Introduction
Digital disruption on account of innovation has become a common phenomena in many industries & functions, oil & energy auditing is one of them. Internal audit in the oil and energy industries is quite expensive, both in terms of financial expense & manpower required. It takes both time & money. The audit fees of the public & large private conglomerate may run into millions of US dollars. And, as far as time is concerned, it may take around one to three months to complete an audit. If we consider the industry as a whole, the oil & energy auditing is a billions of dollars industry employing thousands of full time staff for this purpose. There are a number of factors which makes auditing complex in this industry – one has to consider a large enterprise spread across multiple locations & sites which has so many layers in the role hierarchy with different levels of control. Given the risky nature of the processes, regulations are also very strict requiring air tight controls. Now, however, new technologies like cloud are transforming the energy audit process improving the cost ratio & reliability. This comes at a time when there is a huge demand for information & transparency & regulatory guidelines are also tightening. In this blog we are going to take you through the top, valuable tips for choosing the best internal audit software solution for the oil & energy industry.
Here’s the help for choosing the right internal auditing software for Oil & Energy Industry
Creating checklists & surveys
This is as important as coming in at number one position. In any auditing survey it is very important. To conduct surveys you need checklists. So, we can say that internal audit checklists for oil and gas company are the heart of the auditing. Now, these checklists can be created manually or you can have predefined industry-specific templates. You should be able to re-create checklists from previous audits & also have a simple process for creating new audits both before & during the audit process. WovVIA from WovVTech is an industry-specific audit software which has been specially designed for the oil & energy industry. This internal audit management solution has seen numerous implementations across the globe & is fully equipped to satisfy various types of internal audit requirements.
It should plan & support audit
Any audit, especially in the oil & energy industry requires comprehensive planning & support. The best internal audit software has the provision to plan & support for audit considering the various requirements it has. For example, one should be able to carefully choose the audit questions & set the pass scores. The audit software should have the workflows exactly as per the audit requirements & it should allow an audit to be completed only when the audit is actually completed.
Easy & user friendly audits
The audit process is already sufficiently complex. We want the best survey software for a compliance audit that’s ought to make our lives easy. We don’t want any further complications on account of the software solution. This is the scenario in any oil & energy enterprise including some of the clients which we have served:
- The audit executives want to use the software on their own without any technical help.
- The power users should be able to generate & view reports on their own & view it on the dashboard.
- Given the cost of auditing, we don’t want software which requires comprehensive training of the staff.
- Software should be self-sustaining with minimum support requirements from vendors.
Given these requirements, it becomes very important that incumbent software is highly intuitive to use, it has a user-friendly interface, & it can automate oil & energy internal audits. So, these points should be given due weightage while evaluating the shortlisted software solutions for auditing.
Affordable for all
As already mentioned the auditing fees for any good size oil & energy major may run into millions of US dollars. Under these circumstances, you don’t want to further pinch your pocket by going for a highly expensive enterprise software for performing an energy audit. No doubt software should integrate well with other solutions in your ecosystem, but it should be affordable. Our cloud-based, SaaS modelled inspection & audit software is available on subscription basis. So, you will pay only for the services you use. At the same time it’s scalable to meet the growing industry requirements.
Comprises CAPA features
The ultimate aim of auditing is to mitigate risks & take you out of any sticky situations that you may face in future. So, that’s only possible if you have CAPA (corrective and preventive action) features in your paperless energy audits software. If your software has CAPA features, it ensures non-compliance, SLA deviation, & other weak areas are properly addressed. Such solutions make it easy to initiate & track corrective measures. In WovVIA, there is a provision to raise tickets when compliance requirements are not met & assign it to employees for resolution. One can also track the issue resolution & ticket closure.
Quick scheduling option
This point is as important as the rest. Auditing is not a one time affair. It’s not a ‘fire & forget’ kind of thing. One always needs to be on one’s toes as the audit may sneak in anytime without any notice. You may even, sometimes, forget to take notice of the looming audit. But, that will not be the case with the best energy audit software which has scheduling features. Such solutions allow the admins to schedule recurring audits as they are supposed to occur & when the time comes all the relevant stakeholders get automatic reminders from the software of the impending audit. WovVIA too has an audit scheduling feature.
Audit dashboards & reports
Audit dashboards & reports are a must-have for any internal auditing software. The audit software must provide reports on audit results & CAPA outcomes. Many software also have the option to get feedback on the auditing process. The internal audit software should be able to record the findings digitally. One should be able to do intelligent analysis & generate reports from the responses collected. You should be able to compare the responses across location, respondents, & other parameters. And see the audit findings through customizable charts & also share the results with whomever you want.
Conclusion
Technology has reshaped the oil & energy companies’ internal auditing procedures. Companies will have to make out as soon as possible how they can leverage this technological transformation to their advantage & streamline their internal auditing processes. With the near future promising state-of-the-art technology at affordable prices, organizations should be able to control auditing at micro level. With this, enterprises will be better positioned to have an auditing strategy & achieve the outcomes they seek to win.
