CLAD TeamMate+ Implementation
Written by Yvette Cornelissen
The CLAD (Centrale Landsaccountantsdienst) is the (only) Central Government Auditing Organization of Suriname. It is responsible for ensuring the accuracy and integrity of financial management and reporting for the central government of Suriname and for the state-owned entities. The CLAD was established in 1972 and the organisation provides audit services to the institutes of the government of Suriname, including several government enterprises. Besides the audit services, CLAD also supports these institutions, including assessing business processes, risks and internal controls.
The CLAD is also responsible for promoting transparency and accountability in government financial management and operations and works closely with other government agencies and stakeholders to ensure that financial management practices align with best practices and international standards. Overall, the CLAD plays a critical role in ensuring the efficient and effective use of public funds and resources in Suriname, helping to promote good governance and sustainable economic development in the country.
Because CLAD has a relatively small team of auditors, the need to become more efficient was urgent. The recently appointed managing director of CLAD, Jerrel Santoe wasted no time after his appointment and made the step towards a more efficient and effective CLAD his main priority. He approached BR1GHT to assist with selecting and implementing a tool that would support the move towards higher effectiveness and efficiency. Teammate+ was selected by CLAD because of its reputation as the global leader in audit management software for the public sector. Clad is also familiar with the predecessor of TM+, namely TM AM.
Combined with implementing a data-driven audit approach, including IT Audit and data-analysis application, the CLAD is being transformed into a modern audit organisation in the interest of the State of Suriname.
- During the implementation we implemented the BR1GHT tried and tested Delivery and Implementation Approach used previously for many other migrating clients. A detailed project plan was drawn up and agreed upon. The ambition was to allow CLAD to clean out their old AM database while utilising some of their ‘old’ project templates as starting points for their way forward in TeamMate+.
- By commencing with interactive workshops to understand the CLAD Way-of-Working, we could understand the methodology and align it to TeamMate+, therefore offering CLAD refreshed ways to approach their Way-of-Working in TeamMate+.
- A comprehensive client project team was established, including three subject matter experts to ensure that the fruits of our labour would be complete and accurate.
- Numerous analysis and configuration workshops were conducted to challenge our knowledge of TeamMate+ and CLAD’s Way-of-Working, with the CLAD project team being responsible for all system configuration – putting them in the driving seat. As BR1GHT we intend to ensure that the client starts to work in the system as early as possible and that there is ownership.
- A significant amount of time was also spent ensuring that the CLAD team can navigate through the dashboards, reports and the ReportingAPI – a feature that the CLAD added to their portfolio. It was especially useful to them for their additional time-tracking reporting requirements.
- A substantial amount of time was spent preparing the training materials for the end-users. BR1GHT provided standard materials as well as customised quick reference cards. The CLAD project team further configured additional guides for the users.
With the implementation of Teammate+, CLAD will finally have one centralised repository with all the audits performed in one place accessible to anyone authorised who needs the information. This ensures consistency and facilitates better collaboration within CLAD and with auditees. One example is the Auditee Portal for response tracking. Another significant gain is the standardisation of the auditing process and the audit reports.
The most significant gain comes from Teammate+ pushing the move towards digitalisation in the whole sector. By requiring auditees to digitally upload audit evidence and other required (audit) documentation, CLAD saves immensely on resources. Now, instead of allocating audit teams to specific auditees/projects in the field, CLAD auditors can work on multiple clients simultaneously from the comfort of their own offices. This is a major efficiency improvement for CLAD and the spin-off effect is increased employee morale.
Can you say win-win? 😊 This way of working is supported by Teammate+ through flexible work plans for multiple teams, project types and audit universes.
The long-term vision of the CLAD is to make the whole public sector more 2023-ready by promoting a move towards digitalisation and investments in technology to become more effective and efficient. The hope is that by using the Auditee portal and experiencing the value of this technology more public offices will decide to implement tooling such as Teammate+ to support their auditing and business processes and stop literally “paper-pushing”!
Our approach to the implementation was an agile one. We proposed a three-month project plan in which BR1GHT would organise a kick-off, support with configuring the system, and provide on-the-job champions and end-user training and support with the Go-live. The goal is that after this process, CLAD can configure anything in the system they want/need without the help of BR1GHT (although we stay online to help where needed) and CLAD controls their auditing process. The BR1GHT team responsible for the implementation consisted of a TeamMate+ implementation specialist, who was also the Project Lead, as well as local support team members in Suriname to help on the ground when, and if needed, as CLAD expressed some apprehension towards a 100% remote implementation.
We are grateful to have had the opportunity to work with CLAD – it has been an exceptional experience with CLAD being our first public sector client in Suriname. For both project teams, BR1GHT and CLAD, the ambition was to embrace the implementation project enthusiastically and have fun during the process. We believe that this was most definitely achieved.
It is as if this one step breathed new energy into everyone involved and had a ripple effect throughout the organisation. It seems everyone is now looking for ways to improve their way of working, which is a very cool development to witness. From process improvements to requests to purchase equipment and tooling, CLAD is changing for the better. And that is where BR1GHT and CLAD found each other: in their joint ambition to improve and evolve. We want to thank CLAD for the opportunity to work together. A special thank you to Jerrel who took a step to make his ambition a reality and took us along for the ride, offering us this opportunity to help.
A no-nonsense delivery with a good and lasting implementation. BR1GHT has helped us uphold our vision and goals with creative ideas to improve our audit approach.
