Approximately 90 percent of the informatics software
product audit requests that Agilent receives are paper audits,
and the remaining 10 percent will actually come and do onsite
audits. However a paper audit is not evidence based. It is based
on declarative statements, or whatever Agilent chooses to say,
so there is nothing in the way of verification of anything that
is said in a paper audit. Paper audits are typically performed by
“box checkers”—people doing the paper audit so that they can
say that they did it. Some customers will use a paper audit as
a preamble to an onsite audit to get a rough idea of Agilent’s
position before they come onsite.
