Self Audits for Quick Compliance Checks

Security and risk management issues are persistent challenges that several organizations are faced with. The existence of disparate architectures and processes have deterred implementation of effective strategies, and projects suffer due to wastage of time and rising costs. Auditing is part of the governance, risk and compliance program and is therefore responsible for ensuring effective IT compliance.

IT auditing is a relatively complex procedure involving multiple stakeholders. In the current scenario organizations are incapable of providing a centralized monitoring system, and this hinders process visibility and control. Therefore, there is a need for an integrated and automated IT compliance framework for audits that can provide complete control over data access, management, analysis and presentation.

Audit management solutions help organizations to streamline their audit processes so that they can provide visibility and control to its stakeholders. These solutions also perform audits of various other frameworks including FISMA, GLBA, HIPAA, PCI compliance to assess the existing compliance status.

Notable Auditing Features of Efficient IT Compliance Software

Tools providing governance, risk and compliance solutions should be designed to organize, direct, document and report internal as well as external audits, thus fulfilling all compliance requirements.

Planning Audits Based on Risks - A well-defined GRC solution has the capability to support IT-related risk-based auditing. It can select IT processes, assets and other related activities to assess IT risks. This IT compliance solution can integrate with third-party tools to collect information on risks and vulnerabilities and provide opportunities for audit departments to plan their strategies for an effective and in-depth audit.
Auditing and Assessment - Auditors can record detailed findings and utilize recommendations produced by GRC tools. Self assessments related to IT controls can be performed with the assurance of consistent and reliable results. Auditors can monitor the audit status and compare it with goals and aims of the business and ensure execution of plans on a timely basis.
Audit Reviews -IT-GRC tools produce results on the basis of auditing surveys conducted, and provide recommendations for review and responsible actions. Its integrated workflow approach can initiate remediation actions on negative results and can also schedule audit follow-ups.
Audit Reports - Compliance software systems can provide comprehensive compilation of IT audit reports, which enable visibility into the process and status monitoring capabilities with easy tracking. Simplified dashboards generate reports based on parameters such as audited units, schedules, calendars and corrective measures.

Compliance management solutions should provide a fully integrated audit automation system. This facilitates easy management of risk assessment, planning, scheduling, reporting, issue tracking, and administrative functions. With automated controls organizations can use customized solutions for conducting self assessments, quality reviews and risk evaluations. IT-GRC tools provide self auditing capabilities and can support all types of audits including internal audits, IT audits, quality and operational audits, thus reducing the time and cost for organizations.

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