The GRC (Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance) landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. 

As the business world becomes increasingly complex, with a myriad of regulations, risks, and governance models, the tools supporting these processes are also evolving. Gone are the days where one-size-fits-all, legacy GRC solutions were the norm. Organizations are recognizing the inefficiencies of these dated systems and seeking more agile, customizable, and integrated platforms. 

But with change comes the challenge of choice. How can you ensure that you’re adopting a GRC software solution that not only addresses your current needs, but also future-proofs your GRC program? 

In this guide, we explore the shift from traditional GRC systems and offer tips to help you select the right GRC software for your needs.

The shift from legacy GRC software to modern solutions

Many of the GRC tools available today were built to solve outdated problems. Legacy solutions were designed for organizations with static, siloed, on-prem systems. They focus on control tracking and IT-centered security risks, and don’t support the agility needed to respond to today’s complex and evolving regulatory and risk landscape. 

The need to improve operational efficiency, increase agility, and respond to changing customer needs have increased the pace of business. When your threat environment is changing in real-time, your GRC solution must be able to keep pace. Here are # reasons organizations are embracing modern GRC solutions. 

Comprehensive insights into organizational risk

The value of modern GRC solutions is in understanding organizational risk, rather than just IT risk. It serves compliance, legal, finance, HR, security, IT, and executive leadership to support GRC initiatives and alignment across the entire organization. Organizations are able to understand their risk profile across internal and external risks, and better manage and mitigate third-party and vendor risk. With modern solutions, businesses are able to prevent and even predict risks to stop losses, inefficiencies, and fraud and maintain a strong brand reputation.

More cost efficient

Legacy GRC software often comes with expensive implementation, higher operations and maintenance costs, and million-dollar licensing fees. Modern, cloud-based solutions are more lightweight and offer tiered pricing based on organization size and specific GRC needs, delivering more value for the money. 

Greater flexibility and customization

Traditional GRC tools rely on infrastructure that isn’t cloud-native, easily customizable, or scalable. Modern GRC tools offer integrations that seamlessly connect to all data sources via integrations or API, allowing organizations to centralize all of their systems, controls, and processes to meet their unique risk and compliance needs faster and more effectively. 

Increased innovation 

Cloud-based GRC solutions can stay at the forefront of innovation. They can adopt breakthrough technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to release new features and capabilities that help organizations prepare for tomorrow’s challenges. 

The future of GRC is real-time, continuous monitoring of risk profiles and security postures. With a modern GRC solution, organizations can get complete visibility, actionable insights, and the agility they need to respond to changing market dynamics, regulatory requirements, and emerging threats. 

Key Features of Modern GRC Software

Choosing the right GRC software solution for your business can be a major challenge, given the number of vendors in the space and array of features available. Here are some key capabilities to look for to make sure you select the right tool for your needs: 

• Advanced automation: Save time and reduce human error with automation capabilities. Look for a product that integrates with key elements of your tech stack, offers continuous monitoring, and can automatically collect evidence to simplify your internal and external audits.
• Comprehensive risk management: Get a complete view of your risk profile and exposure. Best-in-class GRC solutions offer a risk register, risk assessment workflows, and risk history, so you can view how your risk management program evolves. Also look for the ability to map risks to specific controls and assets.
• Simplified document management: Organize and track all of your security and compliance documentation in a single tool. Policies and processes, audit evidence and reports, security awareness training certificates — all documentation should be easy to store, access, share, and update. Be sure to choose a tool with version history and document collaboration features.
• Deep customization: Your chosen GRC tool should support your evolving compliance requirements as you scale. Custom tests, controls, frameworks, and risk management will give your organization the flexibility and coverage it needs to fit the tool to your unique environment. Many software solutions also offer a customizable Trust Center so you can publicize important details on your security posture and build trust with customers and prospects.
• Vendor and personnel management: Understand and reduce third-party risk by selecting a tool that can analyze vendor risk based on the sensitivity of data they can impact. Top GRC platforms can provide risk recommendations for each vendor, track vendor access to sensitive data, and store vendor compliance reports for easy reference and auditing requirements.  
• Control mapping: Eliminate duplicate work and reduce time-to-compliance across multiple frameworks. Look for a tool that automatically maps controls to multiple standards and gives you a single dashboard view of your compliance status across frameworks.
• AI capabilities: While legacy GRC platforms can offer key features like workflow automation and risk/document management, look for innovative products that leverage the latest technologies to give you an edge against emerging threats. AI-powered remediation guidance and risk management apply predictive analytics and machine learning to reduce your risk exposure and improve threat response. Some solutions also offer ML-powered questionnaire automation to reduce time wasted manually responding to security questionnaires and RFPs.
• Expert support: Regardless of your in-house expertise, a robust customer support team is one of the most important things you can look for in a GRC software vendor. Read customer reviews and case studies to learn how companies like yours benefitted from the tool you’re evaluating, and pay special attention to mentions of the customer support team. Knowledgeable, responsive support and experienced compliance teams can offer specialized guidance and help tailor security controls to your business and compliance needs.

The best GRC software will support your specific goals and objectives. Choosing the right software will allow you to understand, track, and manage your current risks while fortifying your security posture for the future. 

Secureframe was architected by GRC experts from day 1 and offers everything you need to achieve and maintain compliance, reduce operational costs, and improve efficiencies across your security program. Learn more about our leading GRC platform by scheduling a demo.