GRC Technology and Compliance Solutions in the Digital Age

What is GRC, and why is it important?

GRC is quickly becoming one of the most talked about topics in the world of risk and compliance. GRC is an abbreviation of Governance, Risk, and Compliance. GRC is a new and better approach towards compliance and regulations, one that proves beneficial for the organization when it comes to efficiency, competitiveness, and profitability. The GRC model aligns risk, compliance, and IT with the business goals of the organization.

Why is the GRC model becoming popular now?

The GRC model is being talked about so much because the technology that is required to power it has finally matured. GRC doesn’t simply mean aligning normal IT infrastructure with risk and compliance needs. It includes GRC technology – technology that has been developed with a focus on risk and compliance. These technologies are often referred to as Fintech – a combination of finance and technology. Fintech refers to technologies that have been specially designed for the financial industry. There is another subset of Fintech that has recently emerged called Regtech, which is a combination of regulations and technology. Regtech refers to technologies that have been specially designed for managing regulatory compliance and change.

Let’s look at what GRC technology does and how it achieves alignment between IT, business goals, and compliance. GRC technology usually consists of software solutions that allow organizations to take a quantitative approach towards risk and compliance. In the absence of a GRC solution risk and compliance are managed manually. When risk and compliance are being managed manually it is very expensive to be efficient. An even bigger problem is that there is no holistic view of risk and compliance of the organization – there is no way to take a data-based approach or to quantify the organization’s current risk and compliance status.

Senior management and the board of directors have no way to see how their company is performing when it comes to risk and compliance. They can request the risk and compliance departments to make reports for them, but these reports take a considerable amount of time and effort. There is no live vigilance of risk and compliance. Employees are trained and expected to perform due diligence, but if something is missed by them it will be caught in the next audit.

GRC technology creates links between risk, compliance, and other factors which affect and are affected by risk and compliance. This mapping of risk allows organizations to instantaneously detect compliance and risk issues. Looking at GRC technology in action helps understand how highly efficient it can be. KYC forms are a necessary component of risk and compliance. They help the organization perform due diligence and ensure that everything is being done in a legal, ethical, and compliant manner. This is necessary because otherwise the organization will be exposing itself to risk and may be fined for it heavily.

If some KYC forms are missing some information that is required, the GRC system will detect it automatically. It will highlight the fact that new risks have emerged because there are new compliance issues. There is no need to wait for an audit to discover the issue – the lack of necessary information will be instantly detected by a GRC solution.

The expansive world of GRC solutions

There are many different types of GRC solutions aimed at different factors of risk and compliance. There are solutions dedicated to regulatory change management, risk management, policy and procedure management, audit management, compliance management, vendor management, learning management, and much more. There are solutions which help with one part of GRC and there are enterprise GRC solutions which manage every aspect of GRC.

These solutions are a common sight in large organizations which have thousands of employees and offices all over the country but are now also becoming common in smaller enterprises. This is the natural progression of technological development – when the technology is nascent it is prohibitively expensive and only available to those organizations who can afford major investments. Slowly, as the technology matures, it becomes accessible for small and medium sized organizations.

GRC solutions were prohibitively expensive and took a long time to implement until a few years ago but they are now available for everyone. There are GRC solutions now which require no major investment – organizations make monthly payments for them. Such solutions can be scaled down for small organizations and can easily be scaled up for larger organizations, allowing everyone access to them. Fintech is poised to be the next biggest industry within the world of information technology. The question when it comes to GRC is not if your organization will obtain a GRC solution, but when it will obtain a GRC solution.

Don’t worry – this does not mean that your organization needs to make a major investment. Instead, you can start off with a demo and a 30-day free trial for compliance management system where you can see for yourself what GRC technology can do for you.

About the company

360factors, Inc. (Austin, TX) helps companies improve business performance by reducing risk and ensuring compliance. Predict360, its flagship software product, vertically integrates regulations and requirements, policies and procedures management, risks and controls, audit management and inspections, and on-line training and qualifications, in a single cloud-based platform based on artificial intelligence.

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