Bangalore, Professionally : Post #3

Monday
I spent the remainder of my day Sunday reviewing the FY09 audit report, narratives, and existing SOX Procure to Pay control environment. After breakfast and 3 cups of coffee (I couldn’t resist!) my driver picks me up at 8am sharp. I’ve been told that the Accenture building is 60-90 minutes from my hotel depending on traffic, and that I need to be there by 9 am.
Traffic ended up being extremely light and I arrived at the Accenture building 30 minutes early. My audit manager calls me to inform me that a team member is on his way and shortly after getting off the call with my audit manager, Tarun lets me into the building.

Due to the fact that we’re working at the Accenture outsource building, security is very tight inside and outside of the building. Laptops are registered at the front desk, no cameras are allowed, you’re given a security badge and must scan in and out of every door in the building, and the Accenture staff doesn’t have internet access. The Accenture/ Cisco team is allowed to operate on the Intranet exclusively. They have a separate room off the network dedicated to external internet usage.

My team takes me out to lunch at an authentic biryani restaurant. They ordered me the “less spicy” biryani and I was borderline sweating the entire meal! South Indian food really means business! Day 1 is spent meeting the team, laying the foundational groundwork, learning the data repositories, and familiarizing myself with the audit process.
Paul picks me up at 5pm and we return to the hotel where I post my next blog, hit the gym, and treat myself to a big steak and glass of red wine.

Tuesday
After breakfast Paul drives me to the Accenture office. Traffic is heavier today and it takes roughly 45 minutes to get into the office. Once I get into the office, the testing begins. My portion of the audit is a QA check on T&E Accenture analysts. Essentially, whenever an employee expense report is filed (an employee needs to file an expense report to get reimbursed for company incurred expenses) the ER is sent to our shared services team in Bangalore. They follow desktop procedures (DTP’s) to make sure that the ER falls within Cisco’s employee expense policy, the appropriate approvals are there, receipts are accurately scanned and included, etc…. I’m given a sample of 120 expense reports that have been randomly selected across each theatre world wide. I’m responsible for auditing each expense report with a T&E analyst to understand their methodology for processing expense reports and find out what’s actually happening in the Bangalore office vs. what’s supposed to be happening.

I can’t disclose any of the audit findings due to Cisco confidentiality reasons, but I’m learning a ton and am enjoying the work that I’m doing. Going through each ER is taxing and stressful, but it’s rewarding when your understanding of the entire process all of a sudden clicks together. I took some pictures of the Accenture/Cisco offices.

Wednesday
"Concentration is the essence of all knowledge; nothing can be done without it. Ninety percent of thought force is wasted by the ordinary human being, and therefore he is constantly committing blunders; the trained man or mind never makes a mistake." - Swami Vivekananda
This quote was posted in the cube I was working in today; I thought I share it with you. Today was a good day.

I took a 6 am call with some folks from the states and then headed into the office after breakfast. I spent the entire day testing and made some major headway. We have an update meeting tomorrow with all of process owners to share preliminary audit findings, so I spend the last hour or so of the day preparing for that. I’m headed out for dinner and then to a night club with one of my coworkers. I just discovered that in the state of Karnataka, all clubs and bars close at 11:30PM (Lame!!!), at least it will ensure an early night for me. It’s a good thing that I’m planning a weekend trip!

Thursday
Last night my coworker, Tarun, and I went to City Bar located in UB city. UB stands for United Breweries, the multinational brewing corporation that owns Kingfisher (Asia’s Budweiser). Their CEO is rumored to be one of the most powerful men in Asia.

City Bar was located on the 4th floor of a shopping mall. It was an outside bar and was absolutely packed for a Wednesday night. It was surprising to see the Indian nightlife in its true form. There were people of all ages at the bar, from 18-50! Techno music was playing in the background and I must say that there were some good lookin birds out and about! Unfortunately as I’m told the way it usually is, the number of European dressed Indian men far outnumbered the amount of women there. The vibe of the bar was very upbeat and I enjoyed myself. It was nice getting out of the Hotel for a night.

The team had a 9am update meeting this morning with all of our process owners. The meeting went smoothly and gave us an opportunity to share some of our preliminary findings. I spent the remainder of the day testing and have now completed 50% of my sample, putting me ahead of schedule from a testing perspective.

I just booked my flight for Goa this weekend. Even though we’re in the middle of Monsoon season, I’m hoping for good weather. Either way, I’m staying at the Taj so it’ll be 5 star accommodations and a good weekend trip. Goa is supposed to be one of the bigger tourist spots in India. It boarders the Arabian Sea and is renowned for its beautiful beaches. Also, I hear that the beaches of Goa during Monsoon season are majestic.

I’ll check back in after the weekend.

Karl