Every business faces risk, but some face more than others. For those organizations that handle lots of sensitive data, with significant regulatory compliance obligations in tow, managing that risk can get complicated.
Once upon a time, managing those compliance risks could be done with some notes or a spreadsheet. Now compliance is a far more complex endeavor — and the penalties for mistakes are far higher. Thankfully, enterprise risk management (ERM) can help with those obligations, and like most things in modern society, it has been transformed by technology.
In today’s post, we’ll take a look at the benefits of risk management software for your business.
The benefits of risk management software
1. Improved Data Collection and Analysis
Risk management generally, and risk assessments specifically, require considerable documentation. That documentation, in turn, requires a considerable amount of data to be collected and analyzed.
Too often, those data collection and documentation efforts can grow disorganized. The information your compliance function needs is scattered across to many departments and IT systems across the enterprise, and you don’t break through those silos of information to get the data you need.
Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software can guide your compliance team through those challenges. It can gather all relevant information as that data is generated, and store the information in one repository — the “single source of truth” — so you have all the data and documentation available when it’s necessary.
2. Easier Budgeting
Risk management and compliance programs do cost money. Manual processes can quickly eat up whatever budget you originally allocated, and result in unexpected overages.
GRC software, in contrast, can streamline and automate many of your tedious, manual processes, saving you the expense of additional man-hours and inefficient workflows.
Additionally, risk management systems (RMS) can identify which compliance demands are addressed by your policies and procedures, and what gaps you still have. This information can help to prioritize spending within the budget.
If securing the necessary GRC budget is a hard sell, remind your senior executives of the costs associated with compliance violations: monetary fines, legal bills, remediation work to fix whatever security failure happened, and the opportunity cost of operational disruptions.
When you do that math, the cost of risk management solutions is much easier to swallow.
3. Greater Visibility Into Severe Risks
Risk management systems can also help you to identify your most severe risks — that is, the ones that could cause the most damage or most disruption. This can be hugely important for tasks such as disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
Your RMS can help you perform risk analysis across your entire infrastructure, evaluate your existing mitigation efforts for potential risks, and tell you which remediation steps remain undone.
More importantly, risk management systems can help you understand which remediation tasks are the highest priority. This level of insight can let your risk management team to work more efficiently, focusing on the areas of the business where they can be most effective.
4. Better Communication Between Stakeholders and Compliance Teams
We earlier mentioned that risk management software can make budgeting more predictable. Risk management software makes budget approvals easier, by providing a solid user experience for all stakeholders that allows them to understand risk identification, reporting, and prioritization clearly. With this insight, budgeting discussions and planning sessions run more smoothly and a holistic risk management strategy is a far easier sell.
Moreover, all team members and project managers can see the action items that need to be done, making it easier to collaborate and resolve outstanding tasks.
To learn more about what to look for in a good GRC software, please see our GRC Management Software Buyer’s Guide.
Advantages of the Risk Management Process
Beyond the risk management software itself, the overall benefits of risk management can also have positive long-term effects on your business, your team, and your growth. Let’s take a look at a few of those now.
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It’s easier to spot trouble before the issue gets out of hand
With robust risk management practices, you can see the warning signs of projects in trouble or potential vulnerabilities before they become unmanageable and costly.
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It enables data-driven decision-making
Proper risk management entails the collection of data before, during, and after business projects or transactions. Having this information available helps senior leadership to make better decisions that can lead to greater revenue on future projects.
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The expectation of success is set
When your team knows that risks are managed on an ongoing basis, it improves their confidence to deliver on project outcomes knowing that risks can be anticipated and desirable outcomes improved. This also boosts morale, productivity, and a more positive working environment for your team.
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Team members can focus on what matters most
With manual risk management procedures eliminated, your team is free to focus on mission-critical tasks that grow the business.
Furthermore, with your risk management software policing areas of challenge and vulnerability, your team can deal with serious issues swiftly, and then return to their main area of focus. This limits distractions and improves your day-to-day operations.
How ZenGRC Can Improve Your Risk Management Efforts
ZenGRC can supply your security and compliance teams with a single, integrated experience that reveals risk across your entire business.
ZenGRC simplifies risk management and compliance with complete views of control environments, easy access to information necessary for risk evaluation, and continual compliance monitoring to address critical tasks at any time.
Our user-friendly dashboards show you which risks need mitigating and how to do it; they also track workflows, collect documentation, and more!
To learn more about how ZenGRC and how it can support your risk evaluation efforts contact us now for your free consultation and demo.
