Like taking your car to the mechanic for routine maintenance or when the check engine light comes on and you aren’t sure exactly what needs fixing, an audit can identify needed fixes and make sure your digital solution is meeting your current and future business needs.
An audit is an independent, objective assessment that can help you identify problems early and confirm actions you can take to correct them. It can help establish or reestablish an operating model, provide mentoring and training, and shift from analyzing problems to identifying solutions. The value of our audit is the expertise of the audit practitioners, the robust process they follow using standard frameworks, and a rapid timeline that provides our clients with practical recommendations and actionable steps. We offer standard and customized audit offerings that can deliver immediate value to a business.
The audit process includes identifying challenges, gathering data, analyzing information, and communicating findings. While the timeline can vary depending on the type of audit, typically the audit process from kick-off to report and recommendations takes 2-4 weeks.
AUDIT TYPES
We focus audits in three primary areas:
- Project/Program Management Audits
- Technical Audits
- Experience Audits
We also offer a Project Health Check that packages multiple audits together.
PROJECT/PROGRAM MANAGEMENT AUDITS
Our project management experts methodically review project management plans and practices, communication processes, and reporting, as well as staffing and skill sets. Our experienced practitioners identify root causes of issues and make recommendations specific to an organization’s identified business goals and challenges. Lasting four weeks, the project management audit focuses on operating principles and organization, skill sets and availability, workflows and control, and documentation such as plans and artifacts.
TECHNICAL AUDITS
We offer several types of technical audits including: Code Audit, Technical Process Audit, Quality Assurance Audit, Hosting and Infrastructure Audit, and Architecture Audit. We can conduct a holistic assessment of the digital ecosystem for planning, process management, development operations, quality assurance practices, and code including documentation, deliverables, architecture, and future state evolution. Our expert practitioners create prioritized recommendations to reduce risk and improve security, stability, and maintainability using our audit frameworks. We will review and identify current technical architectural gaps from site architecture and code to caching strategy. Through a series of tests and analysis, we can identify ways to improve page speed and site performance. Our team can review site code to ensure it is able to be maintained and uncover vulnerabilities for improved security and stability. As an example, let’s look at one specific type of technical audit – the Code Audit.
CODE AUDITS
A code audit will identify any key bugs and gaps. During a code audit, an enterprise architect will be provided access to your site to evaluate current code quality against standard frameworks, focusing on maintainable code and providing specific recommendations for issues.
EXPERIENCE AUDITS
Experience audits are available in the following areas: Media (paid, owned, earned), CRM & Email, Analytics, Heuristic, and Competitive. Our Experience team can complete audits and assessments of your site experience, including UX/UI, content, and data, as well as other channels and tactics that are driving visitors to your site, from social media to SEM. Insights and recommendations for increasing user experience, traffic, conversions, and ROI can be delivered. Below we highlight two of the standard Experience Audits we offer: Email Audits and Analytics Audits.
EMAIL AUDIT
The email audit is divided into three main components — design, technical, and functional. Designated subject matter experts combine their findings to determine overall recommendations. The email design assessment evaluates whether the content is relevant and brand-centric; email copy assessment evaluates whether the voice and vision cater to the audience segments and are in line with other marketing and brand efforts; and the best practices assessment makes sure best design trends for email are being followed. The email technical audit is performed by enterprise architects and data analysts. The data analyst looks at several areas such as the properties for contacts to determine the usability, accuracy, and value of gathered marketing data for email usage. The email functional audit assesses campaigns, looking at overall email journeys, data and segmentation and personalization, and assessing how platform capabilities are being used.
ANALYTICS AUDIT
An analytics audit is an assessment of analytics implementation against leading practices to make sure you have accurate and insightful data you can trust. Our experienced data analysts and data engineers will focus on evaluating data accuracy and program maturity. Analytics audit topics include: analytics interface, documentation and governance, tag management, data layer/code review, and testing and optimization. Our team has extensive experience with all leading analytics tools.
Just like with a car, if you suspect something is amiss with your digital solution, it probably is, but if you don’t take the time to have it looked at, you can’t fix it. An audit can provide the information needed and tangible steps to get you where you need to be. Through proven processes, our experienced audit team can reveal critical needs to help you realize additional value, unlock ROI, and understand risks, whether you need help with project management, the technical aspects, or the user experience.
