Controls Transformation & Assurance

Contract Risk & Compliance services

In today's business world, organizations rarely go it alone. They increasingly rely on outsourcing, licensing, alliances, and other business partnerships to meet their objectives. These complex relationships are governed by financial and legal agreements that are often poorly monitored. A lack of controls around these relationships creates risks, either reporting or operational in nature, and can lead to brand or reputation damage and the loss of significant revenue through uncollected royalties, misreported claims, and inadequate inventory controls. A well-conceived Contract Risk & Compliance program, however, can help organizations better identify and mitigate the risks, while enhancing the benefits of business arrangements. Contract Risk & Compliance is a service area focusing on risk management that can help organizations optimize relationships with other entities to improve business processes, maximize revenue, manage costs, address risks, strengthen relationships, and boost performance.

Business relationship management: Business Relationship Management services offered by Deloitte member firms include assisting clients with the following: Contract Administration Review, Contract Inventory, Contract Management Consulting, Risk Assessment, Contract Risk & Compliance Diagnostic, any other services.

Customer relationships risk and compliance: The Customer Relationships Risk & Compliance service offered by Deloitte member firms include: IP Licensees, Software Licensees (“end-user”), Distribution (including distributors, resellers, dealers, system integrators), Original Equipment Manufacturers, Franchisees, Replicators, and other services.

Vendor relationships risk and compliance: Vendor Relationships Risk & Compliance services offered by Deloitte member firms include Advertising/Interactive Advertising, Internet activity, Outsourcing, Suppliers/Vendors, Manufacturers/Replicators/Installers/Integrators, Most Favored Nation/Most Favored Customer, Employee Benefits, Construction, Leasing, Warranty/Maintenance/Repair, Procurement Agents, Software Asset Management, Corporate Social Responsibility and other services.

Internal audit : Understand and control what must go right

Internal audit should help risk management drive sustained performance by focusing on what must go right. This means demands on internal audit functions have never been greater.

To help you gain the most from an internal audit, Deloitte can advise you on the specific risks and opportunities you face on a daily basis. We do this through:

• Focusing on your industry
• Insights from our global network of internal auditors and proprietary material and models
• A platform to build resilience by amplifying current risks and anticipating future risks
• A methodology that builds preparedness for controlling risks.

Our Services

Internal audit co-sourcing
Our team provides subject matter expertise and industry insights delivered through the flexibility of a co-sourced internal audit function. We offer this through:

• Teaming with our client’s in-house internal audit function to deliver ad-hoc projects and/or specialist reviews globally
• A range of services from IT audits and data analytics through to specialist support in areas such as treasury, cyber security, human resources, shared services and outsourcing 
• Providing access to Deloitte’s global technical and industry knowledge and methodology.

Internal audit outsourcing
We offer subject matter expertise and industry insights to our clients who outsource their internal audit function. We provide these services through:

• Delivering an entire internal audit service that provides assurance over the full range of risks across our client’s organisation
• Offering a fully-variable, yet easily controllable cost base with no recruitment costs, along with further cost savings compared to an in-house function through improved productivity
• A structure that removes management and retention issues and in-house training issues
• Access to our wider organisation and specialists.

Internal audit transformation and quality assessment
We help our clients transform their internal audit function and its capability, enhancing the impact it can have on business outcomes and alignment to stakeholder expectations. We do this through:

• Our expert skills and experience undertaking robust and independent reviews of internal audit functions
• Implementation assistance for improvement recommendations
• Our proprietary survey tools comparing internal audit perceptions compared with the perceptions of stakeholders
• Contrasting organisational performance against annually updated external benchmark information using global public and private sector organisations analysed by industry. 

Our approach is founded on providing assurance and advice over “what must go right“. This is significantly influenced by factors within our clients’ industry. We team according to industry so that our people truly understand the risks, issues and opportunities inherent for our clients, allowing them to provide genuine points of view and insight

Hot topics facing organisations in IT internal audit

In late 2012, Deloitte’s UK practice performed a survey of 22 global Financial Services organisations to identify key themes and topics which they see as their top IT risks for 2013.

While rankings and priorities in the market in Australia may vary to some degree, the issues are consistent.

This is also true of what we have seen across industries outside FSI – the same issues, but some changing emphasis regarding priority.

Our brief report captures these insights across 10 areas.

We found that ‘Third-Party Management’, now features as the hottest topic for 2013, indicating a greater acknowledgement of the increased prevalence of outsourcing within institutions and the continued regulatory focus in this area.

The continued rise of ‘Data Governance & Quality’ is also significant, with institutions and regulators continuing to focus on this area.

‘Resilience’ is also hot following both the recent consumer-impacting issues in UK Financial Services organisations which prompted censure by the regulators and natural disasters such as ‘Superstorm Sandy’ in the US.

‘Cloud Computing’ makes its entry for the first time with many Financial Services organisations using, or considering adoption of cloud-based solutions, albeit with caution and often adopting in-house solutions at present.

Download Hot topics facing Finanial Services organisations in IT internal audit

Audit Committee Effectiveness survey 2014

The 2014 survey, in which 150 audit committee chairs from Australia’s largest companies provided views on the challenges and opportunities facing Australian audit committees.