With ever-changing regulatory and compliance requirements and increasing IT and security risks, enterprises in today’s global business environment must clearly define their Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) strategy for efficient risk and resilience management. The key decision-makers in the organization must ensure that the methodologies, technologies, and processes that the company employs are well-aligned with the business objectives or goals. Predicting, assessing, managing, and mitigating organizational risks and ensuring strict adherence to legal rules, regulations, and external policies are other aspects that come under the umbrella of GRC strategy.
GRC implementation may not be a part of the common project management criteria where standard operating procedures would be compatible. However, the management team and the stakeholders should invest in deploying advanced strategies and solutions for efficient GRC management.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) has predicted that the global GRC revenue would touch approximately $15.2B in 2025.
Let’s dive deeper to get a comprehensive understanding of the significance of GRC implementation, the common failures that hinder the process, and how ServiceNow can help overcome these challenges efficiently.
Significance of GRC Implementation
A poor risk management strategy can cost the company a lot of money in terms of non-compliance and other potential business risks that often go unnoticed. With the traditional approach, there is limited visibility and the deployment of cumbersome spreadsheets further creates additional complexities.
Integrating a technologically advanced robust GRC solution is crucial. It helps an enterprise in the following ways –
- Eliminates the common risk management challenges by providing a comprehensive view of the problems.
- Companies can efficiently anticipate and manage risks early, even before they pose a challenge for the enterprise.
- The legal and regulatory complexities in today’s businesses require deploying advanced GRC solutions to further go up the GRC maturity curve. This helps enhance the overall operational efficiency.
A proactive GRC solution makes an enterprise stand out from its competitors in today’s competitive market.
What are the Common Failures in GRC Implementation:
GRC implementation comes with its challenges and it is imperative to understand what can hamper the implementation. Challenges and failures in GRC implementation often take place due to the lack of an underlying strategy by the stakeholders.
Common Factors Hindering GRC implementation
1. Absence of the Right Leadership Team
One of the major causes of failure in GRC implementation is the lack of a proper team. A strong leadership team helps provide direction and governs implementation effectively. The right solution can be implemented only with a team of GRC experts who are well aware of advanced strategies and the latest market trends. Since every business is unique with a different set of risks, the GRC team composition of every company also differs.
Let us compare the Manufacturing industry vs. Financial Services Industry. Some of the major risks in the manufacturing industry would be equipment sabotages, supply chain attacks, ransomware, integration vulnerabilities, and so on. And the financial services industry would be more worried about phishing attacks, fraud prevention, unauthorized data access, and similar risks. Both industries have their own risks and challenges.
Therefore, the GRC team for an organization should be formed after careful evaluation and understanding of the risks pertaining to that particular business/industry. Having said that, to be able to set up a highly efficient GRC team in an organization, the leadership team should extensively analyze their company’s existing GRC strategy, understand the specific business requirements, identify which areas of the business would undergo a transformation, decide whether they would require an external team’s assistance or not, and assemble the team accordingly.
2. Organizational Silos
The disparity between departments is yet another reason for the failures in GRC implementation.
Ensuring security and maintaining compliance is a company-wide initiative and not just the responsibility of one department – the IT team. Hence, every department in an organization needs to work in tandem with other departments for efficient security management.
When the stakeholders and the management team are not on the same page, and if there is a siloed approach or difference of opinions, it can cause unnecessary misunderstandings and hamper GRC implementation to a great extent.
3. Inadequate Investment in Modern Technologies
Gone are the days of manual operations and traditional processes. Advanced technologies like automation and machine learning have become indispensable today and not investing in these technologies/solutions may lead to operational inefficiencies that impact GRC operations.
It is also essential to ensure that the chosen technologies or solutions satisfy business requirements and perform as intended.
Training and familiarizing employees or staff with the technologies and strategies that are being deployed as part of GRC implementation should be a top priority of the management team.
4. Undefined Scope of Implementation
As much as GRC implementation is important, the approach taken to integrate the right kind of solution with the corresponding business processes is also crucial.
Deciding which approach will work for the enterprise, a phased approach (step-by-step process) or an all-at-once approach (big-bang), is extremely important as this can have a huge impact on GRC implementation. The lack of a defined approach is often one of the main reasons for the downfall of GRC operations.
Also, the management team must comprehensively analyze the company’s capacity and where they stand. Unrealistic timeframes and hasty implementation can be overwhelming and cause further difficulties.
5. Poor Change Management and Technology Integration
The poor organizational change management (OCM) and the lack of understanding of technology integration with the business systems are interconnected reasons why GRC implementation fails. Many a time, enterprise leaders forgo analyzing the existing capacity of their business systems or processes, how the changes that come with technology integration would affect their business, and how they can manage those changes.
When proper communication is not initiated and emphasized between the technology providers and the management team, it can be difficult to ensure whether the technology is compatible and if it can be integrated seamlessly within the current systems.
Moreover, inefficient testing systems and processes can also impact GRC implementation adversely.
6. Lack of Resilience Across the Enterprise
Another common failure in GRC implementation is the lack of resilience across the enterprise.
Organizations that already have a broader perspective on risks and resilience tend to effortlessly get the most out of GRC implementation.
Business leaders should set up relevant processes to monitor risks continuously and build resilience in their business operations, thereby establishing a risk-aware culture.
How does ServiceNow Solve the Challenges Involved in GRC Implementation?
ServiceNow does a great job in helping enterprises tackle their business challenges and acquire a competitive edge with its one-of-its-kind GRC solution. Here’s how ServiceNow empowers enterprises in their GRC implementation:
- Improves clarity on governance and risk by 98% across business processes in the enterprise.
- Helps enterprises in replacing their traditional business processes with modern intelligent solutions.
- Enables integration of all business units of an enterprise into a single unified platform.
- Provides enterprises an appropriate roadmap for GRC implementation and builds a strong GRC foundation through extensive pre-planning work.
- Supports seamless integration of GRC suite with the existing business processes of an enterprise. The management team of the enterprise can easily coordinate and get all the necessary support from the ServiceNow GRC team.
- Offers advanced real-time visibility of an enterprise’s risks. This way, enterprises can get a comprehensive view of their operations and can continuously monitor the risks associated with their business.
- Includes automation and advanced capabilities in its GRC solutions that enable organizations to tackle the common GRC challenges and issues that cause risk management failures and make way for an interconnected risk management system.
- Imparts relevant training on the foundation and fundamentals of GRC for better planning and a more efficient GRC implementation.
Experience the ServiceNow GRC Advantage
Although GRC implementation comes with some challenges, a proactive approach powered by the right GRC solutions can empower the management and the decision-makers of an organization to take measured steps in the right direction.
Using best-in-class platforms and rightly skilled resources is critical in ensuring the GRC operations are perfectly in place. ServiceNow is undoubtedly one of the best GRC companions, offering a host of advantages and technologically advanced solutions to enterprises across the globe.
KANINI is a ServiceNow premier partner, helping enterprises with the seamless implementation of ServiceNow GRC solutions. Reach out to us at transformations@kanini.com for more information.
Author
Jason Wischer
Working as an Advisory Consultant with KANINI, Jason Wischer gets to build human connections between processes and technology. Jason’s core focus has been working across the ServiceNow platform providing business advice on implementations with the ITSM, ITOM, ITAM, ITBM, CSM, HAM, HRSD, and security and risk applications. He has drawn from his experience working with several different tools such as BMC, JIRA, and Microsoft M365 to provide a technology-agnostic approach to managing service.
