All of us know automation increases efficiency and reduces response times thereby saving $$ on cost and impacts from potentially unaddressed risks. This blog article is not about the tangible benefits of automation or the ROI from it, because that is just the beginning.

Here is what happens when you see beyond the tangible benefits of automation:

You begin really managing risks (and not ‘risk information’)

Thousands of hours are spent by Organizations every year in recording/updating risk information – be it risks, metrics, or loss data; reviewing and validating them; analyzing them; preparing and circulating reports around them, and obtaining inputs/feedback about them. Most of that work can today be managed by technology.

What happens when all those optimized hours are invested in really managing risks?

You align on common risk language 

There are no two interpretations about any risk information you see or discuss. Your CEO sees the risk information the way that you see and vice versa. Personality biases and power-shifts that potentially influence what and how risks are perceived or presented get seamlessly subsumed within the technology.

Of course, there is a lot of hard work required to bring this alignment upfront when the system is being configured – but it is only once.

You enhance your Organization’s legal defense and stakeholder confidence

Let’s face it –  a spreadsheet or a  bunch of PPTs can only get you so far in building stakeholder confidence – especially when you’re a large organization with multiple locations, businesses, or geographies.

If you’re serious about building your customer’s confidence in your organization’s ability to deal with risk or your ability to defend a regulatory enquiry, aren’t you better off with a person-independent, repeatable, scalable and comprehensive ERM program?

You get to learn about the same risk information, differently

Benefit from the ability of technology to provide you with enhanced insights – not just the count of risks – this can include how risks and related information are connected, how drivers are correlated, or even how mitigation plans can be meaningfully deployed horizontally. Technology allows you to scale seamlessly, adopt additional compatible technology ( eg AI), and add adjacent features along the journey – e.g. an integratable insurance or audit module.

Manage breadth and depth simultaneously

When you attempt to analyze and address multiple risks manually,  human bandwidth limitations play out almost immediately. Similarly, all key risks that are believed to need addressing by a Risk team may not be important to others.

Your business and commercial folks ideally should only engage with risks that matter to them. You can, on the other hand, can parallelly focus on what matters to you as a risk owner or a domain expert. With technology, your organization can simultaneously address both ‘rhino’ and ‘swan’.

The science of risk management (especially in non-financial companies) has standardized and matured today. Of course, not every problem can be addressed by technology, but an ERM  software solution can unlock the power of standardization, computation and analytics – the bedrock of timely insight generation.

Automating your GRC/ERM journey can bring in new meaning to your ERM program and risk management efforts, beyond the obvious – so try to include it later, if not sooner.

If you want to understand your tangible cost of risk and whether Qoris® ERM can deliver a solid ROI, please feel free to use Udbhata’s proprietary Cost of Risk calculator located here. Udbhata does not store or capture any information – and once completed, you can freely e-mail a pdf version of your computation.