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Insurance company Allstate may be known for its chaos-causing spokesperson, but the way the business operates is anything but mayhem. The insurer has enjoyed decades of steady growth and is considered a leader in categories across the board.
Allstate’s internal audit department is no exception and has long stood among the top-performing audit shops in corporate America. That doesn’t mean, however, that Allstate’s internal audit function is content to rest on its laurels. Instead, it is constantly seeking ways to improve. As part of that effort, Allstate’s internal audit team is focused on building a technology-enabled center of excellence that adds significant value to the organization.
As a Senior Lead Auditor at Allstate, Michelle Doherty has a unique role in aiding that transition. She spends about half her time leading some of the insurer’s more complex audits and the other half overseeing Allstate’s quality audit improvement process. The latter means ensuring that the nearly 70 internal auditors have the right tools to do their jobs faster and better.
Like other leading-edge departments, Allstate’s internal audit department is assessing new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, and advanced data analytics. It is also transitioning to a new internal audit management system, Wolters Kluwer’s TeamMate+, to help it work smarter and free up time to do more value-added work. “We are spending a lot of time and resources looking at how we can automate processes and work more efficiently,” says Doherty.
Allstate’s Internal Audit Objectives
Becoming more technology-enabled is just one goal of Allstate’s internal audit department. Another is to look at risks more holistically across the sprawling organization rather than in silos. “There are so many different areas and facets to a company of this size,” says Doherty. “And, we have several companies that fall under the Allstate umbrella.” With many employees in different locations, including among the internal audit team, getting everyone on the same page, achieving consistency across audits, and sharing information and intelligence are priorities for internal audit.
“We are trying to use automation and data analytics to dive deep into the details and find some unique insights into the business.”
—Michelle Doherty, Senior Lead Auditor, Allstate
Allstate’s internal audit function is also working to mine the mountains of data available to it for new insights on risk and trends. For example, under its “Drivewise” program, the company incents customers to download an app that collects safety information, such as data on driving speed, braking, and time of day.
While the program encourages safe driving, it also provides valuable feedback on the driving habits and tendencies of drivers. It is this type of aggregated data that may yield big payoffs for Allstate by providing more information on emerging risks. Yet making sense of all that data is no easy task. “We are trying to use automation and data analytics to dive deep into the details and find some unique insights into the business,” says Doherty
To summarize, the goals of Allstate’s internal audit function include:
- Assess risks across the organization and encourage sharing of risk intelligence
- Leverage the vast amount of data available to provide new insights and intelligence, while using data analytics in nearly all audits
- Use consistent processes and best practices across all audits
- Automate some internal audit processes and conduct continuous monitoring
- Protect brand equity
Selecting an Internal Audit Management System
To meet these goals, Allstate’s internal audit shop knew it needed an updated internal audit management system. The team was running on an outdated platform that didn’t provide the advanced features and configurability it needed to take internal audit where it needed to go. According to Doherty, many internal auditors at Allstate viewed it as more of a repository for internal audit file folders than a tool to make their jobs easier and advance the function.
With the support of senior management and the board, Allstate set out on a rigorous vetting process to evaluate and test-drive internal audit management systems, evaluating different providers. The team was looking for a system that was easy to use, but also scalable—one that would allow internal audit to keep pace in a dynamic business environment and offer the capabilities it needed to accommodate evolving audit requirements. In the end, Allstate decided on the TeamMate family of products from Wolters Kluwer, which provide fully configurable, web-based audit and assurance management solutions.
Ensuring a Smooth Transition
Allstate is currently selecting “champions,” who will receive extended training on TeamMate+ so they can help other internal audit team members navigate the system. The company is also working on a project plan to ensure it doesn’t rush the process and devotes enough time to fully transition to TeamMate+.
Doherty has facilitated several demonstrations to show the team how powerful TeamMate+ is. “The demonstrations answered some of the early questions audit team members had about moving from TeamMate AM to TeamMate+. Seeing the system in action helped us get auditor buy-in and made them much more comfortable with the transition,” she says.
Doherty provides some advice for organizations that are looking to transition to a new internal audit management system:
- First, decide what parts of your audit process are flexible and what parts are not. You need to know from the start what parts of your process you are not willing to change so that the system can be configured to your workflow.
- Put together a detailed implementation plan to help your team hit the ground running.
- Ensure you have support from upper management. Doherty says the involvement and support from the chief audit executive and other senior members were critical to ensuring a smooth transition. “Tone at the top helps get everyone aligned,” she says.
It was an easy sell for most internal audit team members, says Doherty, partly because TeamMate+ was so much more advanced than the tool the department was using. “When we explain the benefits of using TeamMate+—how you can work within the tool, and how you can make edits and everyone can see it—it honestly was an easy transition,” she says.
Providing Solutions
One of the challenges for Allstate’s internal audit function is that with so many people in different locations, it can be hard to manage audits across a dispersed team. Looking forward, Doherty expects the TeamMate+ system to help facilitate collaboration across the internal audit team and with business stakeholders. “One of the things that’s really beneficial about TeamMate+ is that audit data is centralized so everyone can access it,” says Doherty. “You can live within the tool and you don’t have to keep opening different applications.”
“We can leverage audits we’ve already completed, which frees up time to do more value-added work and enables us to provide the strategic input the organization expects.”
—Michelle Doherty, Allstate
TeamMate+ will also allow Allstate to find things that work well in certain audits and replicate them across the internal audit function. For example, a feature known as TeamStore allows internal audit team members to access letters, files, and other materials that can be used in other audits. TeamStore is a database accessible to users, which can warehouse internal audit work programs and procedures, electronic working papers templates, standard wordings of audit findings and issues, details of the company’s risk and control library and more.
Auditors can use the same templates, for example, and save time by customizing them for the next audit rather than starting from scratch. “It keeps us from having to reinvent the wheel with every new audit,” says Doherty. “We can leverage audits we’ve already completed, which frees up time to do more value-added work and enables us to provide the strategic input the organization expects.”
“If we can leverage our previous audits effectively and automate some areas, we can use that time to drive more value for the business,” Doherty says. “We relish our role as a strategic advisor, but we always strive to be better. TeamMate+ will play a big role in getting us there.” 