Internal Auditing: Training Program Assessment in ERP Environment

Details

Supervisors

Sarens, Gerrit ; Lejeune, Christophe

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en Ingénieur de gestion

Abstract

The world has undergone a high growth rate of changes during the last decade with new technologies. As we all know, in today’s fast-paced world, each company should be aware of those changes to remain competitive on the market. Becoming a leading organization is not only about sales performance but also a stable internal structure with motivated employees. The efficiency behind internal operations is key in order to provide quality service to customers. This is why tools such as ERP have a significant impact on a business ‘financial results. Enterprise Resource Planning System is part of the working environment in many companies today. Since its debut in 1970, it has evolved significantly and has been able to stand as a valuable tool for employees. Benefits such as reliable information access, centralized database and operations, cost reduction come along with considerable drawbacks (complex installation, heavy investment, vendor dependence). The latter impacts the daily activities of the organization, whether from end-users or internal auditor’s perspective. Since operations are reviewed, processes have to adapt to the new information systems which leads to changes of internal audit practices. Perceived audit quality and relations to other departments are both experiencing changes. More specifically, risks related to ERP are a critical matter to the overall performance of the company. From technical to operational risks, those additional risks ought to be acknowledged by IAs. In this context, required expertise from the profession must be revised accordingly. IT knowledge on Enterprise Resource Planning Systems are competences affecting the system integration to the current internal structure. Indeed, the ability to deal with large amount of data, adapt to updates, maintenance and control the system development have become now essential. In order to respond to those concerns, in-depth interviews in Japan and in Belgium have been conducted. Based on the interviewees’ experience, this thesis analyses the training content and format put in place in 2016.