I am not suggesting that the organization does NOT build up competence in local auditors, far from it. Been doing this for years internally and yes, accredited acceptance of registrar usage too. If anyone is interested I can share experiences and techniques. If this has stirred some thoughts then please share them. I would recommend that a remote audit is never the first audit - always visit first. However, as in business, it is always best (if practical/economic) to meet face-to-face. What about the social side of things? Isn't it impersonal or even unprofessional (I've had that one a lot) to not be in the same room as the auditee(s)? No, that's how we do business every day. What I can't tell is if the meat is rancid - that requires taste/smell. I can remotely audit food preparation - using a webcam to ask an auditee to use a food temperature probe to ensure correct cooking/storage. The next thing is what can't be audited remotely? Well I can't touch, smell or taste remotely - everything else is up for grabs. Today if an Icelandic volcano erupts, Europe stops - period. What technology did we use in 1960 - trains, planes and automobiles. What about security, records, access, privacy, technology failure? These are all problems that auditors had in 1960 - only the technology has changed. When the topic of ICT arises, usually it is about the reasons why it can't be done. How about - whatever you use in business. The second thing is what technology can you use for remote auditing? Well just about anything. Or it could be having a teleconference with the cosmonauts on the space station. That can even mean calling the person in the next office on the phone to answer a question. So, what about remote auditing? Well, the first thing is what is remote? I would contend that it is 'not in the physical presence of the auditee(s)' that is the auditee can't be seen/heard sufficiently to obtain objective audit evidence. Yes, it needs careful planning and yes - it can go wrong, but why not consider it? It minimises transportation costs and associated auditor dead-time. It offers so much - greater width of sampling, faster sampling, sampling where the auditor cannot (or would not) go think tsunami, earthquake, SARS. However remote auditing is a method that auditors ignore at their peril. I don't think that will happen in my lifetime.
So there are huge opportunities for remote auditing.īefore anyone lets rip - I am not suggesting that all audits can or should be remote. Even the earthbound hardware folks have a lot of electronic stuff. Yes, people work somewhere - at home, in the car, at the airport - and yes there is a comp-any address- usually a lawyer or accountant office - but there is not a site. Some businesses have no sites not that they have teleworkers, they have no sites. What folks in the quality world (and they tend to be in the hardware world) don't seem to grasp is that the world has become globally electronic. I would like to bring the (quality) audit world into the late 20th century. So why, if business world has adopted ICT, has the audit world stayed strictly earthbound? The examples are out there for everyone to find. And more and more the data, applications and systems are outsourced and in the cloud. Car manufacturing is robotic - all the designs, BOMs (Bills of Material for us older folks) measurements, test records, management reports are all on computer. Today, someone in Mozambique will write an app on their iPhone that will deliver instantaneous business value to someone in Peru. All audit evidence was written down as notes, collated and synthesized into audit reports that were posted in physical mailboxes. Masses of paper documentation was read by eye. The 1st and 2nd party audits were long, slow, costly and not very effective. Every organisation audited every supplier and themselves at least yearly. In that time it went from punch card technology to 3G telephone handsets with more processing power than the mainframe I first worked with from memos that were sent to the typing pool and returned the next day for posting (in the physical mailbox) to tweets, viral videos, blogs, live videoconferencing - all global, cheep and easy to use. I was in the ICT industry for over 30 years.
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