acca - grant thornton presentation template

The Future of Audit

10.15 am Welcome Address

10.20 am Presentation: Key findings of the ACCA-GT Report: Future

of Audit

10.45 am Presentation: How Cognitive Computing is changing the

audit/ compliance landscape

11.00 am

Noon

Panel Discussion and Q&A

Lunch

Presentation:

Key Findings of the ACCA-GT Report: The Future of Audit

Jeff Vibert, Grant Thornton SingaporePartner & Head of Assurance

© 2016 Grant Thornton International Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Future of Audit: what did Singapore say?

October 2016


What we did

• The Future of Audit was discussed at a series of

roundtables in China, the EU, Singapore, South

Africa, the UAE, the UK and Ukraine

• Locations were chosen to cover a range of

business environments with differing

characteristics

• The roundtables were jointly hosted by Grant

Thornton and ACCA


Why we did it

• Change in Environment

• Change in expectations

• Regulatory change being imposed on auditors

• Evidence that the future of audit was seen

differently in different parts of the world – but that

evidence was previously only anecdotal…


Global findings in summary:

• Countries without audit are keen to invest in it

• Countries who recently adopted audit want to

maximise the benefits before further change

• Countries with a strong audit tradition want it to do

more than offer just a binary opinion on historical

financial information

• Different users have different requirements

• Audits need to adapt to the digital age


Different users, different requirements according to

Singapore:

• Audit providers should listen carefully to users and understand who the

users are, what information they use, and what they use it for

• The next generation of investors may want different information

• Audit has a future, but [the audit profession] must be prepared to

change, at times significantly to meet user needs

• We want to hear about early warning signals

• This would require the auditor ‘to really understand the business [and]

to get buy-in from management, to make meaningful comments in the

audit report

• [Do] we need [to see more] corporate collapses to usher in change?

• Auditors need to ‘evolve or risk losing their importance’


If there was doubt on the continuing usefulness of a

traditional audit report, the common misgivings were:

• Who? The report is addressed only to

shareholders

• What? The report is issued months after the period

end and mostly covers only historical financial

information

• Why? The report is a standardised product with

limited reference to particular user needs


Audit in the digital age, according to Singapore:

• Auditors need to be smarter about the way that

they do audits and use technology

• Technology is a tool to facilitate – it doesn’t replace

auditors

• Real time information risks short-term decision

making and ignoring long-term value creation


The auditor of the future, according to Singapore:

• Audit is not a necessary inconvenience – it is vital

• Business is getting more complex – are auditors

trained to deal with it?

• Pay your auditors more, keep the good people,

and make the profession attractive

• Auditors need to provide insights to enhance the

value of audit, and the relevance and

attractiveness of the profession

• [We] need more specialists on audit teams


Regional Observations

• APAC/ASEAN regions are amongst of the world’s

most important economic areas

• Wide diversity of professional standards, regulation

and sophistication. From the Mekong Delta

countries through to fully developed countries

• Business/profession in developing countries

rapidly emerging but still behind the rest

• Businesses are investing across the region and

auditors must cooperate across borders


Regional Observations

• Differential standards/ capabilities make accounting/

auditing quality and consistency very challenging

• Regulators in developed markets make little allowance for

these practicalities

• All falls on the companies and auditors

• Great work being done in the developing countries but still

a long way to go at all levels

• Assistance from developed to developing needed – who

pays?


Summary:

• Same model of audit not applicable everywhere

• Evolution will happen at different speeds

• Innovations can only follow proper capacity

• Standard setters and regulators must play role

• Changes in regulation must be well articulated

• Need a balance between audit quality, consistency and

innovation

• Apply standards in new ways but always with improved

quality as an objective


The Future of Audit:

• What do you think of the findings?

Presentation:

How Cognitive Computing is changing Audit/ Compliance landscapesScott Layton, IBM Asia PacificDirector of Audit and Investigations

ACCA Future of Audit

©2015 IBM Corporation18 2 November 2016

IBM Internal Audit

Predict potential

threats and opportunities

Spot and analyze trends and anomalies

Assemble and interact with

relevant information

Compare “what-if”scenarios

Understand customer

sentiment and behavior

Plan, budget and forecast

resources

Assess and manage

risk

Measure and

monitor behavior

Turn insight into action, optimizing

results

Business

insight

Operational

efficiency

Manage

risk

Business

Analytics

Business Analytics

Business analytics is the practice of iterative, methodical

exploration of an organization's data with emphasis on

statistical analysis.


IBM Internal Audit

Cognitive computing introduces a new business paradigm

Cognitive: of, relating to, or involving conscious

mental activities (such as thinking,

understanding, learning, and remembering)

Learns and builds knowledge from various structured and unstructured sources of information

Understands natural language and interacts more naturally with humans

Captures the expertise of top performers and accelerates the development of expertise in others

Enhances the cognitive process of professionals to help improve decision making

Elevates the quality and consistency of decision making across an organization

Cognitive computing…


IBM Internal Audit

Cognitiveunderstand, reason,

learn

Predictivepredict, decide, act

Descriptivediscover, report, analyze

Cognitive computing extends traditional analytics by creating a value continuum


IBM Internal Audit

A Smarter Risk approach: Open PagesBringing together an interconnected view of risk across all disciplines

Financial ControlsManagement

Op

era

tio

nal

Ris

k

Po

licy and

Co

mp

liance

Man

agem

en

t

IT Risk & Security

OpenPages GRC Platform

Audit

Focus Areas

Operational Risk Management

Internal Audit Management

Policy and Compliance Management

Financial Controls Management

Technology Risk Management

Business Continuity Management

Enterprise Risk Management

Vendor Risk Management


OpenPages Internal Audit Management (IAM)Providing independent assurance to the business

OpenPages Internal Audit Management enables organizations to plan, execute, report

and review their audit universe

Key Features Integrated solution for audit management

Define, plan, execute and report on audits across the business– Track and manage audits, audit phases, work

papers and allocations

Automate operations through fully configurable reporting and workflow

Risk rank audit universe, configured according to the audit methodology

Business Benefits Empowers internal audit departments to champion risk management, acting as a strategic

partner to management Delivers an integrated, closed loop approach to risk management, driving visibility and

confidence in organizational risk posture


Audit Dashboard


Resource Planning Report


IBM Watson

Watson Virtual Agent

Watson Financial Advisor

Cognitive Cooking w/ Chef Watson

Watson for Genomics Technology

Watson Healthcare

Watson Oncology

“The goal is to have computers start to interact in

natural human terms across a range of applications

and processes, understanding the questions that

humans ask and providing answers that humans

can understand and justify."


IBM Internal Audit

Cognitive Auditing as a Differentiator

Sample targeting based on risk using machine learning

Learning to identify and predict fraud

Understanding unstructured data, and recommending treatment

Automated Auditing and flagging

Differentiation through technology partnerships

Improves Cost and Value


Questions?

Panel Discussion:

The Future of Audit: Relevance Lost & Found

Chiew

Chun

Wee

ACCA

Singapore

ModeratorPan

ellist

Pan

ellistPanellist

Sue

Almond

Grant

Thornton

Panellist

Adrian

Chan

Lee & Lee

Singapore

Panellist

Jean

Philippe

Gauvrit

Nokia

Panellist Panellist

David

Smith

Aberdeen

Gajendran

Vyapuri

ISCA

Q&A Session

Thank You!

acca - grant thornton presentation template

Presentations & Public Speaking