BUPA and SAI360: Boosting Audit Efficiency and Information Sharing in a Global Network

Company background

Bupa, whose purpose is “helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives and making a better world” is an international healthcare company headquartered in the U.K., serving over 38 million customers and employing 84,000 people around the world.

Their ambition is to be the world’s most customer-centric healthcare company, and the company provides health insurance, health provision services, digital healthcare and operates clinics, dental centers, hospitals and senior care services in different countries, including Australia, the U.K. and Spain.

For Bupa’s Group Internal Audit team, comprised of nearly 100 individuals across Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the U.K, efficiency in audit practices and information sharing is integral to the function’s success. The team completes nearly 200 audits annually, identifying opportunities to improve control effectiveness and outlining remedial actions for management as necessary.

Bupa recognised that there were some challenges in the efficiency of its auditing processes, and its ability to share information across a global network of employees with varying digital permissions and access. As the audit function continued to expand internationally, Bupa GIA were keen to address the following key process challenges:

Workflow – Prior to their partnership with SAI360, Bupa’s internal audit processes were completed manually and often shared inefficiently via email across the organization. This manual approach left room for mistakes and extended the timeline for audit completion. Extensive documentation, including data files, spreadsheets, department information, and results were included in each audit and shared via email, making it inefficient to track key information.
Policies and Procedures – Without a centralized hub for storing and sharing information, there was no single source of truth for the audit process and results. This also made it harder to accurately report and to demonstrate compliance with relevant standards and regulations.
Information Sharing – Collaborating across an expansive geographic footprint and within several departments meant sending documents via email, without a way for multiple members of the internal audit team to cross-check audits and documentation, creating a silo of information that
was not readily available to the company. This lack of a centralized info hub led to less collaboration within the internal audit department and contributed to inefficiencies in sharing best practices across the wider global team.

SAI360’S PARTNERSHIP WITH BUPA

Bupa first partnered with SAI360 in 2015, seeking a comprehensive solution to improve their audit process. After careful evaluation of the challenges, Bupa and SAI360 collaborated on improvements to their current operations. As an internal audit and compliance specialist, SAI360 was able to offer:

Centralized Hub – Clients gain access to a centralized repository where their different teams can store and access shared documents, audit reports, and action plans.
Responsive customer service – On a day-to-day basis SAI360 offers clients support desks that can quickly respond to issues with system performance as well as a dedicated Account Manager and Customer Success Manager who hosts monthly success meetings.
Temperature Checks – SAI360 provides clients with information on how its customers are using the company’s product suite and where these organizations are getting more value.
Configurable Reports – Customers can access the real-time status of their audit program through configurable reports and dashboards and integrate the solution into other reporting tools.

HOW SAI360 DELIVERED

Through constructive and transparent conversations with dedicated Customer Success and Account Managers, Bupa and SAI360 were able to focus on the offerings that made sense for the healthcare company’s internal audit team.

The key issues that originally prevented Bupa’s internal audit team from being as efficient as they could be primarily revolved around communication and collaboration, and SAI360’s Account Manager, along with the Customer Success Manager continue to ensure that is a priority. SAI360’s collaboration with Bupa has resulted in:

Single-Source Reporting – With SAI360, Bupa’s internal team has its data and audits all centralized in one secure location. This has made a significant difference within the company, allowing team members from around the globe to share their own best practices more easily when it comes to auditing and remaining on top of compliance.
Auditing Automation – While the team manually inputs the audits, SAI360’s system collates all that information, allowing team members to shift focus faster than before.
Enhanced reporting – Audits within SAI360’s system can be monitored in real time, and Bupa now has access to configurable reports and dashboards. This makes adjustments easy and gives the healthcare company the freedom to adapt this system to other parts of the company.
Robust meeting and customer service schedule – SAI360’s Account Manager and Customer Success Manager work directly with Bupa’s internal audit team, meeting each month to examine where the healthcare company is gaining or losing value with its application of the system.
Quarterly planning – Bupa and SAI360 continue to work together to see how the Audit department may see the most benefit from SAI360’s compliance and audit expertise.

For Darren Pearce, Head of Operations for Bupa’s internal audit team,

“SAI360’s communication is a key feature to the relationship; especially with regard to deciding which solutions in the product suite work best for his team. For both companies, a focus on efficiency has led SAI360 to share via temperature check meetings, what has worked for its other clients, what may not work for Bupa and where the company can find the most value.”

SAI360 are very good at saying, from a collaborative and consultative perspective, we can offer you this piece of functionality, but knowing your business, we just don’t think you’re going to get the full benefit from it,” Darren said, “Our monthly customer success meetings are crucial to our
success and SAI360 does an excellent job leading the charge with those.”

In addition, the Customer Success Manager is available as day-to-day operations issues arise, double teaming with the Account Manager to ensure success in every area. “Our Customer Success Manager has an excellent response time, as does the service desk.

They keep us very well updated on their productivity and progress on day-to-day incidents. Our Customer Success Manager is our lifeline if we need to report anything, and they are very quick to escalate issues internally and externally to ensure everything is running smoothly, daily.

” The changes within the internal audit team brought on by this relationship are just the beginning for SAI360 and Bupa. Bupa’s team is actively exploring with colleagues from the company’s other lines of defense how SAI360’s system can improve their own operations. Managing risk and compliance with SAI360’s help is now part of Bupa’s roadmap as the two work together to get the most value from the SAI360 platform.

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