It’s a fact of life, enterprises are facing a growing onslaught of risk every day. Risk is everywhere, from the most visible ransomware attacks to the more subtle changing and growing technology landscape that introduces new challenges. According to a recent article, ransomware attacks have already increased by over 93% since the beginning of 2021. With increased risk every day and everywhere, organizations that are unable to take a holistic and integrated approach to risk factors and risk management, will suffer what can be significant and costly consequences.

Even though risk is only growing and becoming more pervasive, it may be shocking to learn that a recent Aon study showed that risk readiness by most organizations is at its lowest level in 12 years! This is like being halfway down a steep hill and realizing that you haven’t checked your brakes in a long time—not a good position to be in. The time to be prepared is now, before you are faced with an issue, so what are the right steps to take?

GRC (Governance Risk Compliance) solutions that can help your enterprise take a holistic, integrated and comprehensive view across the organization are the best way to go about checking your brakes before you need them. The best GRC solutions are built on a collaborative and flexible platform that is able to leverage information from a multitude of sources and provide a clear one-stop shop to view the results to help you make the right decisions around managing risk.

Another important aspect of an effective enterprise GRC solution is that it can help organizations better understand risk by providing visibility into solutions and risk mitigation processes that already exist through compliance and governance protocols. A great way to think of governance and compliance is as the guard rails on the steep downward hill. A similar issue may already have been discovered and resolved with guidelines subsequently published and enforced to ensure the safety of other organizations before a new issue or disaster arises.

The right enterprise GRC solution benefits extend beyond having a complete and accurate view across your organization, one of the most overlooked and yet the quickest and most definable benefits are often found at the financial level. When the risks are understood and prioritized, security departments can align their budget to the most impactful actions that reap the biggest reward. According to a recent report on CIO spending, over 37% of CIOs are increasing their investments into security, and this means this spend has to be directed and targeted to the most effective measures for the enterprise.

When considering which solution to implement, do not make the mistake that many organizations do and focus on just one area of the business. It is important for an enterprise to understand that a GRC solution benefits the entire organization, and not just those with the biggest risk of exposure. According to recent research, over 30% of issues around risk may focus on IT related problems, but there is also a broad distribution amongst other business units.

Focusing only on one area may leave an organization exposed and at danger in places that they may not even consider.

Many different aspects of a GRC product should be considered, such as where the content for risk analysis comes from, and how often it is managed. Another consideration is how well the solution is designed around business processes, rather than just the technical standards set by many compliance rules. Learn more about to critical GRC solution features and how they can help your organization meet the demands of proper risk management and control.