Technology is essential to the smooth running of business today, but it can be tricky to keep on top of its potential pitfalls. Diane O’Regan, Senior Manager in IT Risk Assurance at PwC, explains why it’s so important.
Those risks are what she and her team are always trying to stay ahead of and identify for their clients. “We’re looking for any type of risk that stems from the use of IT systems and technology that can impact your business,” she explains. She has upskilled over the years, while also learning on the job. As technology rapidly advances, there are always new developments to stay on top of. “It’s constantly evolving and changing,” Diane says. “When I started, we mostly focused on the systems that were driving everything, but over the last few years, there’s been a huge focus on cybersecurity. We’re seeing bots and artificial intelligence being used in a lot of businesses; you have to run to keep up with it.
“Sometimes the fixes we recommend are very simple, businesses can try and over-engineer things without doing the basics first, so some straightforward changes will make their life so much easier.” She also advocates planning ahead when implementing any changes to your IT systems. “Building in the kind of controls you’ll need early on is key. Generally there is a lot of pressure on IT teams to get things done quickly, but by thinking about those things upfront, it can really help the speed of the whole process, rather than trying to come back to it later and figure out where you should have put controls in, and maybe need to reconfigure the system.