Review & Audit
Beyond Technology provides independent IT review and audit services for Australian organisations. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but they differ in intent and outcome. Some see an IT audit as the more independent of the two, which is not always so. What makes either one worth having is independence: we sell no technology, so our advice and recommendations are free of conflicts of interest.
So how does an Independent IT Review and an Independent IT Audit differ? This can generally be found in the intent and therefore the focus of the advice and recommendation that should be part of the deliverable. IT Audits will normally target a variety of IT functions and capabilities but will focus on testing controls and confirming compliance, whereas IT Reviews will similarly target a variety of IT functions and capabilities but will focus on the gap analysis of these capabilities to the business’s requirements, and the opportunity assessment for improvement that may be in the IT function (Cost/Risk/Service Level) or in the capability that the technology provides the business (such as digital transformation).
As an independent technology advisory, Beyond Technology provides both IT review and IT audit services, and will often combine a review and audit process to produce a hybrid outcome that benchmarks capabilities and confirms governance.
IT Review and Diagnostic
IT Reviews target a variety of IT functions and capabilities and will focus on the gap analysis of these capabilities to the... Read more
Independent IT Strategic Assessment
IT Management is a complex balancing act: On one hand the IT team must deliver and continuously improve service levels to the... Read more
IT Audit
Audit is a long standing management tool for corporate governance that is increasingly recognised to be of equal value for technology management....Each of these Audits provide a management report that identifies any areas of concern, considers industry benchmarks and make recommendations in terms... Read more
Rapid Assessment
This rapid assessment of the health of your technology department focuses on quickly identifying areas of low efficiency, high cost and high... Read more
Annual Cyber Security Health Check
The constantly growing and changing cyber threat has made the use of external independent annual cyber security heath checks standard practice for... Read more
Information Security and Privacy Health Check
Effective management of your organisations Information Security and Privacy has never been more important. With the risks continuing to multiply due to... Read more
IT Operations Health Check and Benchmark Assessment
Beyond Technology Consulting’s Health Check and Benchmark Assessment is focused on identifing opportunities for improving efficiency and reducing risk whilst continuing to... Read more
Data & Analytics Diagnostic
Reviewing your data and analytics capabilities to identify areas of improvements in your data management, analysis, and reporting processes is required to... Read more
WiFi Diagnostic and Independent Review
With substantial changes in Wi-Fi technology including the new 6Ghz spectrum used by Wi-Fi6E, along with significant changes in the requirements and... Read more
Using generalist auditors for specific IT audits will not generate optimal results as the generalist auditors lack real world experience and often recommend best practice approaches that without contextual understanding, fail in implementation. All of the Beyond Technology Consulting audit and review products are focused on providing the required oversight to the organisations executive, but also provide truly actionable advice to IT on how to improve their service levels to the business.
These core products include:
- Broad IT Function Review and Audit
- IT Operations Review and Audit
- External Service Provider Operations Audit
- IT Infrastructure and Application Portfolio Review
- IT Governance and compliance Audit
- IT Risk Audit
- Business/IT alignment Review
- Internal Audit function Technology SME
Our experience and understanding of IT review/auditing and innovative technology capabilities provides us with the knowledge needed to help you maintain confidence in your IT Planning and Processes. Services can range from a short review and planning exercise through to the development, planning and execution of a multi-year audit plan - each designed to deliver "Actionable Advice" on improvement or remediation.
After you identified the root cause of our difficulties we have never looked back”CFO | Financial Services Industry
I was astounded to see how reprioritising our IT could deliver such a material improvement in business outcomes”MD | Large field services organisation
It’s the first time that I clearly understand how we engage our IT to change the status quo”CEO | Large Professional Services Firm
Our business outcomes
Beyond Technology advises organisations on how to use IT to achieve business outcomes.
We help CFOs and CIOs reduce IT costs without losing capability: we find spending that is out of line with business goals, older technology that costs more to run, and systems the organisation pays for but does not use well.
Many organisations carry a significant IT failure risk without understanding either the potential or consequences of failure. Quantifying the latent risk, and taking steps to mitigate it not only makes good business sense, it often provides significant improvement in the efficiency and availability of “business as usual” IT service.
With the growing demands on IT departments it can be all too easy to focus on rapidly expanding capability and addressing the day-to-day challenges of running the technology. Properly aligning IT to direct business requirements, while improving the communication channels between IT and the business delivers real gains in efficiency and capability.
Digital and Technology enablement is critical to all business's growth plans, and without appropriate IT foundations and planning your growth journey will be lost at sea. Aligning your technology planning to your business strategy and ensuring appropriate priority is given to future enablement projects makes a decisive difference to your business growth plans.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Drop us a line and we’d be happy to answers any questions you have.
In most professions where information is asymmetric (i.e. the professional could take advantage of knowing more about the subject that they are advising you on) such as Lawyers and Doctors, the governing body can deregister the professional as stop them from practicing. This does not happen with Technology professionals so conflict of interest is a critical problem. Similarly when a technologist is heavily invested in one specific technology it often becomes their go-to solution (to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail). By Maintaining our independence, Beyond Technology Consulting ensures that you are provided with unbiased and actionable advice that you can trust is free from conflict of interest and be assured that we are not monetising the advice that we provide you.
"Actionable Advice" is accessible, accurate and is advice that is provided in a language and manner that does not require technical qualifications to understand. We ensure that our recommendations are fit-for-purpose with an understanding of the context of your organisation to be both affordable and achievable.
We focus on understanding the core requirements of the business so that our advice is based on your requirements not the available technology. This ensures that you don't end up with a solution looking for a problem and ensures that technology outcomes will grow with your business and flex with changes in the technology.
We focus on understanding the core requirements of the business so that our advice is based on your requirements not the available technology. This combined with a bias towards flexible technology solutions helps to provide technology outcomes that will grow with your business and flex with changes in the technology.
There are two key reasons that organisations don't undertake regular independent technology reviews. Firstly many boards and executive don't know that organisations like Beyond Technology Consulting exist and they are left thinking that the only options are IT Audits that are provided by the big accounting firms that don't provide any answers or actionable advice. The second reason is that they don't feel that they understand enough about IT to be able to get value from a review. Beyond Technology Consulting understands this and have designed our organisation to provide "Actionable Advice" that is accessible, accurate and provided in a language and manner that does not require technical qualifications to understand.
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