• Fraud & Security Services
• Forensic Computing Service
• Information Systems Assurance
• Governance & Risk Management
• Consulting Services
• Internal Audit and Assurance

Consulting Services

First and foremost we provide assurance, risk, governance and counter fraud services. We can’t and don’t pretend to have skills in business process re-engineering, organisational design, change management and the like. Nonetheless, the breadth and diversity of experience within our team provides us with a range of competencies that can be used to help clients improve process efficiency or cost effectiveness and indeed, over the years, we have done so as part of our core service delivery. Examples include:

 

• Cost and activity analysis: Our staff have a range of experience including: developing and/ or evaluating business cases; NPV assessments; developing activity-based costing models and creation of analytical models to identify spending patterns and savings opportunities, for example in prescribing. Other applications for analytical models have included searching for duplicate payments or recoverable VAT which has been overlooked.

• Process analysis: Our core process mapping offering considers opportunities to improve efficiency. We have a range of performance indicators which can apply to core financial processes.

• Specific value for money studies: Economy, efficiency and effectiveness are key considerations within any internal audit. However, our skill sets can go further depending on the particular area – our team members have identified significant savings in areas such as travel and subsistence. We can apply a disciplined approach to analysing usage and waste and are familiar with cost saving techniques such as category management.

•  Maximising value and minimising contract costs: Our team members are highly skilled in analysing third party contracts or service level agreements and assessing whether you are getting everything you are paying for, at the correct price. Their experience includes open-book audits of suppliers resulting in significant savings.

• Capital contracts: An extension of the open-book auditing skill-set noted above. We can help your teams implement good practice in contract management through to checking the calculation and support for amounts billed.

• Compliance readiness: Our extensive experience of assessing clients’ compliance in areas such as Care Quality Commission registration or Information Governance, leaves ideally placed to help organisations, including primary care contractors, for whom such requirements are new. We can advise on what works and what doesn’t, and we can carry out pre-emptive compliance assessments. The above is not a comprehensive list, but designed to illustrate our skills. In line with the Audit North vision, we would provide tailored services at not for profit rates. At a time when budgets for consultancy are being squeezed, and use of consultants is discouraged, we offer cost effective, viable consulting services which help to bring about real improvements in our clients businesses.