At Heineken International, the Global Audit division is seen as the organisation’s third line of defence, which reports directly into the CEO and the Audit Committee. By doing so, Global Audit are positioned to provide objective and independent assurance to improve the operations of Heineken around the globe.
Due to dramatic growth of Heineken as a whole, which saw the company more than double in size in the last six years, the audit function had to grow accordingly to reflect this. It became apparent to the Group Audit division that, inevitably, the function of audit had to be closer to their operating companies.
Caroline Griffiths, Senior Manager at Global Audit Corporate & Professional Practice at Heineken, explained: “There became an increased need to ensure we had one common way of working, standardised procedures, common tooling but also the visibility of each other’s work, so that the matrix organisation can work. Permitting an audit done in one part of the world, to be visible to the global functions responsible for the action areas.”
Prior to Heineken selecting a professional tool, Group Audit utilised an in-house, dispersed LotusNotes system. However, this was not utilised across the globe by all. Following this, they moved to an ‘e-room’ solution, which provided more of a structure to the audit work, but still did not provide a real process standardisation that was so critical to their need. After evaluating three or four software providers against a set criteria and visiting reference sites for each of the tools, Pentana was selected.
Caroline clarified that Pentana was the chosen supplier due to “the flexibility it offered us to have our process in the process of the audit management system.”
Pentana was the chosen product due to the flexibility it offered us to have our process in the process of the audit management system.
Caroline Griffiths, Senior Manager, Global Audit Corporate & Professional Practice
Benefits
- Implements a consistent methodology compliant with international risk and auditing standards.
- Simplifies global deployment with installation from a website and automatic updates downloaded without user intervention.
- Optimises performance for use over a wide range of network speeds as well as working off-line to provide a true global working environment for GRC professionals.
- Pentana can equally be used for Enterprise Risk Management, SOX compliance, investigations, Health and Safety or any application where risk assessment and centralised action tracking are required.
How did Pentana become Heineken’s audit management tool and “professionalise their operations”?
Pentana is Ideagen’s market-leading solution and is developed using the latest Microsoft technologies to empower internal audit departments to save essential time, increase efficiencies and maximise the power of collaborative working. It integrates all aspects of the audit cycle from annual planning to detailed risk assessment and controls testing, through to action tracking and Audit Committee reporting.
Heineken has noted that by implementing and using Pentana to conduct their audits, the Group Audit division has been able to professionalise their operations.
Furthermore, this has enabled them to achieve a structured, disciplined but flexible way of working, which was precisely their aim when moving to a specialist audit management solution.
When Caroline was asked how she would describe Pentana in a few words she described the software as: “Flexible, customisable and user-friendly,” adding “for those reasons I would recommend Pentana to my peers.
Flexible, customisable and user-friendly; for those reasons I would recommend Pentana to my peers.
Caroline Griffiths, Senior Manager, Global Audit Corporate & Professional Practice
About Heineken
Heineken is a proud independent global brewer committed to surprise and excite consumers with its brand and products everywhere. The brand that bares the family name Heineken is available in almost every country on the globe and is the world’s most valuable international beer brand. The company is present in 70 countries and operates more than 165 breweries. Heineken is Europe’s largest brewer and the third largest by volume.
Implemented by Sepia Solutions
Sepia Solutions worked intesively with Heineken to implement and deploy the Pentana audit management software. We even travelled to Nigeria for the pilot project! We can take care of the complete project from A to Z. This includes technical installation, training of key users, automating reports and development of customisation with technical support afterwards.
Do you wish to benefit from Pentana too?
This success story clearly illustrates how the Ideagen Pentana software is user-friendly and flexible yet supports standardisation of the audit approach. If you wish to learn more about Pentana and how it can support your audit department, allow us to organise an on-site presentation at your offices. No costs, no obligations only additional insights.
This success story was originally published in PDF format in July 2014.
