Inside an IT Audit

A special fall/winter issue of CIO magazine offers a good read in the article, "Inside an IT Audit." (You'll need to register for free to gain access to the article.) The magazine persuaded consulting firm Global Information Partners to provide an IT audit for Bluegreen Corp., a Florida real estate developer and vacation resort operator, in exchange for being allowed to report on the process and the results. Bluegreen has an IT budget of about $9.5 million. The audit would have cost $85,000. It took seven weeks to perform and involved five auditors — four external and one internal. If you've never gone through an IT auditing process, this story will give you a practical feel for the types of questions your team would have to answer, the kinds of information and insights you'd get back, and the ways you can use the results to justify IT expenditures to your executive team.