How Eaton Consolidates Risk Assurance Practices Across the Organization

In our Spotlight on Success series, Claire Conner (Data Analytics & Audit Manager, Eaton) and Brandon Masin (IT Audit/SOX Manager, Eaton) share how Eaton uses AuditBoard to focus on things that matter. Incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, Eaton is an intelligent power management company dedicated to improving the quality of life and protecting the environment for people everywhere.

Hear how Eaton prioritizes flexible, cross-departmental growth after switching from a manual environment to AuditBoard, including:

• Leveraging AuditBoard to save time and effort by identifying duplicate work
• Educating teams to understand company processes better 
• Streamlining previously siloed communication by increasing task status visibility
• Giving executives independent access to filter and view what’s relevant to their priorities

Tell us a little about Eaton and what prompted the switch to AuditBoard.

Brandon Masin (IT Audit/SOX Manager, Eaton): Eaton is an engineering manufacturing company. We design, develop, and deploy products and solutions for the energy space. 

A few years ago, Eaton’s SOX and audit teams functioned separately. Then, we had an organizational shift where those two teams merged. Now, our internal audit team has responsibility for both audit and SOX. It was the perfect time to get the lay of the land and figure out the market’s current software offerings. 

We hadn’t assessed our options in years. Our priorities meant that our new solution had to work for SOX and audit while being flexible enough to adapt as Eaton grows and team responsibilities shift. AuditBoard gives us the flexibility to do those things and meaningfully manage audits.

What are some of the challenges you’ve addressed with AuditBoard?

Claire Conner (Data Analytics & Audit Manager, Eaton): Another reason that AuditBoard is great from a reporting perspective is that we can now share specific dashboards with other leaders across departments. Now, we can give people direct access to dashboards within AuditBoard. Then, they can go ahead, click around, filter, and do the things they want to independently. It takes a lot of work off the hands of the data analytics team and allows people to have more power in what they’re looking at.

Brandon Masin (IT Audit/SOX Manager, Eaton): With AuditBoard, the management team knows exactly where they’re at at any given point in time during the year. For our practitioners, the software is really easy to work with. Every task comes with a date attached so that employees know when something is due and what the expectations are. 

This streamlines communication and saves time for our management team. Now, they don’t have to reach out to perform constant status checks. This reduces the awareness and communication saver, which saves a lot of time within the tool. 

Claire Conner (Data Analytics & Audit Manager, Eaton): AuditBoard serves as a one-stop shop for leaders from all different business areas to use AuditBoard to view what’s important to them. 

Brandon Masin (IT Audit/SOX Manager, Eaton): AuditBoard has also helped us identify a lot of duplicative work. Often, teams and stakeholders are making duplicate requests that waste time and effort without even knowing it. By consolidating our risk assurance practices across the organization, teams come together to better understand our processes. AuditBoard lets us focus on things that matter while shifting focus away from things that don’t.