Chances are the chief audit executive at your organization has seen his stature and importance soar. This may reflect the pressurized circumstances in which the internal and external audit functions must be performed.

These executives unfortunately are often still pigeon-holed as tactical, just-get-the-audit done sort of executives. One commentator, writing in Bloomberg/Business Week, suggests the role of the chief audit officer should be expanded a bit. He or she should be seen as a strategic business partner to other executives. We hear this a lot regarding CFOs, and CROs. It's not surprising that more think the CAE should be discussed in the same breath.

The CAE is often "uniquely positioned to play a central role in the risk-intelligent company, thanks to his or her visibility into, and understanding of, the enterprise's holistic risk-management activities," notes Bloomberg. It makes sense to have this person available with strategic and IT insights to pother executives, including the CFO and CRO. This is not easy to pull off. The time commitment is certainly daunting. But the key may be technology. 

"Those CAEs who have successfully made such transitions have done so by making their departments more efficient and effective with technology. Analytics solutions can tame unruly internal controls and data environments and free internal audit staff from manual activities," Bloomberg notes. "With improved processes and automation, the internal audit function can then focus on higher-value risk analysis work that delivers real-time insights to business leadership."

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