, CCSA, CRMA. “This book discusses not only the changing data and data analytic needs of organizations, but also how to define, score, and prioritize analytics projects and determine critical data for enterprise risk assessment.”

Chief audit executives and the internal audit function can use the insights, specific applications, and examples of analytics in internal audit provided in the book to further assess the analytics maturity of their organization – and develop or improve existing strategies to integrate analytics into functions across the enterprise.

“The accelerating pace of technological advancement and increased access to data has resulted in analytics and innovation becoming top priority for businesses, specifically within the internal audit department,” said Ward Melhuish, Advisory Data Analytics practice leader and principal at Grant Thornton. “Organizations must adopt and integrate analytics into all aspects of their business to enhance and transform how they operate and evolve. This book is intended to help companies do just that – to develop the road map for expanding analytic capabilities and improve operations.”

The book sums it up this way: “It falls on executives to understand the stakes and the path forward – they will be the ones to strike the optimal balance between humans and machines and unlock the full potential of analytics in their organizations.”

Data Analytics: A Road Map for Expanding Analytics Capabilities was authored by Richard Cline, Data Analytics managing director at Grant Thornton; Ward Melhuish, principal, Advisory Data Analytics practice leader at Grant Thornton; and Meredith Murphy, director in Grant Thornton’s Analytics Center of Excellence.

To obtain a copy of the book, visit The IIA Bookstore.

About the Internal Audit Foundation

The Internal Audit Foundation (Foundation) is the donor-supported arm of The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). The nonprofit Foundation conducts groundbreaking research and scholarly publishing, offers essential career development and thought leadership products through The IIA Bookstore, and works with colleges and universities through the Internal Auditing Education Partnership (IAEP) program to enlighten the next generation of internal auditors. For more information, visit www.theiia.org or www.theiia.org/foundation.

About Grant Thornton LLP

Founded in Chicago in 1924, Grant Thornton LLP (Grant Thornton) is the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd, one of the world’s leading organizations of independent audit, tax and advisory firms. Grant Thornton, which has revenues in excess of $1.7 billion and operates 59 offices, works with a broad range of dynamic publicly and privately held companies, government agencies, financial institutions, and civic and religious organizations.

“Grant Thornton” refers to Grant Thornton LLP, the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL). GTIL and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. Services are delivered by the member firms. GTIL and its member firms are not agents of, and do not obligate, one another and are not liable for one another’s acts or omissions. Please see grantthornton.com for further details.