2022. jan. 14.2 perc olvasás

The 4 common expectations of internal control and compliance

To withstand the tsunami of risks looming on the horizon, GRC professionals (risk managers, compliance officers, and auditors) have no other alternative than to take a structured approach to risk and control management by leveraging key business information. However, limited visibility on the process design makes this imperative often seem like an impossible mission.

What is the common register for processes, risks, and controls to implement?

For some process owners, compliance often feels like red tape and acts as a deterrent to business efficiency. Compliance can seem this way mainly because there is no common register of processes shared between operations and compliance, leaving room for inefficiency, lack of visibility, and confusion over responsibilities.

Using a single repository that stores all processes with their related risks and controls in a graphical format using diagrams provides stakeholders with instant access to the right information. If a shared repository is implemented in a collaborative, unifying, and engaging manner, it can also save an organization time and money.

Corporate compliance: Bringing clarity to operational risk assessment

How can organizations assess risk impacts on their operations and implement adequate mitigation procedures? Relying solely on process narratives, typically long and difficult to digest, leads to assessing risk impacts in isolation without considering their interdependencies, which is never optimal. In-depth and cross-functional visibility into processes is necessary.

Leveraging process diagrams as a common reference framework enables risk, internal control, and compliance managers to identify and assess risks with their interdependencies throughout the organization. This practice benefits both the implementation of an adequate control environment and the early identification of potential risks.

Aggregating and forecasting risk levels in the internal audit strategy

“Manually” aggregating risk levels throughout the organization using different dimensions such as business lines, legal entities, and operations can be a particularly complex endeavor. But it’s essential to provide senior management with a global and coherent view of their risk universe.

Managing risks through a single repository is a more efficient way to deliver a consolidated view of risks. It also represents a great opportunity to adopt a common semantic and methodology, and thus improve transparency throughout the organization.

At the same time, this approach enhances operational resilience by allowing early risk and deficiency identification, simplifying business continuity planning (BCP).

Management of an adapted action plan policy to protect assets

Maintaining the delicate balance between risk mitigation and process efficiency can be challenging. Even more so without a common repository for monitoring otherwise siloed action plans, which has side effects inaccuracies, duplication of efforts, and ultimately, higher risks.

However, automating risks and action plan monitoring thanks to a common repository improves organizations’ defenses and resilience. To go even further, being able to rely on a system of alerts and dynamic suggestions for managing action plans offers organizations the ability to proactively manage risk and protect their assets and organization accordingly.