05 Apr Enterprise GRC Strategy: 7 Reasons You Need One
There is an old truism about war: “Wars are not won on battlefields, but on the supply lines.” The same applies to any large-scale operation.
Planning, organization, and attention to details are what separates success from failure. This is especially true when it comes to governance, risk, compliance (GRC), and security. That is what makes a GRC strategy so important.
Businesses which engage in global business need to have a strategy that aligns every aspect of their business toward the end goal of more efficient import and export actions. An enterprise GRC strategy helps you align your IT operations to your overall business goals, reduces risk, and helps ensure compliance on a global and local scale.
GRC isn’t an auxiliary in your security arsenal; it is The Ultimate Weapon., SAP GRC is how you turn strategy into repeatable procedures and tactics to ensure increased efficiency, increased security, reduced risk, increased compliance, increased visibility and communication, as well as reduced costs. It’s how wars are won.
The Dangers of Not Having an Enterprise GRC Strategy
If it seems pretty obvious that businesses need a GRC strategy, it is also unfortunately obvious why so many companies struggle to implement one. As the complexities of regulations and compliance programs grow, it seems far easier to create piecemeal and ad hoc solutions. Kicking the can down the road may seem immediately gratifying, but eventually that road runs out.
Some of the primary dangers of not having a comprehensive GRC strategy include:
- Dissonance between objective and approach
- You know what your goals are. You know what the endgame is. But if you don’t have a GRC strategy, not all your operations are aligned toward those goals. IT doesn’t always work to make sure that you are following all regulations and are practicing comprehensive and consistent risk management. This leads to a non-compliance issues.
- Redundant or counterproductive actions
- You might have several different departments, working to follow different compliance and licensing requirements. Each department may establish their own individual programs that either overlap or initiate counter actions. Even if you stay on the right side of the rules, you risk redundancy and wasted efforts.
- Rules of Responsibility
- You may have a global footprint for your organization that is subject to multiple local requirements and regulations. Some of those are more relaxed while others are more stringent. The question of risk comes into play when there is a conflict between these requirements. Imperative questions must be asked: What is the most important requirement? How does my organization structure impact my responsibility? How do we satisfy all these requirements?
A smoothly-running machine has all parts working together. You must establish a smart segregation of duties. You keep communication lines open. You work as one.
Seven Benefits Reasons for Having a GRC Strategy
There are a lot of reasons why it is crucial to establish an enterprise GRC strategy. Here are seven primary ones.
- Ensuring regulatory compliance. With a comprehensive GRC strategy, nothing slips through the cracks. You can establish a simple and fast internal audit strategy, helping you create regulatory policy lifecycles and compliance procedures, monitoring and tracking all your internal processes.
- Enhancing decision making. GRC doesn’t make your decisions for you, but it helps you gather and streamline the information you need to make better decisions. It aids in risk mitigation, and establishes rigorous procedures for when things go sideways. A comprehensive GRC strategy helps you deal with surprises by preparing for nearly any possibility.
- Breaking down information silos. Instant communication doesn’t mean flawless communication. Data can hit snags, get bottlenecked, and be hoarded, intentionally or not. A strategy that aligns all departments and offices breaks down those silos, letting data move to where it is most needed.
- Enterprise-level risk management. Risk is inevitable. The key is to recognize and manage it. A GRC strategy helps you identify risks, evaluate them, and develop a strategy to monitor, minimize, and react to risk.
- Increased efficiency. When communication is improved and everyone has access to the information they need—and aren’t bogged down with information they don’t—people work better. A GRC strategy makes sure that your people aren’t surprised by missing paperwork or not having the permissions they need. Things just move faster.
- Cost savings. Fewer fines. Fewer redundancies. Improved efficiency. When processes are automated and regulated across an enterprise, everything works better, boosting your bottom line.
- Improved reputation. Who notices when you save money and increase efficiency? Investors. Partners. Industry analysts. Employees. Everyone. This increase morale, respect, and belief in the organization.
Those are seven important reasons why you need an enterprise GRC strategy. But they can all be summarized into one: Running your business Responsibly with GRC..
Plan an SAP GRC Strategy Today
GRC strategies are important for any business. They are exponentially more important for a global organization. The many complexities of overlapping regulatory programs, global business operations and logistic points, and the vastness of time and scale demand appropriate responses.
Utilizing SAP GRC is how you turn a strategy into a system of repeatable procedures. It’s how you turn ideas into action. It’s how you evaluate every aspect of your business and make them all work toward the same goal.
You need four things to make an enterprise GRC strategy work:
- A defined organizational framework;
- Clearly-defined objectives;
- The right software; and
- The right implementation partner.
The right implementation partner understands your business, your global footprint, your expansive regulatory requirements, , and how to configure your software so that it works in alignment with your business goals.
An Enterprise SAP GRC Strategy, implemented by a partner with a 100% success rate, is how your organization’s governance, risk, compliance, and security strategies protect your company globally, as well as increasing efficiency-management-control-visibility, while reducing risks and costs. This ultimately reflects in the overall company ROI, reputation, and morale.
Pinary, Inc. has a perfect record of SAP implementations over the course of 20 years. We take the time to understand your organization’s needs and goals that will help you achieve them. If you’re creating or updating your enterprise strategy, contact us today.