Argenta Bank’s internal audit department benefits from paperless auditing with Ideagen Internal Audit
Headquarted in Antwerp, Belgium, Argenta Bank-en Verzekeringsgroep is a banking and insurance group which focuses on families and individuals
Operating in Belgium and the Netherlands, Argenta Bank- en Verzekeringsgroep is the fifth largest banking institution in Belgium, specialising in banking, savings and investments, credit and insurance.
With 1.6 million customers and about 25 audits per year, they required a software tool that would modernize their internal auditing, allowing the organization’s audit department to become paperless.
As a result of working with several systems previously, including Microsoft databases, Excel and Word, the audit team’s documentation was being stored on a shared network drive, which meant data was often inconsistent and hard to locate.
This made it effectively impossible to gauge any valuable analysis or risk assessments from the data.
The challenge
Ludo Schrijnemakers, Senior ICT Auditor within Argenta’s internal audit department, said:
“Our previous system saw audit reports written in Microsoft Word with much of the work in the field being performed in Microsoft Excel, with evidence and documentation stored on a shared network drive.
Recommendations and action plans, on the other hand, were stored in a Microsoft database.
“The reporting tool in Microsoft had become unstable.
The main reason being that the database was used by 70 occasional users over a WAN-environment, while there was also another issue in that the employee who built the database no longer worked for the company.
We decided it was best to source and work with a software tool to assist us in storing and streamlining our audit data.”
The challenge
Ludo Schrijnemakers, Senior ICT Auditor within Argenta’s internal audit department, said:
“Our previous system saw audit reports written in Microsoft Word with much of the work in the field being performed in Microsoft Excel, with evidence and documentation stored on a shared network drive.
Recommendations and action plans, on the other hand, were stored in a Microsoft database.
“The reporting tool in Microsoft had become unstable.
The main reason being that the database was used by 70 occasional users over a WAN-environment, while there was also another issue in that the employee who built the database no longer worked for the company.
We decided it was best to source and work with a software tool to assist us in storing and streamlining our audit data.”
Almost immediately, Ideagen Internal Audit encouraged closer communications with our Risk and Compliance departments, and provided our audit director with increased visibility and a complete overview of the audits in progress – something that wasn’t possible before.
Argenta worked with Ideagen’s Belgian partner, Sepia Solutions, to implement and configure Ideagen Internal Audit to their exact specifications, resulting in noticeable benefits from the start.
Ludo added: “Ideagen Internal Audit was the product we chose because, as well as being able to be configured to our exact requirements, it also came with excellent professional support.
“Almost immediately the system encouraged closer communications with our Risk and Compliance departments and provided our audit director with increased visibility and a complete overview of the audits in progress – something that wasn’t possible before.”
Ludo added: “Using a software tool for managing and performing audits is clearly a huge benefit, and Ideagen Internal Audit has been an outstanding product for us”
In our opinion Ideagen is one of the best auditing tools on the market because of its Audit and Operational Risk functionality and documentation capability.
Highlights
Centralized, digital audit documentation
Review processes became more efficient and effective
The implementation of audit recommendations can be followed up continuously
Synergy between all control functions within the company
Risks identified by one control function can seamlessly be evaluated by another control function
Improve your auditing efficiencies and risk assessments today
Contact Ideagen for more information on how Ideagen Internal Audit could help your organization.
Ideagen Internal Audit can help your business achieve operational excellence, resilience, reputational strength and efficient compliance.
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