The Benefits of a Holistic GRC Approach 

Leading industry research highlights the value of connecting risk management functions. According to Forrester’s 2024 GRC Buyer’s Guide, “Traditional approaches to GRC (often underfunded, siloed, and deprioritized) are not mature enough to prevent harm. As a result, 68% of ERM decision-makers expect that their organization will increase its overall ERM budget in the coming year; 48% say that their organization is currently implementing a GRC solution or expanding its existing implementation.” This shift towards an integrated approach strengthens an organization’s ability to respond to risk dynamically, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.  

3 Key Advantages Of Expanding Your GRC Approach Beyond ERM 

Embracing a comprehensive GRC strategy that extends beyond ERM can unlock multiple benefits. These include: 

1. Enhance Resilience with Business Continuity Management (BCM) 
   ERM is instrumental to identifying risks, but coupling it with business continuity planning allows your organization to go one step further – ensuring preparedness. BCM helps build resilience, allowing teams to prepare for and quickly respond to disruptions. A recent BCI Horizon Report notes, “Organizations that continue to embed [BCM] best practices to increase the agility of their teams will be better prepared to adapt to new, emerging global risks as well as to unpredicted and somewhat unpredictable events.” Integrating BCM with ERM enables your organization to not only plan for and mitigate risks but also to respond to disruptions effectively.

2. Gain Comprehensive Visibility into Vendor Risk 
    Vendor risk is increasingly recognized as a critical area for organizations to monitor. A dedicated vendor risk management (VRM) solution integrated with your ERM system helps you assess and monitor the risks posed by your organization’s third-party network in line with your business objectives and internal expectations. By expanding your GRC capabilities to include VRM, you improve oversight of the entire third-party network and minimize your exposure to these risks.

3. Monitor KRIs and KPIs in Real-Time 
    Effective internal controls are essential for early mitigation of many types of risk. Most notably, financial and operational risks require strong internal controls to safeguard business objectives and the bottom line. When internal controls management (ICM) is integrated with ERM, your organization gains the tools to effectively mitigate risks as well as real-time insights into the effectiveness of these controls, ensuring potential weaknesses are identified and addresses early. This continuous oversight reduces the need for manual interventions and drives a proactive risk management approach.   

A key risk indicator is something that, when monitored, can help proactively prevent business disruptions. For example, monitoring the results of a company-wide phishing test can indicate when additional training is needed.  

What is a KPI?  
A key performance indicator is something that, when monitored, can indicate successful risk mitigation. For example, monitoring NPS can help predict renewal rates, point to reputational status, and more.  

Unlocking the Full Potential of GRC

When your GRC solutions work together, your organization can transform from documenting and managing risks to addressing risks proactively. A holistic approach creates, “a productive, efficient environment in which all elements work together toward a common strategy of preventing and detecting [disruptions],” according to a Wall Street Journal article on the topic of integrated GRC. This means not just better risk management but enhanced resilience and growth potential.  

By expanding adoption of your GRC platform beyond ERM, your organization can benefit from:  

• Unified Insights: With all of your risk data centralized in one place, teams across the organization can access and share the same information. 
• Enhanced Collaboration: Integrated information lends itself to better communication and simplifies reporting across departments.   
• Comprehensive Risk Visibility: By managing all aspects of your GRC programs in one system, your organization gains a complete view of enterprise-wide risks, enabling better understanding and prioritization of risks and their management.