Benefits of Automating IT Audits
As organizations increasingly rely on software and applications to conduct business, IT
audits have become extremely important to keep operations in check. However, it can get
really tough to conduct audits that are frequent, quick, cheap, as well as efficient. Thanks
to new technology, it is possible to automate your organization’s IT audits. Automating
helps you schedule future audits, prepare for upcoming audits in advance, and even
increase their accuracy.
Here are some of the many other benefits of automating IT audits in your organization.
Keep track of audits in real-time
If your organization is a large one with several departments that need their separate IT
audits, the process can get quite tedious. There may be times when there is an urgency
to interpret the results of such audits. For example, if your organization’s IT security is
under an imminent cyber-threat, you would want to quickly analyze your audit results and
protect your organization accordingly. Automated IT audits allow you to keep a track of
results in real-time.
It helps you lower the risks
Manual audits can pose a higher risk due to inadvertent errors that may creep in.
Automated IT audits do away with such risks. Automating your IT audits makes your
organization’s data storage and usage more transparent. In order to automate your
auditing process, you need to link all your data sources and processing portals to the
audit software.
It helps increase the efficiency of the audits
Automating your IT audits also helps improve the efficiency of the entire process. Audits
not only require thorough and error-free data collection, but also the analysis of the data
collected in the process. The analyses and the subsequently generated reports must
reveal meaningful information about the functioning of the IT system in your organization.
Automating simply speeds up all parts of the auditing process.
It helps your organization save money
IT audits, just like any other audit, require planning and administrative work. This also
includes reviewing the data gathered through the audit, comparing it with the results of
previous audits, creating audit reports and communicating the results to all stakeholders.
All these tasks add up to give massive overhead charges. Moreover, if a third-party is
hired to conduct your internal audits, it will cost your organization even more. Automating
your IT audits gets rid of these overhead charges and makes the entire process financially
viable.
It helps you prepare for any future audits
In the case of manual audits, any change in the personnel that was previously authorized
to conduct the audits can impede the process significantly. However, when you automate
your IT audit, all your audit-related data and reports are stored in one place. They are
already connected to the original sources of data. So, the same sequence of events can
be launched again in any future audits. Moreover, since the process is automated, all
your audits will become more consistent with each other.
Conclusion
The next time you are burdened with the task of conducting an IT audit, consider the
many benefits of automating them.