Improving your Audit Process Through Technology

Christopher McDonald

Director of Field Loss Prevention,

Babies R’ Us Inc.

Premise for Discussion

The Audit

- Examination / survey / review / assessments

- Safety / standard operating procedures / Risk assessment / financial review

Audit Purpose

- Compliance / monitor standards

- Train / educate / Awareness

- Internal / external exposure

Goals of Today’s discussion

- Why audit automation?

- Review a current system in use today- Structure- Practical applications

- Selling the need for Technology

- Challenges and benefits of implementation

The Need for Technology – Common Points of Pain

• Duplicated efforts of data collection

• Unorganized data

• Too much data

• Inability to obtain timely and current data

• Lack of resources to correlate information

• No / limited view of store / district / regional / global compliance

• Varied audit processes

Real World / Old School

Auditor completes manual audit – pencil & paper or soft copy

Manually submitted – via hard copy / e-mail / etc.

Data collected / assembled by Auditor or Administrator

Collaborative data assembled manually for trends (repeated x times for each audit completed)

Summary and detail reports created for review and analysis

Questions are asked that reports did not address

Process complete for this cycle – begins again

Babies R’ Us “LP / Ops Audit Program”

• Palm Pilot / Web based program• Store level compliance program administered by

field LP • Compliance / Training tool• Review of operations / cash controls / safety• Stores audited 2 times per year• 4 years in use• Reviewed and revised annually

The Application

LPM Conducts Audit

Audit is uploaded via Palm to the web

E-mail notifications sent to store / LP / DM / etc.

Data captured within the site for future review / use / analysis

Fun with Data!

And the Fun begins…

Report Types

Main Audit Page has 2 levels; Summary and Detail. Also note the ability to sort by date range.

Main Audit Page has 2 levels; Summary and Detail. Also note the ability to sort by date range.

Overview of all 3 BRU Regions – click on a region

Overview of all 3 BRU Regions – click on a region

Able to print and export data from all screens

Able to print and export data from all screens

District Level view – to see store level click on a district number

District Level view – to see store level click on a district number

Store level view – to see a specific store’s audit click on the store number

Store level view – to see a specific store’s audit click on the store number

Overview by section for a district

Overview by section for a district

Audit detail: Store information

Audit detail: Store information

Questions and compliance

Questions and compliance

Question scores for the entire company – sorted in descending order

Question scores for the entire company – sorted in descending order

Selling the program to the users

• Removes the paper

• Eliminates manual /duplication efforts

• Saves time

• Eliminates error (data entry)

• Ancillary benefits of the device

• Standardizes the process

Selling the program to the Executive Team• Greater productivity• Ease of use• Convenience• Increase ROI• Enhance awareness• Enhance compliance• Maximize Focus• Real time Access to

data• Flexible Features

• Audit Solutions apply to your organizational partners:

– Loss Prevention– Operations– Safety / Risk

Management– Human Resources– Store Planning

What to look for…

• Timely insight to store level compliance– Able to drill / mine for various data

• Efficient data collection / organization / security

• Ability to export manipulate data• Flexibility for your purposes and that of your

organizational partners• Simplicity in managing the program

Initial challenges

• Budget Constraints– Prepare an accurate ROI analysis

• Labor / re-allocation of labor • Positive re-investment of time

– Talk to your MIS group about an in-house development

• Intranet applications• Lap top based

– Ancillary device benefits • PDA functions • Cellular phones• cameras • e-mail functionality

Initial challenges

• Alternatives – Existing Microsoft programs can bridge a gap

• Inquisite Surveys • Excel programs • Web based surveys

• Obtain a Partner– Share the costs with another department who may

have similar needs and wants • Human Resources • Risk Management • Store Planning

On-going Challenges

• Keeping up with technology– OS platforms versus Windows– Device or web based– New user device technology

• Keeping the program current– Updates and awareness to business partners– Updates to the audit program itself

Questions

Christopher McDonald

Babies R’ Us Inc.

Director of Field Loss Prevention

770-898-5815 ext. 3492e-mail - mcdonalc@toysrus.com

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