Conclusion | ISAE 3402

“Conclude Accountants / Risklane helped us extremely well with the implementation. This was a tough job since later on in the process a fourth Conclusion company joined the already participating three Conclusion companies. The companies provided more or less the same type of services, but with quite a few differences between them. The young and enthusiastic consultants thought along with us and developed, in close cooperation and pragmatically, a one-size-fits-all control framework. Every year, we are tested in two test periods to see if we are doing what is described in the control framework. These intensive periods can only be passed successfully by working well together and Risklane succeeded to do this.”

– Stefan Hendriks, Manager Quality at Conclusion Future IT

Summary

Conclusion is an ecosystem which consist of independently operating businesses with each their own unique knowledge and expertise, customers, delivery partners, technology vendors and ventures. Without any exceptions the businesses are focused on technology driven solutions, but also on organization and people. On continuous basis Conclusion initiates, facilitates, develops, maintains and innovates because the demands and needs of the customers and the world are changing constantly.

Conclusion wants to be the best IT service provider in the Netherlands; to be seen as partner, service provider and innovator and positively known for their services.

Challenge

During the process of the ISAE 3402 implementation, multiple operating businesses were included in the scope of the ISAE 3402 report. The biggest challenge of this extensive scope was that processes and procedures had to be aligned and all employees from the multiple operating businesses had to work in accordance with these processes and procedures. Due to the nature of the business, Conclusion employees are used to work with both internal applications as client applications. This created a challenge during the audit process, performed by Conclude Accountants, because extensive audit activities had to be performed in order to verify whether processes were performed in accordance with the internal control framework.

Solution

The ISAE 3402 was ultimately realised by effective cooperation between Conclusion staff and Risklane Consultant and efficient project management. Several workshops and meetings with multiple teams of the operating businesses are held to identify risks, determine the impact and the existing working method, and accordingly align individual processes to a Conclusion control system.

The audit was performed focusing on minimizing business processes and optimizing the process as much as possible. By effective project management by Conclusion and guidance from Conclude, all identified challenged were mitigated in an effective way.

Results

Because of the cooperation between Conclusion and Risklane all operating businesses are currently working in accordance with the Conclusion Internal Control Framework. The ISAE 3402 reports serves as a guidelines for performing processes, the associated ISAE 3402 statement provides assurance over these processes to customers of Conclusion.

Spring Real Estate | ISAE 3402

“Although we were under the assumption that processes had been properly and completely arranged, points still emerged that needed to be added in the context of ISAE 3402. Risklane has made several suggestions that could be directly implemented in existing processes, with which the ISAE 3402 statement could still be obtained. The practical approach and the extent to which they can make suggestions by all the companies they supervise have resulted in us being able to add extra value to our processes quickly and easily.”
– Lennard Hoekstra, Partner Valuations

“Through the implementation of ISAE 3402, Spring Real Estate has further professionalised internal procedures, so that valuations are demonstrably carried out by the highest quality requirements. Improvement initiatives identified by the Risklane team during the implementation have been followed up by Spring Real Estate in a pragmatic and adequate manner ”
– Koen van der Aa, Associate Manager Risklane

Summary

Spring Real Estate has grown into a national real estate consultancy organization since its foundation in 2011. Spring Real Estate advises tenants and investors of commercial real estate on transactions and valuations. The services consist of Agency (offices, industrial spaces, retail), Capital Markets (commercial and residential), Management, MidCap Investments, Valuations, Media, and Online Lead Generation. Research and knowledge form the basis of their advice. In the coming years, they will focus on expanding their services to all important economic regions in the Netherlands to provide their clients with optimal advice.

Together with Risklane, Spring Real Estate took up the challenge to implement ISAE 3402 in the organization to identify and minimize risks.

Challenge

Implementing the control framework allows Spring Real Estate the opportunity to demonstrate that they carry out valuations based on the applicable requirements according to the NRVT guidelines. The NRVT guidelines provide a formal framework with rules that cannot be deviated from by registered appraisers. Practical guidelines with practical recommendations were also provided which formed the basis of the implementation.

The biggest challenge was not so much implementing the control framework but making all control actions that were already taken within the organization measurable. In the interviews conducted by the Risklane team, it soon became clear that valuation procedures had already been set up in accordance with the NRVT guidelines but were insufficiently demonstrable. Spring has managed to realize this demonstrability in short term through a targeted implementation plan.

The cooperation between Risklane and Spring Real Estate went well and has led to a professional result: a successful implementation of ISAE 3402. Recently, Conclude Accountants has conducted the ISAE 3402 Type I audit which will be followed by an ISAE 3402 Type II audit in the second half of this year.

Solution & results

The ISAE 3402 implementation gives Spring Real Estate the ability to demonstrate that valuations are carried out in accordance with the NRVT guidelines and that risks within this process are minimized by using an effective and professional control framework.

Category: casestudies