Skip to main content

Digital Controls

Organisations are exploring the introduction and use of digital technologies in their businesses.

This affects them at two levels.

Firstly, the use of new digital technologies exposes these organisations to emerging risks in their business models and operations.

Secondly, the new digital technologies enable new ways to prevent, manage, detect and correct risk exposures in their operations.

Our Digital Controls practice helps clients to address these challenges through our advisory services, digital assets and digital technology enablement.

Awards and Recognition

Read what third party, independent analyst firms Gartner, Forrester, IDC and others are saying about Deloitte.

Digital Controls

Organizations recognize that new digital technologies such as AI, machine learning, robotics, cloud, Internet of Things and big data analytics provide opportunities to manage, detect and control risks in innovative ways which significantly increases effectiveness and efficiency. In many cases, digital technologies allow the application of control techniques which were previously infeasible. Our Digital Controls framework provides comprehensive guidance on how to employ new digital technologies to modernize the lines of defense. We help clients to apply digital technologies to revamp the aspects of governance, people and processes in the internal control framework.

  • Cortex AI

Tap into the power of advanced AI and analytics: As a cloud-agnostic AI development platform with plug-and-play technologies for data, analytics, intelligent automation, and machine learning, CortexAI™ can help you establish or expand your AI capabilities at speed and scale

  • Controls resilience: Digitizing pathways to the future of internal controls - Stuart Rubin

In response to COVID-19, many companies introduced new technologies to enable remote work and sustain operations. But advanced technologies often cause a disconnect between where the business is headed and the ability of controls functions to keep up. To close the gap, those functions should focus more on offense, leveraging automation to enhance monitoring.

  • A new era of digital compliance and controls - Charlotte Gribben

COVID-19 and government-imposed lockdowns have tested the resilience of companies across every industry. While for some people this is an extension of previous working from home practices, many workers have been impacted by their employer's need to remotely monitor for compliance with important laws and regulations.

When organizations "go digital," whether in terms of embarking on transformative digital business models, or digital transformation of their operations, they are exposed to new risks or new forms of existing risks. We use our Digital Risk framework to help clients understand, govern and address potential trouble spots that leading-edge technologies introduce. In digital transformation initiatives we safeguard our clients’ interests with respect to digital risk exposures, and free them to focus their attention on the achievement of their strategic digital objectives in a safe manner.

  • RegHub

An end-to-end platform for simplifying complex regulatory compliance.

  • Enterprise Risk Evolved: A Holistic Approach to Integrated Assurance Infographic - Stuart Rubin

A "Connect. Modernize. Digitize." (CMD) approach can optimize performance, increase productivity, grow profitability, improve risk management and potentially lower the cost of compliance. Learn how your organization can achieve risk excellence and build resilience with a CMD approach today.

  • Refocus on Risk to Thrive - Darren Gerber

This report shares insights on the best practices organizations are adopting to address the challenges they have experienced aligning strategy, risk appetite and culture during the COVID-19 crisis.

  • Edge computing: Purpose to potential - Tom Bigham

Edge computing, cloud and AI combined have the power to change the way how people interact with data and technology. But alongside the potentials, the consequences of a poorly planned and executed edge deployment can be severe. Getting this right requires careful consideration of the impact on an organization’s existing risk and control frameworks to ensure a safe and secure deployment while balancing innovation, speed and control.

AI and machine learning are increasingly used to assist and improve business decision making. It is therefore essential that the insights garnered or decisions made by AI algorithms are fair, ethical, safe and explainable, especially when they affect safety and other important aspects of human life. Our Trustworthy AI framework is used by Deloitte professionals to investigate the AI models developed by our clients and provide confidence that the algorithms contained in them perform as expected.

Trustworthy AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the key technologies of this century and plays an increasingly essential role in answering the challenges we face. AI will impact our daily lives across all sectors of the economy. However, to achieve the promise of AI, we must be ready to trust in its results. We need AI models that satisfy a number of criteria and thus earn our trust.

"AI Governance Survey" - Deloitte Tohmatsu Group, Japan

This survey was conducted between December 8, 2020 and January 31, 2021 to investigate all departments in all industries based in Japan in regards to use of AI as well as their awareness of the risks involved and how they were managing those risks. The survey showed more than 80% of companies using AI with the aim of AI investment to "create new businesses" to exceed an "increase in existing business sales.

Making AI transparent, fair and trustworthy - Philip Chong

There are many mitigation procedures that a company can take to remedy a situation when an employee does not behave within the organization’s ethical standards. But what happens when the fault lies with technology?

AI algorithms are used to create innovative solutions for long standing risk issues (e.g. early warning of emerging risks through big data analytics, credit lending models to assess credit worthiness of under-banked people in developing countries, combating digital fraud or modelling climate risk). These innovative uses are helping to improve our society and create a better world. Our Deloitte professionals have created multiple innovative uses of AI algorithms and deploy them at clients to solve real world risk problems faced by businesses.

  • DataStrata

DataStrata is planned to be an end-to-end data framework designed to help organizations build a data foundation with enough integrity to realize the full power of data while managing the risks. Through a single integrated framework, we help organizations drive accountability through data management and enablement with strategic support in data risk, regulatory compliance, cyber security, culture and training, vendor management and technology. DataStrata provides the blueprints, architects, tools and processes for your organization to realize the full potential of your data.

Is your digital risk approach fit for the digital age?

Effective digital transformation requires more than just implementation of technology. By applying nine risk lenses explore the organisation–wide considerations that help to build digital confidence. What lens do you need?

New digital ecosystems, business and service models

New business and service models use partners and suppliers in different ways.Rapid mobilisation can blur lines of visibility across the different parts of your business, creating a new digital eco-system and an increasingly complex threat landscape.

Questions to ask yourself

  • Do you know who you are doing business with?
  • How quickly can controls be reported on across your supply chain?
  • How many of your suppliers use cloud to host your systems?
  • Do you know who has your customer data right now?

Experiences and engagement

In our digital world news, good or bad, travels further and faster.

You need to transform how you engage with your stakeholders - partners, customers, employees and regulators – in support of digital transformation, to ensure you are delivering positive outcomes for all.

Questions to ask yourself

  • Is your adoption of digital technology excluding anyone?
  • Is your tech investment achieving measurable and positive outcomes for your stakeholders?

Ambitions and aspirations

To realise your strategic ambitions you need to be confident to make the right decisions and quickly.

The ability to articulate and quantify opportunities and threats in a digital world is challenging. Market forces fluctuate at pace and require an agile and connected approach.

Questions to ask yourself

  • Do you want to move faster, but feel held back by too much governance?
  • Can your ability to deliver digital transformation safely and securely keep pace with your ambitions?

Changing external environment

You need to meet customer demands. Keep the regulators happy. And stay ahead of the competition.But the risks associated with digital transformation are leading to increased scrutiny that is often out of sync with the progression of innovation – making it difficult for you to align these priorities.

Questions to ask yourself

  • How quickly can you respond to rapid changes in the market, such as new entrants with different business models?
  • Do you have adequate oversight of your global regulatory exposure?
  • How close are you to your regulators?

Culture and leadership

In the digital era, success belongs to organisations that not only understand digital, but also live and breathe it.

Your leaders need to be digitally fluent and quick to adapt to new and familiar digital risks. They need to navigate digital evolution with confidence.

You need to inspire the right organisational mind-set to enable new ways of working and a culture that embraces digital to the core.

Questions to ask yourself

  • Is your board digitally savvy?Is your organisational culture keeping pace with business change?
  • Does your business have a digital-first mindset at all levels?

Branding

A brand can be resilient for decades, but destroyed in minutes.

Your digital presence, brand and reputation, have never been more important, as you use it to expand or recast your strategic ambitions.

Questions to ask yourself

  • What does your brand say about you and your digital aspirations?
  • How resilient is your brand in the face of a crisis?
  • What are your customers and employees saying about your business (including supply chain partners) online?

Organisation and workforce

Your digital success rests on building a workforce that is fit for the future.

Across your organisation you need to ingrain digital fluency without compromising on security. You need a workforce that is agile and able to keep pace with the speed of digital change.

Your risk and controls teams have a new role to play in this digital world. They must be at the heart of the digital transformation agenda, equipped and empowered to drive organisational value.

Questions to ask yourself

  • Are your Risk and Control teams holding you back?
  • Does your workforce understand the digital world and their responsibilities?
  • Is your workforce agile, secure and resilient?

Enterprise operations

Investment in back-end enterprise operations, processes and new technologies is essential to realise your strategic goals.

But, your risk management must keep pace with a more dynamic and automated operation and more often than not, this is an after-thought.

Questions to ask yourself

  • Is risk management embedded from the start of digital transformation?
  • Have you struck the right balance between after event assurance and before the event monitoring?

Platform, data and infrastructure

The systems, technology and data that digitally represent your prospects, customers, partners and suppliers is changing rapidly.

But as you digitally evolve your legacy infrastructure can hold you back.

Questions to ask yourself

  • How do you monitor your technical control debt?
  • Is enough spent on securing new technology?
  • Are you confident about where your data is and who is accessing it?