Periscope Developments
There are still some clients we are working with to upgrade to the latest version of Periscope Software. It is expected that all clients will be on the latest software version by mid-January 2020.
A snapshot of some of the development work we are undertaking includes:
Further enhancements to the master-delegate tables and parent-child tables
Enhancing the software’s ability to search a large number of records
Increasing the number of Y-series variables on our KPI charts from 10 to 12 enabling more data to be charted
Further refinement of the Autosave functionality based on client feedback
Further evolution of our configurable application programming interface (API) to allow one Periscope database to communicate with another Periscope database or third party solution. In this instance, one of Periscope’s large clients has an Internal audit management system managed by the Internal Audit Group and a separate database managed by an operational area, which operates a mixture of modules including audit action tracking. This development will allow an internal audit action to be created in the Internal audit management system, and through the click of a button will create a record in the operational system. Each record within the respective systems will then be able to dynamically exchange data even though they are in different databases. This functionality can be used in future to create a benchmarking database across industry sectors by drawing data from various databases e.g for risk management and health and safety performance statistics.
As advised in previous updates, Periscope is in the process of revamping its strategic planning module. If any clients want to provide input into key attributes of this module they would like to see, it would be greatly appreciated if you could complete this short survey Strategic Planning Module Survey.
What is Trending?
Complaint management systems seem to have been the flavour of the month.
An existing water authority client has committed to implementing Periscope’s complaint management system
Testing is occurring on the online complaints management system that has been configured for a Commonwealth government agency client
A presentation will be conducted in January 2020 for a prospective energy retail and generation compan.
Some work has been done with existing clients in relation to Internal audit management systems including:
Classification of audit actions against the COSO framework (COSO.org). The classification of actions was imported into Periscope with charts dynamically generated. The intention is to provide users with greater context and understanding of internal audit actions that they are responsible for.
Combining multiple audit action spreadsheets from different entities following a machinery of government change, ready for importing into a Periscope database to ensure one source of truth and reporting.
Activities in relation to Risk management systems were also high last month with a focus on:
Threat and opportunity – clients in the water and health sectors were prompted by the November update to discuss how threat and opportunity assessment would work in their organisations. A slide deck is attached for more information
Archiving of risks – as can happen after time, an energy sector client had a significant amount of risks that were no longer relevant. Periscope created a workflow to allow for the archiving of risks and the justification for archiving those risks
One energy sector client is creating spreadsheet templates to allow its IT Department to export risks from an external IT Action Tracking system for import into Periscope Software. This is to allow a centralised view of risks across the organisation rather than having disparate systems
A health client has now implemented its IT Security Risk Register
A government client implemented new workflow to ensure only strategic health and safety risks were captured in Periscope. This involved using Periscope’s table filter functionality to enable only certain tables values to appear depending on the values selected across Risk Classification and Risk Category fields.
One of Periscope’s existing water clients is keen to develop a Risk control library. A number of clients have expressed interest in developing control libraries in the past, but have not made significant progress in implementing them. This topic will be the subject of a future Periscope Update case study.
Periscope is putting together the finishing touches to its health and safety statistical reporting module and is working closely with two of its existing water sector clients to finalise data sets
Periscope is preparing a conflict of interest module including a gift and benefits register for one of its clients
Periscope is also prototyping a couple of new modules based on work with some existing clients. These include:
A Defensive action incident report form
Job safety analysis system that auto links relevant tasks and actions
Periscope is continuing to work with an existing client in using an artificial intelligence (AI) application to analyse case notes to determine whether an incident has occurred. The AI application will review the audio files for trigger words and create a structured data set that can then be sent to Periscope’s Incident reporting system. An initial trial of the AI application’s ability to interpret the case notes was successful
Periscope is continuing to work with an energy generation company on a prospective Procurement management system. A trial will be conducted on the ability to extract financial information from the organisation’s existing financial management system into Periscope’s system. Information such as contract Id, contract value, contract payments to date and other key attributes will be imported.
Periscope Activity
Periscope was represented on a Panel hosted by the Governance Institute of Australia on Tuesday 3 December. The subject of the Panel session was “Hypothetical series:The Algorithm in the Boardroom.” Key takeaways from the session were:
The requirement to have consent to use data, especially any personal and/or sensitive data – Do we have consent to use the data for the purpose we intend to use it for? See linked post – Data, data everywhere
Be conscious of data bias inputs – Are the data sets being used as inputs into the algorithm representative of a broad cross section of attributes?
Understand algorithm decision making – Do we understand how the algorithm makes decisions? It can’t be a black box
Sense checking the results – Do the results make sense? How do you ensure the results do not simply reinforce existing biases? See linked post – When algorithms go bad
Periscope was pleased to attend the launch of Inclusive Australia. Periscope is an Alliance Member of Inclusive Australia, which is “a social movement rooted in behaviour-change science”. More information can be found by selecting the following link https://www.pericorp.com/news
Tips and Tricks
Widget Show Linked Records
In recent communication with an existing client, there was a need to understand what risks were linked to specific controls. One of the easiest ways to display this is by using the Show Linked Records setting in the widget options.
Using On Screen Dynamic Risk Matrix
There has been growing interest in using on screen dynamic risk matrices in forms to increase the visual appeal for users. These require some knowledge to set up and display properly, but are relatively easy to put in place
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or 03 9882 1896, if there are any matters you would like to discuss.
On behalf of Periscope staff, I would like to wish all our clients and their families, a safe and enjoyable festive season. We have many exciting new developments for 2020 which we look forward to sharing with you. We will be closed on the public holidays and some staff will be working through the Christmas/New Year period.
Regards
Praveen