Data audit consulting for organisations that want clarity, not complexity
Buzomu offers structured audit engagements that examine your existing data collection, trace how it connects to decisions, and identify where improvements are possible without new tools.
Three ways to engage
Audit engagements vary in scope and depth depending on the organisation's size, data infrastructure, and specific questions. The following describes the three main engagement formats.
Orientation Audit
A focused engagement covering a single business area or data domain. Useful for organisations that want to understand the methodology before committing to a full audit, or for teams with a specific question about a particular data source.
Full Data Audit
A comprehensive examination of the organisation's entire data landscape. Covers all major data sources, traces decision pathways across departments, identifies dormant data, and produces a full inventory with prioritised recommendations.
Follow-up Review
For organisations that have completed a previous audit and want to assess progress. Examines which recommendations have been implemented, what effect they've had, and whether the data landscape has shifted in ways that warrant updated observations.
Audits are conversations, not inspections.
The most valuable information in a data audit rarely comes from the systems themselves. It comes from the people who use them — or don't. We conduct structured interviews with decision-makers at different levels of the organisation, not just with data or IT teams.
This matters because the gap between data and decisions is often invisible from the technical side. A dataset looks complete and well-maintained. But the people who should be consulting it are working from a different source, or from intuition, because the pathway from data to decision was never clearly established.
Our process is designed to surface these disconnects. We ask about decisions before we ask about data. We work backwards from choices to information, rather than forwards from systems to reports.
listening first
Things organisations often ask before starting
Do we need to prepare anything before the audit begins?
Very little. We don't require organisations to have their data infrastructure documented in advance. Part of the audit process is creating that documentation. It's helpful if we can speak with people across different departments, and if someone can provide access to the main systems for observation purposes, but we work with whatever state the organisation is in.
Will the audit require technical access to our systems?
We typically request read-only observation access to the main data sources and reporting tools. We don't need to write to systems, export large datasets, or access personally identifiable information. The level of technical access required is usually modest, and we discuss what's appropriate for each organisation's context at the start of the engagement.
What does the final report look like?
The report is structured around findings rather than technical documentation. It describes the current state of the data landscape, identifies the key gaps between collection and use, and presents recommendations in priority order. Each recommendation is tied to a specific decision or process and includes a plain-language explanation of the reasoning. We avoid jargon wherever possible.
What happens after the audit is delivered?
The audit report is designed to be actionable independently. We present findings to the relevant team and answer questions. For organisations that want ongoing support in implementing recommendations, we can discuss what that might look like, but the audit itself is a standalone deliverable. Many organisations find that having a clear picture of the current state is sufficient to act on their own.
How do you handle sensitive or confidential data during the audit?
We work within the organisation's existing data governance framework and sign appropriate confidentiality agreements before any engagement begins. We're interested in the structure and flow of data rather than its content, so we typically work at the level of data types and schemas rather than individual records. Any specific requirements around data handling are discussed and agreed before the audit starts.
Interested in discussing an audit engagement?
We're happy to talk through your organisation's context and what an appropriate scope might look like.