How Post Holdings Frees Up Time to Boost Value to the Business
Find out how internal audit at Post Holdings leverages technology to gain significant cost and time savings, then reallocates resources to areas where they can bring more efficiency to the business in the video below!
Post Holdings — a consumer packaged goods holding company perhaps best known for cereal products like Fruity Pebbles and Honey Bunches of Oats — has been around as the current business for six years, but also traces its name and legacy back to the late 1800s. Post Holdings knows a thing or two about keeping up with changing times, and Andrew Ganey, Director of Internal Audit at Post Holdings, also ensures that internal audit has the right tools to keep up with the rising pace of change.
Before AuditBoard, Post Holdings Was Buried in Spreadsheets
Like many companies today, Post Holdings managed its SOX compliance and audit program in a manual environment, using spreadsheets and email. “We were like everybody, managing our PBCs with Excel lists that were emailed out to Process Owners,” said Ganey. The team experienced many of the pain points common to manual environments, from version control issues and bottlenecks from inefficient processes to confusing organization of controls documentation and difficulty extracting information for reporting. “Our main challenge in our environment pre-AuditBoard was understanding the status of each of our controls. They were buried in spreadsheets and master spreadsheets that necessarily weren’t always kept up to date,” said Ganey.
Facilitates Collaboration Across Internal Audit, Co-Source Partners, and the Organization
After implementing AuditBoard, Ganey’s team, which co-sources with Ernst & Young for testing and fieldwork, experienced a dramatic improvement in their ability to do the complex work of audit. “AuditBoard from the start has just made our lives and our ability to report to our executive management team exponentially easier,” said Ganey. AuditBoard facilitates smooth coordination and communication across internal audit, co-source partners, and the organization. “It’s made our Process Owners happier and our internal Post employees happier to deal with audit,” said Ganey. Leveraging a user-friendly audit management solution has helped Ganey’s team build better rapport with internal stakeholders so the audit process is a more positive experience for everyone involved.
Recouped Investment Within 1 Year
Ganey has seen significant cost and time savings from the platform’s centralized documentation and automated workflow. “We use pretty conservative estimates, and we’ve found that within that first year, we recouped our investment,” said Ganey. “AuditBoard has helped us realize a lot of efficiencies in our Sarbanes-Oxley work so we’re not having to do as much of the administrative work around reporting and issue deficiency, communication. It’s all in real time.”
Reallocated Resources to Bring More Value to the Business
By leveraging multiple products together — SOXHUB for SOX compliance, OpsAudit for internal audit, and WorkStream for workflow management — Ganey’s team has been able to free up time and resources for more value-add activities. “We’ve been able to take those hours, which have helped our co-source budget, and reallocate them to an operational audit area where we might be able to bring the business some efficiency,” said Ganey.
Ultimately, the efficiencies gained through implementing AuditBoard have enabled Post Holdings to save costs and provide the comprehensive assurance the company needs as it continues to grow and build on its legacy. “We’re constantly moving and growing,” said Ganey. “Without having that AuditBoard platform behind us, it would’ve been a lot more painful!”
