Why Governance, Risk, and Compliance Should be at the Forefront of Your Business Strategy

Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) have always been an integral part of an organization to conduct successful business operations.

With enterprises amassing massive volumes of digital data and facilitating remote access for employees and customers, it is essential to bring together the individual components of GRC.

Necessitating such an approach will help you improve the:
a. Interconnectedness of operational and information technology systems.
b. Efficiency, trust, and communication across the organization.
c. Bottom line of your organization and achieve business objectives.

In this blog post, we discuss in detail the significance of GRC from a cybersecurity standpoint.

Why Do You Need Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC)?

The three main elements of GRC signify the following:

a. Governance – Ensure that organizational activities and IT operations are aligned with business goals.

b. Risk – Identify the risks associated with organizational activities and address them to ensure they don’t hamper your business goals.

c. Compliance – Ensure that organizational activities comply with the laws and regulations that impact particular business operations/systems.

Let’s talk about the key benefits of GRC Programs –

1. Holistic View of Assets & Inventory

A GRC program gives you an enterprise-wide view of all your IT assets, hardware, and software. It also derives data from vulnerability scans, SIEM activity and alerts, and threat intelligence feeds. Additionally, GRC also provides you with data on your systems and networks, which can be used to measure your IT resilience and compliance requirements.

2. Streamlined Business Processes & Reporting

GRC solutions are very effective in streamlining business processes and automating risk management. GRC software platforms automatically collect and organize data, generate third-party surveys, fetch reports, and document business workflows. All the risk and compliance data can be housed in a centralized repository that eventually makes final reporting much easier.

3. Effective Compliance

GRC solutions help you learn the gaps in your regulatory and industry standards and suggest ways to improve them. Leveraging a GRC platform with multiple security frameworks enables you to verify your control environment. You can also opt for compliance tools to help enhance the team’s visibility into project management capabilities and integrate task management to track compliance activities.

4. Easy Onboarding & Integration

GRC tools ease the onboarding and integration process by providing the necessary tools and resources such as detailed tutorials, certified support, and training requirements to get started. These tools are designed to break down silos and provide users with a unified interface to manage cross-team compliance.

What Criteria Should You Follow to Select Reliable GRC Solutions?

1. Determine Your GRC Objectives

Analyze the size of your organization, identify your target audience, and understand their pain points. Also, consider your budget allocation, deployment complexities, and any other specific requirements. List down the objectives that all your department heads might have. This includes compiling information about internal risk management, particular certifications/compliance, or the number of audits required.

2. Identify Reliable GRC Platforms

To identify which GRC vendor or which software you should opt for, you need to begin assessing your options first. Explore the type of needs a software can address and compare it with your set of requirements to draw a conclusion. Ensure that you consider the following critical factors while choosing a GRC solution/vendor:

a. Usability – A GRC solution should be user-friendly and easy to integrate with existing systems. Also, it should be selected based on the requirements of your organizational operations.

b. Security – A GRC tool should aid protection against potential threats, misuse of information, and internal risks. It should be capable of protecting you against any vulnerabilities and loss of data.

c. Scalability – Your GRC tool should be able to factor in your future business needs, unforeseeable circumstances, and any additional compliance requirements.

d. Customization – Business needs vary for small to medium-sized organizations and big enterprises. You must verify if a GRC solution can deliver the customization requirements that eventually help you achieve your business goals.

e. Cost – Calculate the ROI you expect on the total cost of ownership for your GRC solution. Then, choose a platform that offers a favorable cost to your organization.

3. Prefer Automation for Your GRC Tool

GRC software is a crucial investment for your organization and it is a never-ending process. Legacy solutions are not able to match up to the evolving digital needs of today, therefore, you should ensure that your GRC platform offers automation capabilities. Control mapping, automated reports, remediation steps, an automated risk register, and real-time alerts are some of the features that your GRC solution should possess.

The Bottom Line

Governance, risk, and compliance solutions have a tremendous impact on the cybersecurity of an organization. Aiming to achieve higher standards of corporate governance and integrity is a step closer to expanding your business reputation.

Amid the rapid digital transformation phase, GRC is also a potential growth enabler. It goes hand-in-hand with cybersecurity to create a low-risk environment and add great value to your business, thus helping you:

a. Increase efficiency
b. Enhance security posture
c. Write authentic security stories
d. Improve brand visibility in the market
e. Avoid regulatory fines for non-compliance

And more!

Learn More About the Scope of Compliance Risk Management. Begin Today!