GRC refers to the strategy organisations use to manage overall governance of the organisation, risks, and compliance to regulatory standards. It provides organisations with a structured method of managing, mitigating, and preventing risks and meeting compliance requirements in a holistic way.
The 3 main factors of GRC include:
- Governance: Providing necessary administrative support measures for the GRC strategy and ensuring they are aligned with business goals and objectives.
- Risk management: Identifying, managing, and preventing all risks related to running a business irrespective of its size in a way to support the organisational objectives.
- Compliance: Ensuring that the organisation is compliant with all the applicable laws and regulations.
What can GRC tools do?
GRC tools are designed with all the requirements an organisation needs when implementing a GRC strategy. These advanced IT solutions help automate lengthy and mundane tasks. They help save the time and effort required to manage GRC objectives organisation-wide. Vendors offer an extensive range of features depending on requirements and budget. Many tools offer features such as conducting GRC surveys to gather critical insights of using the GRC technical solution, capture usage patterns, and understand trends.
How to select the best GRC software for your business?
The first step towards choosing the right GRC tool for your business is to determine your business objectives and assess requirements. Communicate and collaborate with stakeholders to ascertain their expectations from the new tool. Make sure the software offers the features you require to deploy in your organisation. The next step then is to evaluate the software vendors and their GRC solutions. The best GRC software for your business must support your GRC strategy and encourage business growth.
The process of selecting the right GRC tool for your business can be summarised as:
- Collaborate with all stakeholders
- Identify your objectives and evaluate the requirements
- Assess software vendors and GRC solutions
Some of the important factors to consider when selecting GRC software
Every GRC management software may offer various features based on their priorities. The one you select for your business must provide solutions to your business requirements. Some of the most critical factors you need to consider include:
1. Interface
When employing a new IT platform, it is important to ensure the user interface is simple to use. A GRC software can be packed with high-end technical features but a poor UI might decrease its functionality. Understand the needs of the end-users of your new GRC tool and determine if they find it easy to use. This will also help save time required to navigate through a complex user interface and allow users to focus on the tasks that matter to get the expected results faster.
2. Security
Governance, risk management, and compliance strategy is a sensitive part of your organisation and all information shared on a GRC tool must be kept confidential. The new GRC software that you select must provide maximum security against incidents that threaten the confidentiality and integrity of information such as data breach, malware or virus, etc. You may also seek advice from IT experts. Any form of cyberattacks resulting in loss of customer information might raise liabilities and also damage reputation.
3. Usability
As with the emphasis on the quality of the user interface, the usability of the GRC system plays an important role. It is to be used by your entire organisation and must include features to integrate with the current systems used. This new GRC tool must be intuitive, efficient, and satisfying for users.
4. Customisation
The deployment of new GRC software must focus on enterprise requirements. Not all organisations within the same industry will have similar objectives. Therefore, the solution you select must offer full customisation capabilities to address the unique requirements of your company.
5. Cost
Governance, risk management, and compliance are a priority and must not be compromised. But the factors such as total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) must be considered when buying a new GRC solution. Ensure the option you select provides maximum support for your GRC strategy at favourable costs to allow you to make maximum profits for your shareholders.
6. Reputation
The importance of software vendor reputation must also be considered. Due to the rise in demands of GRC solutions arising from stricter compliance regulations, new software vendors are entering the market every day. You must evaluate the vendor reputation by their experience of providing the GRC solution, their clients, client reviews, etc. This will help you know what to expect from a vendor.
7. Scalability
The GRC software you select must also be able to support organisational growth. With the growth of a business, the compliance requirements and the amount of data and information being handled change too. Your GRC tool must be able to fulfil these future needs and be flexible to adjust to your GRC strategy in case of unforeseen changes.
Conclusion:
Since governance, risk management, and compliance is one of the most important areas of a business, it must also be a priority. Organisations can run into troubles without a proper GRC strategy in place. Using GRC software makes the implementation of this strategy easier and effective. If you are looking for an efficient GRC tool for your organisation, Sentrient can help you. Our system includes powerful workflows to offer some of the most reliable and easy-to-use features. Contact us today to learn more and effectively meet your compliance obligations!
This blog post was originally published here.
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