GRC Market Research Highlights

Here’s where an integrated GRC program can make all the difference. As the hallmark of a mature enterprise, it enables stakeholders to connect the dots across the three lines of defense - and gain a sense of the big picture—how risks impact each other, how they relate to compliance and internal audit, and how all these pieces together influence business performance. Armed with these insights, decision-makers can swiftly act to prevent adverse events, while capitalizing on growth opportunities, and strengthening trust with customers and stakeholders.

 

RISK

Today’s Chief Risk Officers (CROs) are expected to provide timely visibility into emerging and evolving risks, while also ensuring that robust risk management frameworks, processes, and tools are in place. They are increasingly being relied on to help protect the enterprise’s long-term value and integrity, in addition to driving business performance. Fulfilling these responsibilities requires CROs to provide credible challenge to business growth strategies, while also being invested in them. As risks evolve in terms of their potential impact on business outcomes, CROs are seeking more agile approaches to risk management and mitigation. Their aim is twofold -- to ensure that senior management teams and boards have better risk insights, and to facilitate risk-aware decision-making across organizational echelons.

 

KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

 

 

How a GRC Platform Can Help

► Provides a single source of truth to connect the dots between risks, controls, loss events, scenarios, business units, assets, and other data objects

► Delivers forward-looking risk visibility with predictive risk metrics and indicators to help organizations anticipate and prevent adverse risk incidents

► Embeds risk insights into strategic decision-making processes to increase the probability of success in organizational decisions

 

COMPLIANCE

While regulatory fatigue and uncertainty sets into certain geographies, rule-making is intensifying in others. In this divergent regulatory environment, Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) have a challenging task before them -- to enable a globally coordinated approach to compliance with minimal redundancies and optimal synergy.

CCOs are expected to ensure that their organization stays up-to-date on regulatory changes. They also need to enable a risk-based approach to compliance, while providing assurance and advice to the management and board to guide decision-making. The emphasis is increasingly on driving a pervasive culture of compliance across the organization.

 

KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

 

How a GRC Platform Can Help

► Strengthens decision-making by delivering a holistic, real-time view of compliance posture, risks, mitigation efforts, and monitoring results

► Enables a risk-driven approach to compliance with tools to identify potential risks and control weaknesses, and to prioritize compliance efforts accordingly

► Facilitates a robust regulatory change management process by helping users proactively monitor regulatory updates, and understand their impact on the business

 

IT AND CYBERSECURITY

As organizations go digital, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are expected to ensure that data and strategic assets such as corporate websites and customer information are secure, always available, and managed in line with risk appetites and thresholds, as well as applicable regulatory mandates.

To achieve these objectives at a time when cybersecurity threats are escalating, CISOs need to have effective IT risk and compliance management programs in place. They also need to ensure that their organization’s IT risk, compliance, and control environments are constantly monitored and fortified with effective technological and functional measures.

 

KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

 

How a GRC Platform Can Help

► Enables a holistic, synergistic approach to IT governance by providing a single framework to manage a wide range of IT risks and compliance requirements as well as their underlying relationships

► Delivers comprehensive and real-time visibility into an organization’s IT risk and compliance status, including its impact on business objectives

► Strengthens collaboration and coordination on IT risk and compliance management across the organization

 

INTERNAL AUDIT

In today’s dynamic and disruptive business environments, the responsibilities of Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) have gone beyond simply providing assurance. New generations of CAEs are expected to look ahead, anticipate, and respond proactively to change. Stakeholders are demanding faster intelligence on risks, deeper insights on processes and controls, and better advice on how to respond to issues.

CAEs and their teams must evolve to not only help organizations enhance operational efficiency and compliance with internal controls, but also drive better business performance. In fact, the internal audit function is well-positioned, due to their understanding of risks and processes across the enterprise, to deliver insights that directly impact the business and its objectives.

 

KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

 

 

How a GRC Platform Can Help

► Provides the foundational infrastructure to align internal audits to strategic imperatives, objectives, and risks, thereby supporting and enabling business performance

► Delivers timely, reliable audit reports that enable auditors to become trusted advisors to the board and management team

► Simplifies and streamlines control testing processes which frees up time for value-added audit activities

 

THIRD-PARTY GOVERNANCE

With third parties often proving to be the weakest link in an organization, Chief Sourcing Officers (CSOs) play a crucial role in keeping third-party risks in check, while strengthening third-party performance. They also need to ensure that third-party management strategies evolve in line with changing consumer demands and technology trends.

To effectively manage the extended enterprise, many CSOs are choosing to build an enterprise-wide third-party governance program that can deliver comprehensive and real-time information on third-party risks, compliance, and performance.

 

KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

 

 

How a GRC Platform Can Help

► Improves visibility into the extended enterprise by bringing together third and fourth parties in a common framework, while mapping their relationships, risks, performance, and other related data

► Helps organizations predict potential third-party risks and their impact on the enterprise

► Embeds risk management practices into the sourcing and contracting routine