Standardisation and customisation do not necessarily contradict each other from a company's perspective. They can be two sides of the same coin.
For companies, standardised processes are necessary to establish a common understanding of workflows, quality, and outcomes. Additionally, there's an economic consideration regarding resources, ultimately reflected in short processing times and low costs.
To achieve these goals, a certain level of customisation is required. For instance, the information gained from audits should be tailored and sent to the appropriate recipients without overwhelming them with excessive information. Furthermore, representing specific company processes in both audits and information distribution can confer a significant competitive advantage.
To best support this quality, efficiency, and effectiveness framework, the digitalisation of the entire audit management process offers substantial added value.
Companies need both standardised and customised processes for efficient workflows and effective audit management.
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When considering the presentation of results of an audit or a group of audits to different recipients, we can categorise the results into three interconnected areas:
Audit Report
The relevant results and details of an audit are presented in the audit report. However, considering that the audit report is sent to different recipients - let's call them 'stakeholders' - the question of relevance for each of these stakeholders arises.
To ensure that each stakeholder receives useful and precise information, the audit report should be configured accordingly.
To send an audit report tailored to the respective stakeholders, the following considerations are recommended.
Stakeholders - Who Receives the Information?
Initially, stakeholders are defined as internal or external recipients or recipient groups, such as management, departments, or workgroups.
Incorporating 'relative' recipients, who may be associated with the audit site, as stakeholders is essential to achieving the envisaged automation. These stakeholders vary depending on the audit site.
Likewise, there are often groups of individuals responsible for defect resolution, i.e. internal or external specialists either located at specific audit sites such as a production facility or responsible for a regional group of branches.
Content - What Information is Needed?
To tailor the information requirements to recipients, it should be determined whether a stakeholder should receive the audit report regardless of the achieved results or only in the case of a specific (e.g., negative) overall assessment. Is an overall summary desired, or should a 'management by exception' approach be used?
In the second stage, it should be clarified for each stakeholder whether all content or only specific evaluations are needed. For instance, the overall report is sent to the client, while the department responsible for defect resolution receives only the positions relevant to them, as marked by the auditor.
Layout - Desired Presentation Format
Tailoring the presentation of content to recipients reduces the information overload that can paralyse some organisations. As discussed earlier, addressing the questions of stakeholders, content, and layout effectively counteracts this issue.
Another aspect is the level of detail with which the auditor's captured information should be presented. Examples of content include:
- Audit framework data;
- The structure of the audit form and result grouping;
- Textual details and colour-coded evaluations;
- The level of detail for weightings, assessments, and calculations;
- Comments and actions;
- Additional master data such as devices, items, or technical framework data;
- Multimedia content such as photos, images, videos, and drawings;
- Internal/external responsibilities for defect resolution;
- Priority and the due date for defect resolution; and
- A link to the ticket for action documentation.
Depending on the stakeholder, this data can provide valuable information or may not be necessary for their role and should be omitted.
In internationally active companies, the recipient's language is a crucial criterion for communication. Accordingly, languages specified by the organisation's framework should be available in the audit system, enabling the generation of the audit report in the recipient's language.
The audit report is typically delivered via email to each defined recipient, taking into account all the mentioned characteristics.
However, it's worth noting that, if desired, the audit report can also be accessed in the system based on user permissions.
Tailoring the content, presentation format, information scope, and communication method of audit reports according to each stakeholder's needs delivers meaningful information while eliminating information overload.
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Dashboard Report
For management, the audit report is a crucial operational tool. However, as the scope of responsibility encompasses multiple audit sites and audits, a presentation of results that covers one's own area of responsibility is needed. This overview is provided through dashboards which present the results in an understandable format based on their purpose.
In the following, we'll examine some examples of how such a dashboard could look.
The perspective is based on the need and could, for instance, present the results of an audit form or a group of comparable audit forms at different audit sites.
Depending on the organisation, certain groups of audits could be consolidated, evaluations could be performed across a third dimension or the focus could be on technical features and devices. Dashboards offer a wide variety of ideas and requirements that can be flexibly and individually implemented.
Another element is the time frame of observation. For management, assessments are often made on a monthly basis, as well as for quarters, halves, or the full year. Any time frame can be chosen. The results can be interesting as individual values or trends, depending on the need.
Results are usually presented as key performance indicators (KPIs), diagrams (bar charts, line charts, polygon charts, doughnut charts, pie charts, etc.), or in tabular form. The ease of interpreting results is supported by colour-coding in an intuitive way. For example, negative values could be displayed in red and positive values in green.
The data is presented as results per defined grouping or as trends and benchmarks.
This becomes interesting in multi-level organisations, such as corporations, retail companies, or large production companies with hierarchical structures. Here, the data can be aggregated according to hierarchy. User control then allows access to the dashboard only up to the individual user's organisational level.
The dashboard can be accessed at any time through the web-based panel. With periodically generated dashboards, managers typically receive an email with a direct link to their navigation level.
Here is an example from a retail company.
The managers of the sales organisation receive an email with their individual link to the dashboard for the previous month at 7 a.m. on the first day of the month. As such, the general sales manager has access to all hierarchy levels, while the regional sales manager can access their own hierarchy level and view the levels below. However, in this example, the hierarchy levels above their level cannot be viewed.
With the drill-down / roll-up functionality, the data can be viewed and analysed. If a manager discovers a negative (red) result, they can directly access the audit reports that are the cause of it with just a few clicks.
The dashboard greatly facilitates management by allowing managers to maintain an overview without having to review every individual audit report. Unflattering results become immediately visible and can be traced back to their root causes with just a few clicks.
For subsequent management discussions, the data can be downloaded as a PDF or Excel file in case there is no online access to the dashboard during the meeting.
A dashboard tailored to the observer's (i.e. user's) position and role in the company enables management to obtain aggregated results of audits at various organisational levels.
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Analysing Reports
Effective audit management also requires the capability to thoroughly analyse audit data to gain crucial insights and understand trends.
The need for information varies depending on the company. Let's consider an overview of some analysis tools.
Data Analysis: The most comprehensive and detailed analysis pertains to all data captured during audits. This data can yield insights into assessment trends, relationships, causes, and much more.
Standard Reports: Corresponding to information requirements, overviews of audit results, conducted, or open audits can be created. The results offer valuable overall insight to management and can be used for audit planning.
Special (Custom) Reports: Reports can be customised to suit the recipient's needs. It's possible to set up periodic deliveries via email to keep the recipient up to date.
Access to the reports is role-based, preventing, for example, access to data from other departments. In addition to the aforementioned automated generation and delivery, the reports can be accessed at any time through the web-based panel and can be exported to Excel with the press of a button when needed.
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Thorough and automated analysis of all data gathered during the audit allows management to identify trends and make informed decisions.
The benefits of the audit process digitalisation presented here are, of course, only a fraction of the possibilities. If your company has specific requirements and ideas that haven't been covered here, please don't hesitate to email us at
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