# How to Implement a GRC Program | Secureframe

> Get tools, resources, and best practices for developing a GRC program, evaluating its effectiveness, and building its maturity over time.

canonical: https://secureframe.com/hub/grc/program

A GRC program can help your organization better meet its objectives, understand and manage risks, and get and stay compliant with industry regulations and standards. 

But implementing this type of program requires significant time and resources.

To help, we’ll provide an implementation checklist, best practices, and other tools and resources that can help you get started. We’ll also provide tips and metrics for evaluating your program’s effectiveness and maturity over time.

## Intermediate: I’m implementing a GRC program

**So you’re in the process of implementing a GRC program. **

Changing regulations, market volatility, and talent shortages are just a few examples of potential threats to business growth. Having a GRC program can help address threats like these that make your organization more vulnerable to cyber attacks, workforce misconduct, non-compliance, and other issues. 

However, combining corporate governance, risk, and compliance functions into one organization-wide strategy is difficult and requires the coordination and collaboration of key stakeholders across departments. 

We’ll cover some fundamentals below to ensure you have a clear understanding of each component of GRC before offering guidance for how to implement and optimize a program at your organization.

### What are the three components of GRC?

GRC stands for governance, risk, and compliance. While most businesses have practiced each as separate disciplines, GRC takes an integrated and holistic approach to all three.

These components are briefly defined below. 

- **Governance**: the rules, business processes, and policies that guide an organization to achieve its purpose, mission, vision, and values while ensuring accountability, transparency, and ethical behavior
- **Risk**: the processes to identify, mitigate, and monitor risk 
- **Compliance**: the protective measures put in place to satisfy regulatory, legal, contractual, and other obligations

### Why is GRC important?

GRC is important because it combines corporate governance, risk, and compliance functions into one single strategy rather than keeping them siloed. This aligns key stakeholders from governance, risk, compliance, security, audit, finance, legal, IT, and HR departments as well as the executive suite and board around GRC issues.

When effective, GRC can result in numerous benefits including:

- Reduced legal liabilities
- Enhanced reputation and brand
- Operational excellence
- Improved financial performance 
- Improved customer loyalty and retention

Now that you have a solid understanding of what GRC is and why it’s important, let’s dive deeper into the process of implementing a GRC program. 

The following section covers best practices, success metrics, a maturity model, and tools and resources you can use to set up a GRC program or optimize an existing one at your organization.