RSA Archer, from the security, governance, and risk division of RSA Security is an integrated risk management / GRC platform.
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CaseWare IDEA
Score 7.9 out of 10
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CaseWare in Ontario offers IDEA, a data analysis and data extraction tool supporting audit processes. The vendor states IDEA integrates with various solutions to make obtaining and exporting data easy, such as SAP solutions, accounting packages, CRM systems and other enterprise solutions for a single version of the truth.
RSA Archer is fantastic at cataloguing, personalizing assessments, raw reporting, and capacity to add custom fields. It is a little clunky around adding contextual information to notifications, peeking into data before attempting to load pages, quick navigation or determining linked (or sub-linked) relationships. These are all concerns that can either be worked around with an appropriate data scheme or with careful administration of the sub-routines.
One example of specific scenario in [CaseWare] IDEA is the ability to run samples separately and then based off of the results, compare and contrast the values recorded and easily discern if there are any variables or discrepancies within the data itself. Also, we can test journal entries with certain parameters to check the audit for any issues that may arise pertaining to the criteria. By testing, we are able to make sure the data is accurate and sufficient.
Integration capabilities to multiple enterprise systems
Control standards and Procedures to address multiple regulatory/authoritative sources, standards and frameworks enabling test once satisfy many requiremnts
Rapid application development and User friendly tool with configuration capability to customize easily without user requiring programming or coding skills
Can use on large quantities of data and quickly analyze them.
Uses logic that can be followed if one is an auditor. I, for example, could understand the logic in a number of samples, i.e how the number of samples thrown changes when risk changes from low to moderate in proportion taking in consideration the materiality.
Other audit firms are using 2 software for the process that IDEA alone can do. So IDEA has a definite advantage here.
Good tool to get the information communicated, approval workflow, and easy to add new findings/questionnaires. Seems to be compatible with different browsers and little downtime. Only request for improvement is to add an export feature with fewer clicks. Maybe batch export.
Our RSA Archer team is dedicated to finding solutions for our organization. They haven't mentioned any issues with receiving support with deployment or bug fixes, and generally the platform is very dependable. They are always very excited about delivering a version upgrade and presenting any new features that provide more dashboards or chart types.
It has been roughly 5 years since I have seen Securevue, so a lot can change, but to me it felt like several products were purchased and an attempt was made to piece them all together into a single solution (and I believe that may have been true). It also required agents on endpoints which did not fit the model I believed customers were looking for. MetricStream appeared to be difficult to install as it took their own engineers some time to get it installed in my lab environment. I did not think their web interface was as intuitive as RSA Archer. Customization to the platform was possible to some degree, but required a lot more work and technical skills than required by Archer. I did like the landing page for MetricStream which called out the important action items for the current user, but Archer v6.X now has this feature.
I have used Microstart and would definitely vote for IDEA because IDEA combines what Microstart does with the help of one/more softwares. Where Microstart just gives a number of samples, IDEA selects the number of samples based on materiality, risk, and other factors. It selects those samples from the population leaving out line items that are invalid/ zero. I would prefer using IDEA any day.
