Internal control risks within the data warehouse environment

Abstract

Decision support systems enable management to improve both their strategic and short term decision making processes. An example of a decision support system is the data warehouse. A study of the sufficiency of audit resources relating to the data warehouse was conducted. It is evident that the internal audit profession has been slow in identifying the specific internal control risks relating to such an environment. With this in mind, we undertook a study to determine the nature of the specific internal control risks within the data warehouse environment. The study also provides a brief insight into what future trends and developments can be expected within the data warehouse environment. The effect that such enhancements could have on the internal auditor's assessment of internal control risk were also noted.