How To Prepare For An IT Audit Panic With The Love, Care And Calm Of A Zen Monk

Posted On 3 Aug, 2022

Overview

IT Audits can be pesky, stressful affairs. Ask any IT Manager.

The problem here lies in quickly assessing the state of your IT health and fixing the problems in advance of an audit.

But that’s easier said than done.

  1. Where is one supposed to even begin if there are multiple elements in the IT Infrastructure?
  2. What is the priority of tasks
  3. If the audit is for a specific posture, say Cloud Services, what exactly are you supposed to do to fix things

Most IT Managers are perplexed about these issues. They are right. All this is worrisome and causes sleeplessness.

The fact is that it needn’t be so. In this post I shall examine two scenarios for IT Audit preparation:

  1. You need a 30,000 feet overview of your IT Infrastructure
  2. You need a deep dive into one problem area, say Network Services

Table of Content

Cure For Pre-Audit IT Stress?

A lot of IT Heads that I meet stress about IT Audits.

An IT audit may be an anxious experience, but it doesn’t have to be!

When an IT audit is on the horizon, it may feel like an exam to those who are preparing for it.

If you’re not well-prepared for a test, you’ll either pass or fail.

The odds of passing are limited if you go into the exam blind. However, your chances of success might be improved if you take the time to prepare methodically.

Here are seven things to keep in mind while conducting an IT audit:

a. Recognize why the audit is being done

What is the goal of the auditing company? What are they going to be concentrating on? You’ll be more prepared if you have the answers to these questions.

b. Gather all the paperwork

In general, you should have documentation of your IT systems, procedures, and controls available for an audit.

c. Take a look at your records

Make sure everything is current and correct. Take action if there are any gaps in your knowledge.

d. Address any weaknesses you may have

When doing an audit, it is crucial to be honest with yourself about any areas that might require improvement.

Make a strategy to deal with whatever weaknesses you may have.

A detailed action plan outlining the activities you’ll take to address the issues at hand should accompany this document.

e. Test everything with rigor

Put your strategy into action as soon as you’ve finished planning it. The more you test, the better prepared you will be for the audit process.

f. Be patient and take things slowly

On the day of the audit, it is critical to be cool and attentive. Remember that you’ve done your best to prepare, so just take it one step at a time and don’t stress about it.

A lot of times, you don’t have two weeks to wait for replies; an audit is already looming over your head. If you’re pressed for time, don’t stress. So, now what?

Consltek’s IT Health Check and the IT Audit process will help you get a clear picture of the state of your systems. Plus, help you with the steps you need to take to fix problems.

The best part is that until the 31st of August, both of these offers are free to use.

When You Need An IT Audit, Yesterday…

In many cases, I have come across firms which need an IT Audit done fast. They just can’t wait.

This is exactly the situation where Consltek Inc can help.

Before I dive into the solutions, I want you to know the context in which these pre-audit preparations happen.

In the past, I’ve had IT managers ask me one of the following four questions that stifle their progress.

  1. When a big customer of yours requests a security audit, what should you do? What’s the first step?
  2. Say, on a proactive basis, you want to conduct an evaluation of your information technology (IT) infrastructure. You haven’t done this in years, so how do you go about it now? Given that cyberthreats are more serious now?
  3. In view of widespread ransomware attacks your senior management has requested an infrastructure and security audit. What should our first step be?
  4. Many of your systems have faults and weaknesses, and you are aware of this. What should be your first line of defence before something bad happens?

We recommend an IT Health Check if the problem isn’t so obvious. Grab the IT Health Check – an overview on where your systems stand and what to do before a full scale audit. At zero cost.

How To Prepare For An IT Audit Panic With The Love And Calm

What is an IT Health Check?

Well, an IT Health Check boils down to answering a series of questions.

You get an overall snapshot, a 30,000 feet overview, of your IT health.

Our engineers at Consltek have put together a series of questions and tested it rigorously with companies. It was originally meant for our select clients but we are sharing this service now with you. Yep, at zero cost.

These questions identify the areas that require further research in your IT Systems.

You can then deep dive and fix these.

What if you want a detailed audit, now?

I’ve noticed one thing while providing audit services to businesses.

Often, IT managers have a specific investigation in mind when they approach an IT audit. They don’t want a simple overview but a specific audit posture. This is a deep dive into one area of IT.

The IT department, upper management, or a client may have suggested these as preventative steps.

So we have devised special, deep dive audits to focus on the following six postures: 

  1. Network posture
  2. Security posture
  3. Communication and Productivity
  4. Business Continuity Plan
  5. Identity Management, and 
  6. Device Management

Our team of experts will help you deep into all of these areas. Plus, recommend the ideal solutions to fix problems that we find.

The end result is a free IT audit from Consltek Inc for one specific posture.

How To Prepare For An IT Audit Panic With The Love And Calm

So until August 31st, 2022, we are offering a free deep dive into one posture of your choice. This normally costs $7500 but is free for a very limited time till 31 August 2022.

Yep, free as in beer.

Grab These 2 Exclusive Offers Before They Disappear

  • Avail a $7500 value IT Audit, on any one of the 6 audit postures available, right away at zero cost. Check it out before it disappears.
  • Grab an IT Health Check – an overview on where your systems stand and what to do before a full scale audit. At zero cost. This one is priceless and disappearing fast.

These two, exclusive offers are open to only new clients. Both are valid only till 31 Aug 2022.

Conclusion

In this post you have learned how to tackle 2 different types of IT Audit solutions.

One is the pre-audit, 30,000 foot overview of your IT Infrastructure: IT Health Check.

The other is a deep dive into one specific posture to assess the problems and recommend remediation by experts.

Both these are ideal preparation for an IT Audit.

Both ensure that you come out of the IT Audit looking like a hero. For a limited time till 31 August 2022, both these are FREE.

    Article by:

    Rajesh Haridas

    Rajesh Haridas is the founder and CEO of Consltek. He brings in 20+ years of experience working in the technology industry.

    Category:
    Security
    Boost IT Growth In Healthcare

    Set up a no-obligation consulting session