LogicGate and J2 Global: From Legacy System to Intuitive Internal Audit

If you were to ask J2’s Director of Internal Audit, Ken Thommen, about the foundational elements of Governance, Risk and Compliance, he’ll tell you “Accountability and Participation.”

J2 is a leading internet information and services company, and when Ken inherited their on-prem, legacy GRC system, it had been in place for more than a decade. The system was used as a data repository for Internal Audit testing information and to perform risk assessments.

Each year J2 performs over 1000 internal tests and makes over 700 requests to gather data for external auditors. As part of this process, over 80 senior executives receive a sub certification indicating any internal audit deficiencies or risks that were uncovered within their department, all of which require sign off each quarter.

For such a high volume of work, the legacy system caused limited global accessibility and a loss of time, money and energy for every needed change. A simple visual update meant the involvement of the development team. For Ken, “It became obvious we needed a new tool.”

“The Risk Cloud is user-friendly and very customizable.”

Ken Thommen
Director of Internal Audit

Keeping the Baby, Not the Bathwater

J2 needed a new system to continue to perform all imperative Internal Audit functions in addition to streamlining the process for their executives. Quarterly required sign-offs were generated, sent and managed manually, and Ken quickly recognized that executive adoption of a complicated new method for a duty that only came once per quarter was a nonstarter. They needed an intuitive system to help make the change as simple as possible.

The Risk Cloud automated email feature and follow up reminders quickly addressed this challenge.

“With LogicGate, we recognized we could send out a request through evidence request functionality.” Ken notes. “It just opens up a form and allows our senior executives to review verbiage that they agree and attest to the accuracy of the information. They could digitally sign and keep that information on file.”

With the Risk Cloud, J2 is also able to track completion of each attestation using Risk Cloud reporting tools, and Ken’s team is now centralized and able to understand at any given time where they are compared to plan.

“The Risk Cloud is user-friendly and very customizable. We are now able to store all of our internal audit evidence every year. We also like that it was cloud based versus being hosted in a J2 data center."

The Importance of The Cloud

For Ken, a cloud-based platform was key. J2 has major offices in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and London. Previously, each office had to log in to the system via VPN, making for a very slow, cumbersome data upload process. Moreover, the New York office was on a separate system entirely. Now, each geographic team can utilize one single system for their assessments.

Flexibility is the other value Risk Cloud brought to J2. When they adopted their original system, the company was at about $300k in revenue. By the time they were looking for a new tool, that figure had climbed to $1.2 Billion—and yet the company didn’t have a single consolidated Internal Audit system. The increased complexity necessitated a need for more commonality among different Internal Audit processes, from evidence gathering to sub-certifications and beyond.

The LogicGate Experience

“I’ve overseen several different software implementations over the years, and I’ve never had one go smoother or with such a tremendous degree of focus and support—from bringing ideas, thoughts, and best practices to customizing to the needs that we have,” Ken says. “The Customer Success team has been phenomenal. I can’t say enough good things about the support team—five stars, A-plus!”

In order to make the transition a smooth experience, LogicGate’s Customer Success team was responsive via multiple channels. “If we had a question or concern, they’d get back to us in a matter of hours, sometimes sooner,” says Ken.

This fine tuning from LogicGate’s Customer Success team came in the form of customizing unique fields for better tracking of evidence requests. The previous process relied on an analyst or auditor to manually track when a file was processed or a document was created since the business owner for a control was typically not the person executing the work. Within a matter of days, this process was automated in Risk Cloud.

Use Cases

• SOX Controls Management
• Financial Close Management
• GDPR Controls Management
• User Access Review Automation
• Ext. Audit Evidence Request Automation
• ISO 27002 Controls Management

About J2

J2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: JCOM) is a leading Internet information and services company consisting of a portfolio of brands including IGN, Mashable, Humble Bundle, Speedtest, PCMag, Offers.com, Spiceworks, Everyday Health, BabyCenter and What To Expect in its Digital Media segment and eFax, eVoice, iContact, Campaigner, Vipre, IPVanish and KeepItSafe in its Cloud Services segment. J2 reaches over 180 million people per month across its brands. As of December 31, 2019, J2 had achieved 24 consecutive fiscal years of revenue growth. For more information about J2 Global, please visit www.j2global.com.

About LogicGate

LogicGate is an agile GRC process automation platform that combines powerful functionality with an intuitive design to enhance enterprise governance, risk, and compliances programs. With our prebuilt process templates, organizations quickly and efficiently operationalize their GRC activities without requiring support from consultants or corporate IT.

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LogicGate and J2 Global: From Legacy System to Intuitive Internal Audit