How Optro helped Marathon Petroleum develop the foundation for intuitive audits

Marathon Petroleum is a leading energy company that operates the country’s largest refining system. Learn how Optro became a foundational audit management tool, helping the company plan for risks, streamline audits, and accelerate possibilities.

The challenge: Setting up a scalable, all-in-one audit management tool

Prior to Optro, Marathon Petroleum’s audit and risk operations were ad hoc and disjointed. This not only hampered collaboration but also prevented more forward-thinking operations and strategies that made room for new technologies.

Ideally, the team needed an audit solution that was intuitive, easy to use, and centralized the workflow into a single-point system. They essentially wanted a foundational project management tool that would align projects around risk and scale with the company’s continued growth.

When we spoke with Ryan O’Donnell (Director of Data, Technology & Innovation - Audit), he said, “Common questions we get from our top leadership and our audit committees are: what has happened in an engagement, and is it a trend happening across the organization? To answer those questions for the board, for the audit committee, we have to capture data in a standardized way… And the way we were doing that before [Optro] was, I'd say, a little bit ad hoc and disjointed.”

The solution: Incorporate OpsAudit and Controls Management

In Marathon Petroleum’s search for an audit management tool, what caught leadership’s attention was actually Optro’s articles, customer resources, and general knowledge base.

From there, the team realized that Optro’s platform was built by auditors, for auditors, which instilled confidence in the team's implementation and everyday use.

The two main modules that Marathon Petroleum implemented were Controls Management (formerly known as SOXHUB) and OpsAudit. In addition to easy integration with existing and future projects, both tools helped the team align projects with risks identified during planning.

The team was also impressed by Optro’s investment in itself, which ensures ongoing growth. O’Donnell said, “[Optro] has that reputation of reinvesting heavily into their platform, so we knew that while there might not be some things today, they'll show up as we grow with the tools.”

Results: Intuitive controls in a singular, scalable platform

After implementing Optro, Marathon Petroleum noted that the platform was intuitive and accurately captured the full audit process workflow, from audit planning to kicking off an engagement to reviews to finalizing documentation.

Optro also standardized and centralized data, allowing for collaboration across all teams, including audit committees and executive leadership.

Most importantly, Optro created a solid foundation that could scale and grow with Marathon Petroleum’s needs. O’Donnell said, “What we're doing is laying a foundation with the tool that will continue to grow and continue to produce what we want to see through things like AI, external risks, and internal risks. We can really bring all that information to the auditor, instead of the auditor having to go chase that outside of the tool.”

Lay the foundation for internal audit with Optro

Just like Marathon Petroleum, Optro can help you implement a foundational audit tool that will streamline functions and support cross-functional collaboration. Build new pathways to audit success with Optro or schedule a demo with one of our team members to get a hands-on look at our solutions.