On Monday 29 February 2016, the Institute of Internal Auditors Luxembourg (IIALuxembourg) held its first breakfast conference of the year 2016, dedicated to the transformation of internal audit through big data analytics.
Sami El Euch, director at PwC Luxembourg, was present at the conference to introduce this change paradigm induced by big data, mobility and connected objects. Internal audit, as in the case of any other company, is deeply affected by the digital transformation, particularly with regard to big data. This results in exhaustive information on each event. Although it is still seldom used by accounting professionals in Luxembourg, it is seen as the future of the profession.
"If big data is on everyone's lips, nobody knows what to do with it," remarked Norman Finster, future president of IIA Luxembourg.
A source of added value for professionals in sales, big data is heavily qualitative, relegating the tasks of collecting and producing data to the care of the machine. The internal auditor should not so much be occupied with performing calculations that analysing, explaining and drawing conclusions that will enable higher authorities to make decisions regarding such things as positioning and strategy.
"Big data enables internal auditors to focus on the analysis and interpretation of data rather than production," explained Sami El Euch. "It is a real paradigm shift that goes hand in hand with the added value placing the auditor as the holder of the financial truth of society."
He further explained how, beyond the adequate IT tools needed to handle big data, it is imperative to train internal auditors to manage the information structure as an aggregation of such volume requires consistency in the presentation of these data. Only technology-based organisational transformation will enable a company to get involved in time and the auditor, in favouring strategic analysis, is the cornerstone of this shift.
"By 2020, data will be used to reinvent, digitise or eliminate 80% of the process and the products that were in place a decade ago," concluded Sami El Euch.
Photo by PwC Luxembourg (Sami el Euch)
