GRC can be an effective tool and also complex to begin with for an organization. Where GRC has its own benefits, it also possesses its own set of challenges. In an increasingly regulated world, organizations are facing greater scrutiny than ever, and the focus on GRC is expected to increase. Technology is rapidly changing in the landscape organizations and individuals operate in. In this dynamic world, an organization to be strategically successful requires a balance in operational efficiency and revenue generation while managing risk effectively. Organizations who are beginning with their GRC journey or are in the middle of it needs to evaluate their GRC strategies and think of ways by which they can build enterprises comprising of process, people, information and technology and combine these factors well.

More and more organizations are starting to take corporate governance, risk and compliance seriously. Regulatory bodies are beginning to require businesses to initiate corporate governance, risk and compliance programs, and there is a growing awareness among organizations of the risks of not having such a program in place. Nevertheless, there are several common challenges businesses face when it comes to developing and implementing an effective GRC strategy. Here are a few challenges organizations should consider:

• Change in regulations: Complying with the increasing number of regulatory requirements can seem to be a daunting task, especially if GRC is not part of the culture of the organization. Organizations are bombarded with new regulations each year & eventually gets complex to follow an integrated approach. Hence, organizations tend to follow an ad hoc approach to comply. Over time these approaches grow more complex and time-consuming with business spread across diverse geographies.
• Impact of Data Silos: Business organizations be it small medium and large still function in silos. These silos tend to minimize the efficiency in the organization. Each business unit has its own set of vendors, compliance regulations and processes to meet the regulations. Working in silos creates duplication of work, negative effects on collaboration and wasted resources. This approach is inefficient as there’s a breakdown in communication with an increased likelihood of errors.
• Surge of Big data: There’s an increase in information and data in organizations from various sources like emails, conversations, social media, transactional data and many more. The combination of big data attributes – volume, variety and velocity challenge traditional tools and methods for extracting value. One of the important outcomes of these big data projects gives rise to new privacy laws, governance and regulatory obligations. However, big data can be a boon or a bane depending on how it is harnessed and managed.
• Adapt to Technology: Over the last two decades, technology has evolved rapidly and organizations have adapted business processes to take advantage of this. The challenge now is to figure out how technology can be adapted to achieve GRC based on the roadmap that has been developed. While many companies claim to have developed GRC solutions, this is in truth a work in progress. And GRC does not necessarily mean buying new solutions but rather working out how to use what is there and how to adapt it to achieve a company’s objectives.
• Greater Risk: Risk poses negative impacts on reaching goals and expectations. Organizations need to effectively identify and mitigate risk. Yet, identifying and monitoring it can be challenging and time-consuming, especially with different business units working in silos. Failure to properly mitigate risk reduces overall visibility and makes it harder to make a better business decision.
• BYOT: Bring your own technology (BYOT) is a developing phenomenon in enterprises in which a company’s executives and employees choose, and often bring their own technology. Organizations are leaning towards a BYOT (Bring your own technology) model to increase efficiency while managing costs. Many companies are now supporting employee devices because the demand is so much larger and because it has become increasingly difficult for IT departments to claim it can’t be done. Theoretically, BYOT should minimize overall IT costs while at the same time escalating productivity. BYOT does cause challenges for Information Technology including data protection, compliance issues and the potential for malware.

The organizations need to keep in mind the challenges while ideally opting for a holistic, proactive and an integrated approach. Laying your organization’s resources into a GRC tool like VComply will ease the burden that comes along.

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