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Remote auditing is growing more common among companies who wish to achieve ISO certification in UAE as a result of rapid technological advancements. Businesses currently have high-tech methods in place that allow audit teams to receive and exchange data, conduct interviews, and make observations with businesses all over the world without having to travel for several hours to the audit site. Certification bodies will undoubtedly need to adjust to this new circumstance.The most recent edition of ISO 19011:2018, Guidelines for auditing management systems, provides additional standards for performing remote audits to facilitate the transition to e-auditing.
In this article,I will look at the advantages of performing remote audits as well as the obstacles that certain businesses must overcome to execute this type of virtual audit.
A remote audit, also known as an e-audit, is the same as an audit except that it is conducted using electronic methods to acquire audit evidence and objectively analyze it to establish the level of conformance to the audit criteria.
Remote audit procedures are comparable to those used in person, except you may transfer files over email, Google Drive, Box, and other services. Furthermore, the firm may give papers by sharing its desktop screen or via video conference utilizing Skype, Zoom, and other similar services, which are also utilized for interviews in conjunction with the phone. Surprisingly, virtual document and record review can be even more successful than the onsite review.
Manufacturing procedures and product storage are two areas that might cause problems during a remote audit. Remote audits can employ live video or even surveillance footage to obtain the necessary audit evidence in these instances.
Conducting a remote audit does not imply that all work should be done offshore; some work can still be done on-site. E-auditing indicates that auditing operations will be designed to be done away from the auditor’s location, if feasible because workers are sometimes not familiar enough with procedures used in a remote audit to acquire the needed audit evidence.
There are numerous reasons why auditing organizations should do remote audits. Here are the most important ones:
Using technology to save time and money: Most data, if not all, can be accessed from anywhere, such as a cloud gateway, so why waste time traveling to verify paperwork that can be accessed elsewhere? In this way, the amount of money and time spent traveling to the audit location will be significantly reduced. Furthermore, interviews and even observations may be performed via popular platforms such as Skype or Zoom, which are currently utilized by many organizations.
Avoiding visits to "challenging" areas: Some audit venues might be difficult to access for a variety of reasons, such as being in a remote region or requiring rigorous licenses to enter - even visas are sometimes necessary if audits are done overseas. These issues are avoided with a remote audit.
Auditing logistics are no longer required: When conducting remote audits, organizations are usually relieved of the logistics of booking conference rooms and cleaning up after the audit team leaves, as well as worrying about audit team accommodation, interruptions to employees' regular workflow, and other related inconveniences experienced during an onsite audit.
The audit team will be more productive: The audit team will feel more at ease working from their home office since they will have access to all of the essential resources, such as high-speed internet, monitors, printers, and so on. As a result, the productivity of an e-audit will be significantly higher than that of an on-site audit, requiring fewer hours to accomplish a specific job.
When it comes to the obstacles that a company must overcome while performing a remote audit, the following may be found:
Some certification and accrediting agencies do not approve of remote audits.Even though standards for e-auditing are contained in ISO 19011:2018, certain certification and accrediting organizations still deem e-audits invalid and only allow conventional audits performed on-site.
The reason for this is that certain accrediting and certification bodies have yet to determine how much of the needed audit time can be completed remotely to collect valid audit evidence and trust the audit results. For example, they have legitimate worries about doing a complete audit without physically visiting the site, and they have reservations about the reduction of on-site hours that would be spent in virtual labor. On the other side, auditors performing remote audits must have the requisite technical expertise to deliver these types of audits, which implies that certification and accrediting organizations must expend more effort to teach auditors on these approaches.
Problems with technology Logistics may be a major problem for companies, depending on the location of the audited and the technology utilized. Network connections can be unreliable at times, and the audited may have difficulty accessing the VPN to enter into a database to provide evidence. Furthermore, owing to network troubles, interviews and meetings may be disrupted, necessitating some time to reconnect and resolve all network issues.
Absence of participation. Other difficulties with doing remote audits include process owners who become unavailable owing to a previously arranged meeting or audited who fail to pay attention, maybe because they are completing other duties while the audit is being performed. Audited firms may play an important part in this by offering awareness workshops to their workers and providing them with the tools they need to be e-audited.
I have faith in the audit. Some auditors prefer to do on-site audits because they feel the audit can only be trusted if auditors have direct access to audit evidence.
Remote audits, for example, maybe viewed as unsuitable for inspecting facilities by auditors, because a site walkthrough might give critical information for the identification of issues inside the firm. It is unquestionably simpler for the audited to conceal problems and even potential nonconformities during an e-audit when the auditor is not physically present, and audited typically know in advance what will be audited and how. Furthermore, with remote audits, the auditor cannot use nonverbal communication to identify potentially misleading signals during an interview, which can be critical in detecting any discrepancies or hidden issues.
All these types of obstacles can be overcomed by hiring the best ISO certification consultant in Dubai who helps the organization to achieve ISO certification in Dubai within 4-6 weeks, Wizms.