Virtual Audits: What do we offer?

COVID-19 presented some unique challenges that prompted us to re-examine the ways we work, including the way we conduct our audits. In this unique new COVID environment, we had to think creatively about how to handle this process effectively while following the recommended guidelines and restrictions to ensure the safety of our team and clients.

One of the measures we took was to suggest virtual audits for our clients. Since 2020, about a third of all client audits at Neopharm Labs were conducted virtually.

Virtual Audits were implemented to mimic the traditional audits as much as possible. This includes:

• Presentation of the organization and facility through a web portal
• Live tour of the site through a web portal and Bluetooth® microphone used for SMEs.
• Document review offered through the online portal giving auditors the ability navigate into the documentation by themselves with read-only access. A web camera is also available for when it's required to show larger documents.
• Professionally recorded video footage with narration and subtitles is produced to present our main functional areas in more detail. These can be presented to complement the virtual tour.

In order to ensure the highest level of efficiency, we put the greatest emphasis on the audit preparation. It's crucial to understand the scope of the audit and to schedule the participation of the subject matter experts ahead of time in order to ensure that we have the right people in attendance. When faced with the challenge with multiple time zones, we need to remain flexible and adapt the schedules accordingly. During the audit, the host is always available to answer questions and address any issues that may arise.

Now that we've adapted to virtual audits, we see them being in use for the foreseeable future as a great way to save time, travel, and resources. The current situation has established that virtual settings can be a sustainable method of performing quality audits. The feedback we've received from clients is highly positive, so we see this as a great opportunity to continue leveraging the efficiency of them for the benefit of all parties. Now that we've proven our ability to adapt to new ways of working and meeting our client's needs, there's no doubt that virtual audits are here to stay.