Sam Aziz has been brought on as a Manager at the UHY Advisors' Atlanta-based Southeast office, with the goal to assist in beefing up its Internal Audit, Risk and Compliance Practice. Aziz brings extensive audit, controls and information security experience to the firm, and will help UHY mitigate clients' risk and help them improve their organizational processes. Aziz spoke to Consulting One on One about the challenges his clients are facing and why UHY is poised to meet their changing demands and needs.
Consulting: Since you've been in your new position as Manager, which service areas have been keeping you busiest so far in client work?
Aziz: IT compliance such as SSAE 16, SOC 2, PCI, and HIPAA have kept me busiest. Companies that provide services for organizations are under increasing scrutiny to provide information about their procedures and controls around information security and confidentiality. We are seeing it in all industries, including mortgage banking, health care, HR and Payroll, and of course all forms of IT services.
Consulting: What are clients demanding?
Aziz: Most of our middle market and Fortune 1000 clients are looking for flexibility in their professional services provider. The needs of today will not be the same as the needs of tomorrow. In many cases, they 'don't know what they don't know.' They need help with a variety of issues around technology, security, and controls. We are seeing more clients asking for controls consulting that is outside the normal internal audit and compliance sphere, so the providers that can adjust to customer demands and provide flexibility will be in higher demand.
Consulting: What are some of the growth opportunities in the audit consulting market?
Aziz: I think that anytime you can help an organization reduce the time and effort required to manage their risk and compliance efforts you have added value. If you can show an organization how to be more efficient and effective with their controls, and create an overall strategy to normalize controls across the risk and compliance landscape, you are driving real organizational change.
Consulting: Can you speak a little bit about the big IT security challenges facing clients?
Aziz: From my perspective, the biggest challenge is people. People are the weakest link to any security challenge. The sophisticated hacker of today will focus on that weak link and look for ways to compromise a person, via their user ID and password. It is much easier to get into a system with a valid ID and password than it is to find a way through all of the defensive technologies that most organizations have in place. Hackers have become modern day con-men. Organizations are going to have to spend more time making their people aware of these non-traditional hacking techniques.
Consulting: What are some of your goals for the Southeast practice of UHY Advisors?
Aziz: The Internal Audit, Risk and Compliance practice of our Southeast office will continue to stay on top of risk and control trends, looking for new and better ways to assist our clients with risk and control issues. Our team here helps improve organizational processes with tools and technology to mitigate risk and gain efficiencies. My personal goals are to continue to support the development of our methodologies promoting a holistic approach to risk and controls, and to ensure that our clients continue to receive the flexibility and value they have come to expect from UHY Advisors.
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