As the digital era continues to bring disruptive change, it puts companies and functions under pressure not only to adapt but also to transform and innovate. Delivering greater value becomes a challenge and a pathway to functionally evolve from the traditional way of doing business to the new norms and standards.

Like other functions, internal audit’s evolution brings structure and operational excellence to businesses. The role of internal audit has evolved from financial reporting and control to risk management audit, eliminating complexity and redundancy, streamlining operations, and reducing cost.

While the evolution of internal audit creates value for stakeholders, how does agility help keeping this function at the speed of risk?

Here are 3 benefits to internal audit agile transformations.

1. Enhanced planning and communication due to the faster response to the changing business needs, as well as more frequent communications throughout the process
2. Accelerated delivery cycle as digital transformation avails data and insights more rapidly
3. Greater relevance as audit results are interlinked to business risks and to the stakeholders’ needs

By adopting agile methods, internal audit will be able to better focus on stakeholder needs, accelerate audit cycles, and drive timely results and insights.