Risk and compliance solutions are usually online software platforms that enable firms to implement best-practice governance, risk & compliance (GRC) processes. Companies can build online risk registers and control libraries, conduct risk assessments, and implement workflows to address high risk areas. They can also manage regulatory change, compliance, audits, and incidents, and understand how risk & compliance obligations impact business operations and strategic plans. Most tools offer a variety of dashboards and reporting options – enabling teams to get a holistic view of risk and investigate problem areas as they click into the detail.

When selecting a governance risk and compliance solution, leaders must consider which staff and departments will be using the tool and what data they need to visualize and report on. When scoping out requirements for integrated GRC software firms must consider:

• Are there any risk & compliance regulations that the organisation must comply with that will affect how you structure your GRC programme?
• How will you categorise and rate risk across the enterprise to make risk comparable.
• Can the risk & compliance platform be implemented in a way that meets the specific requirements of your organisation?
• Can the risk compliance solution scale with your firm as your needs expand and your GRC programme matures? 
• What data privacy protocols & security features does the GRC solution offer as standard, and does it align with your IT requirements?
• Does the compliance and risk software link to your other internal applications and systems via API Integrations to pull relevant data into the platform to ensure a single source of truth for risk data and cut back on data input errors? 
• Which team members need to use the risk & compliance tool and what data will they enter and what reports & insights do they need to extract from the platform and in what variations?
• Financial institutions should look for risk & compliance solutions that offer out-of-the-box templates to align with frameworks like GDPR, Basel II, and COSO.
• Look for solutions that enable you to build a digital obligations library of regulatory requirements, track & manage regulatory change, and monitor compliance with simple workflows and online forms.
• Choose compliance solutions that offer specific solutions around anti-money laundering, conflicts of interest, gifts & hospitality, whistleblowing, and feedback & complaints.

The benefits of utilising SaaS cloud-based risk & compliance platforms include:

• A reduction in time spent on risk reporting, data aggregation and administration tasks.
• Risk and compliance platforms provide a centralised view of risk and compliance status across the entire enterprise.
• Risk & compliance solutions enable the entire organisation to be part of the GRC program – competing risk & compliance related tasks as part of their daily role – creating ample risk & compliance data to inform business decision-making and provide proof of compliance. 
• Governance, risk & compliance solutions generate better visibility of an organisations operational risk profile and many offer enterprise risk management, cyber risk management, project risk management, and supply chain & third-party risk management too.
• Risk & Compliance solutions reduce the costs associated with risk monitoring and operational risk reporting.
• Risk and compliance software platforms improve an organisations risk management approach, by enabling vital links between risk management, strategic objectives, compliance, and enterprise performance. 
• Risk compliance solutions support firms to carry out adequate due diligence to provide proof of compliance to regulators.

• Choose a risk and compliance tool that is simple to customise in house, as it will result in reduced implementation charges.
• Choose a compliance and risk tool that enables you to set up multiple risk registers, types, and categories – this will enable you to report on specific risk areas individually and also roll everything up into a holistic view.
• Select risk and compliance solution with significant reporting requirements out-of-the-box – that can be further customised to meet your organisational needs.
• Select a risk and compliance solution that links with your other systems & data sources to ensure a single source of truth.
• Look for risk and compliance solution companies that offer multiple governance, risk & compliance use cases like, incident reporting, regulatory change, audit management, policy management, project management, strategic planning, and ESG – it is beneficial to manage these functions in one central platform and integrate the data for improved reporting outputs. 
• Look for risk compliance management software that offers solutions for the data protection buyer – for example cyber risk management, cyber incident management, asset management and templates to manage compliance with data privacy laws and regulations.

• Poor quality risk and compliance data due to a lack of data governance & data entry errors.
• Capturing risk and compliance data across various forms and spreadsheets leads to data input problems like copy & paste errors, over written data, and incomplete fields.
• Disparate risk and compliance data held in dispersed, unintegrated spreadsheets creates poor quality risk data, and an inconsistent risk framework that results in distorted reporting outputs – fuelling poor decision-making. 
• Relying on manual processes without automation slows down the resolution of risk, allowing risk to escalate to intolerable levels.
• Manual unformalized processes also affects compliance with regulations, policies, and procedures making it hard for firms to prove compliance.
• Disjointed processes and siloed data make it difficult to link risks to the relevant controls and regulatory compliance obligations.
• Firms are unable to compare risk & compliance data across different sites due to inconsistent risk frameworks and siloed data. This makes it hard to make risk-based decisions and provide proof of compliance across departments and sites.

Access the Camms online calculator tool to find out how much cash you could save in terms of cost and hours spent on managing risks if you were to move to an integrated risk compliance solution. Enter the relevant details about how you currently manage risk in your organisation and our intuitive calculator will produce potential figures on the likely time and money you could save by implementing a risk and compliance tool.

Access our risk management ROI Calculator