Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Enterprise Risk Management infrastructure?
It is the methods, processes and software used by organizations to manage insurable and non-insurable risks and seize opportunities related to the achievement of their business objectives. For example, a specific error or omission may be insurable, but how do you manage the impact on your reputation?
What does ERM software do for your organization?
It solves the problem of how to best allocate resources to improve business performance and reduce the cost of capital. An ERM software-as-a-service platform pulls all the existing pieces of information buried in various business silos and converges them to a common standard making all the dependencies and consequences clear. It eliminates the redundancies and overlaps to address any and all types of risks from strategic planning to financial reporting misstatements to vendor management to security vulnerabilities.
How does ERM software work?
It makes it easy for anyone, especially those with no risk management training, to share their expertise. Users are presented with relevant potential risks and corporate objectives which they assess on a standard scale so that these risks and opportunities can be prioritized on the same basis. Relationships between risks and goals are used to bring together disparate but related information to make the business case clear for action before the risk has a chance to materialize. It then helps managers follow-up on issues and report on progress of goal achievement.
How do I implement ERM software in my organization?
Either the BOD mandates a top-down enterprise-wide approach to managing risk or a functional area will pilot an ERM software-as-a-service platform on a key area of concern to prove the value internally and then expand. In either case, the organization follows the same standard framework to identify and assess risk, set risk tolerances, and manage risk-reward tradeoffs.
Why should I care…
The business environment is less stable and predictable and there are so many sources of information to sift through while technology has made it so that you have less time to react and figure things out. Formalizing your ERM with a software-as-a-service platform makes your work more strategic. You provide senior management with the information they need and enable them to interact with that information the way they want to.
Why are spreadsheets ineffective in managing risks?
Not only do spreadsheets lack the authentication, audit trail, and integrity, but they also lack accessibility to roll-up information into an enterprise wide picture and are a barrier to systematically identify dependencies and track change across business silos and levels. The presence of spreadsheets is a symptom of gaps between processes which are also typically both expensive and error prone.