How Syniverse Connects Risk Insights Across the Organization

In our Spotlight on Success series, Ana Rodgers, VP of Internal Audit of Syniverse, and Melissa Pici, Sr. IT Audit Manager at Syniverse, share how their team leverages AuditBoard’s connected risk platform to align activities across audit, risk, and compliance. With global headquarters in Tampa, FL, Syniverse, “the world’s most connected company,”® is a telecommunications company whose secure, global technology powers the world’s leading carriers, top Forbes Global 2000 companies, and billions of people, devices and transactions every day. Hear how this team sees AuditBoard as not just a software solution, but also as a partner on the journey to gain visibility across the audit, risk, and compliance ecosystem, including:

• Leveraging AuditBoard’s OpsAudit, RiskOversight, CrossComply, and SOXHUB solutions together to surface emerging risks and interconnections between audit, risk, and compliance work.
• Effectively managing talent and resource planning by centralizing information in a single source of truth.
• Providing the business with the transparency and foresight needed to support risk-informed decision-making.

Tell us a little about Syniverse, and about your vision for transforming internal audit to become a “catalyst” for risk management?

“The mission of Syniverse is enabling mobile operators. Most mobile users are part of our ecosystem. We provide messaging enablement as well as ad roaming, and we have one of the largest IPX networks in the world. 

When I came to this role, there was a lot to do that was transformational in nature — that’s how I started rethinking the vision for the internal audit function. We wanted more, we wanted to better manage risks, we wanted to be able to socialize across the organization. It really forced me to pause and think about how I could become the catalyst that I needed to be in risk management. What tools did I have available — whether process, people, and technology? Where did I need to scale up? It was at this point in time there was a very specific need that basically forced me to look for a solution, and that’s how AuditBoard came to the table.” – Ana Rodgers, VP, Internal Audit at Syniverse

How have you leveraged AuditBoard’s connected risk platform to provide more transparency into risk across audit, risk, and compliance at Syniverse? 

“We were looking for something that was going to allow us to have robust dashboards and reporting capability. One of my favorite words is ecosystem, and there’s a huge ecosystem between compliance, governance, risk, and audit. AuditBoard with all its capabilities makes it really easy to see how they all come together. 

Once you get in, you can see that this control is linked to this policy, which is linked to this framework, which means if an issue crops up, it affects these five things. That transparency — so easily seen once all the metadata is in — is probably the biggest and easiest selling point for everybody.” – Melissa Pici, Sr. IT Audit Manager at Syniverse

How has centralizing your documentation in a single source of truth empowered effective talent management and resource planning? 

“With the talent crisis that we are all going through, one part of the vision that we’re focused on is standardizing as much as we can so that we can leverage more junior auditors. AuditBoard enables us to do that — to have the ecosystem with all the workpapers, information, audit evidence. We are really, really excited about the opportunity there for leveraging resource planning, leveraging training for our newer staff, and having that continuity.” – Ana Rodgers, VP, Internal Audit at Syniverse

Audit, risk, and compliance are so tightly interconnected — how have you leveraged multiple modules to drive awareness and risk-informed decision-making across the business? 

“We’ve probably seen somewhere between a 40 and 50% improvement so far. AuditBoard is definitely helping us show how you may think when you have an issue that it’s only in one little section, but as soon as you watch it spiderweb out within the application to a policy or another framework — or four different frameworks — and oh by the way, our customers are looking at this, you kind of can’t not see it anymore. AuditBoard shows the interconnectedness that’s always been there, but perhaps not everybody was aware of it.” – Melissa Pici, Sr. IT Audit Manager at Syniverse

“We are helping the organization see what’s important to them through a risk lens, and we do that effectively by having collaboration and having visibility. AuditBoard has helped us with managing communication and providing that transparency. Every month we meet as a working group with the Risk and Assurance Council. Every two weeks we discuss current risks, emerging risks, audit results — and we are migrating from just isolated issues to more macro themes, where the foresight comes in. We are on that journey, but it plays a tremendous role because once you provide that type of value, it’s addictive. They want more. I can honestly say that because of AuditBoard my job is a lot easier.” – Ana Rodgers, VP, Internal Audit at Syniverse

Tell us about your experience engaging with the AuditBoard team.

“I don’t really feel like AuditBoard sees us as customers, but as partners — and that’s huge. We’re a partner in the journey to continue to make it better, and that in turn of course makes the companies better. The more people that really plug into that, the better everything becomes. I just think AuditBoard is the right answer at the right time.” – Melissa Pici, Sr. IT Audit Manager at Syniverse