A well-developed GRC framework is essential to sustainable and risk-aware operations. It helps your organization scale with minimal risk of regulatory and security disruptions, as well as ensure viable, streamlined risk management and compliance processes.
The problem here is that building such a framework can be a considerable challenge for most organizations. A solid GRC program has numerous dynamic elements, such as risk monitoring, audits, and accountability management, which can be stressful to harmonize without sufficient planning and guidance.
Our guide covers all the essential information you need to know about successful and efficient GRC implementation, including:
- Components of GRC implementation
- Common implementation challenges you might encounter
- A five-step process for successful GRC implementation
What does GRC implementation entail?
GRC implementation is the process of unifying governance, risk management, and compliance policies and procedures into a defined program. The idea is to ensure these concepts aren’t siloed or performed without sufficient visibility or order. Successful GRC implementation should remove process-related friction and bring key organizational stakeholders on the same page.
Cross-department collaboration is the foundation of successful GRC implementation because of the process dependency among multiple departments (IT, HR, legal, etc.). The objective is to adopt a centralized framework and tech stack that complements an organization's strategic goals and makes delegation and accountability straightforward.
A defined GRC implementation process also ensures the organization’s long-term goals are informed by compliance obligations and risk exposure. Key decisions, such as onboarding a new vendor or policy development, are built around the GRC program, which fosters a shared understanding of GRC principles and a healthy security culture.
{{cta_withimage8="/cta-modules"}} | GRC implementation guide
Ideal components of GRC implementation
The granular components of GRC implementation can vary according to your industry. You cannot work with a one-size-fits-all approach because each sector comes with a specific regulatory and risk landscape.
To mitigate some of this dispersion and provide organizations with more clarity regarding GRC implementation, the Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG) developed the GRC Capability Model. The framework’s latest version (v3.5) documents the best practices of over 250 large organizations, helping them structure these practices into a robust GRC program.
The GRC Capability Model has four components:
- Learn: Ensure a complete understanding of an organization’s culture, context, and key stakeholders
- Align: Harmonize the organization’s GRC strategy and workflow with its overarching objectives
- Perform: Encourage action that aligns with an organization's GRC principles and deters unfavorable behavior
- Review: Monitor and evaluate the implementation and operational effectiveness of the established procedures and policies
As an iterative concept, the GRC Capability Model encourages continuous improvements to an organization’s GRC program to ensure alignment with the ever-evolving regulatory and risk landscape.
Considering the predominantly cloud-based environment most organizations operate in today, technology is another essential component of successful GRC implementation. Comprehensive software is critical to creating a unified program and ensuring streamlined operations with manageable oversight.
Why should you implement an effective GRC program?
An effective GRC program future-proofs your operations by letting your organization operate in alignment with industry-standard regulations and best practices. Five important benefits of such a program include:
- Effective risk management: A well-defined GRC program promotes a thorough understanding of your organization’s risk profile. This lets you develop or adopt a robust risk management framework that accounts for all notable threats.
- Better decision-making and alignment: GRC implementation removes guesswork from your decision-making processes by giving your key stakeholders complete visibility into consistent, up-to-date data across departments to plan forward.
- Operational scalability: Scaling your organization expands its risk profile and compliance obligations, which is more resource-intensive and requires stronger in-house teams. With a GRC program in place, your team gets a more aligned approach to scaling and adapting to the new expectations.
- Undisrupted compliance: Effective GRC enables ongoing compliance by developing an elaborate process with clearly assigned roles and responsibilities, helping you avoid legal and operational hiccups.
- Improved ROI on security investments: Estimating the return on security investments isn’t easy due to quantification challenges, which can block potential investments. A GRC program can help concretize and demonstrate the benefits of advanced security and ensure timely investments for security improvements.
GRC implementation: Challenges to expect
Developing and implementing an all-encompassing GRC program takes time and meticulous planning. As you navigate the process, you might encounter several challenges, most notably:
- Siloed communication channels: Department-level communication is often strictly vertical and lacks a horizontal component that ensures efficient collaboration. It can create a lack of visibility into interconnected GRC tasks, which delays key actions like policy updates and vendor reviews.
- Lack of in-house expertise: Effective GRC implementation involves a collaborative effort between IT, security, and legal experts. The development, implementation, and maintenance of your GRC program will most likely be challenging without hiring enough skilled professionals.
- Time- and resource-intensive continuous monitoring processes: Efficient monitoring is essential to your GRC program’s long-term evolution. Without adequate technology integration, continuous monitoring becomes a manual task which can consume a considerable amount of your team’s time and resources.
- Industry-specific GRC complexity: Heavily regulated industries like finance and healthcare are always under immense legislative pressure, which demands tight GRC initiatives around conducting regulatory audits, maintaining documentation, and reporting.
- Employee resistance: Implementing a GRC program may lead to an overhaul of your current processes. The transition can be stressful for your team (especially without proper training, tech, and guidance), which can slow down the implementation and dilute the program’s effectiveness.
{{cta_webinar1="/cta-modules"}} | Webinar: Scaling your GRC program with automation and AI
5 steps to effective GRC implementation
The following steps can help you overcome common GRC implementation challenges and develop a robust program:
- Assess your GRC requirements
- Ensure alignment of the key stakeholders
- Develop a program implementation plan
- Select and integrate the right GRC technology
- Keep the program agile and build gradually
Step 1: Assess your GRC requirements
Most organizations already perform basic GRC tasks, but turning these tasks into a structured implementation process requires planning. That’s why the first step to developing a successful GRC program is to review your current posture and understand what your unique GRC requirements are.
At this stage, you should perform two essential activities:
- Conduct a risk assessment: Use quantitative and qualitative risk assessment methodologies to understand your risk profile, as well as map and score threats
- Perform an internal compliance audit: Compare your current compliance posture and the applicable regulations and standards to perform an effective gap analysis—which will serve as the baseline for a solid compliance program
You’ll use the above information to outline the foundational GRC requirements that will guide the program’s specifics, including auditing processes, the necessary technology, and hiring needs.
.
Step 2: Ensure alignment of the key stakeholders
Stakeholder misalignment is common during GRC implementation. Each of your key stakeholders may consider their needs as the priority, which can cause conflict. For example, the board of directors might suggest a complete overhaul of some processes, but the affected department managers might push for adopting the new procedures in an iterative format.
To avoid long-term misalignment, you should invest some effort toward getting everyone on the same page before proceeding with GRC implementation.
Start by getting the buy-in from top management. They can get their respective departments on board with the GRC program. Make sure to demonstrate the financial/revenue impact of your GRC program because doing so is crucial for getting C-level executives to agree to it.
The departments affected by the GRC program should be notified of any relevant changes in advance so that you can gather their feedback before implementing them. Ideally, you’ll also develop an effective training program and create sufficient educational resources to support your teams.
Step 3: Develop a program implementation plan
GRC implementation requires the execution and harmonization of numerous activities, so a granular implementation plan is essential to the program’s success. The plan should encompass progressive activities and micro-processes alongside the timelines for their implementation.
Some of the key considerations you’ll need to make during the planning stage include:
- The GRC scope
- Roles and responsibilities
- Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics
- Impact on current workflows
Additionally, you should develop comprehensive communication channels so that the affected team members can reach out for help or provide feedback as needed. You may also want to determine trackable implementation metrics so that you can fine-tune processes as needed.
{{cta_withimage8="/cta-modules"}} | GRC implementation guide
Step 4: Select and integrate the right GRC technology
GRC implementation requires technology—and your organization-wide processes should be built around it. While there are plenty of solutions out there, finding the best one can get overwhelming.
To avoid analysis paralysis while searching for the best option, focus on the following features:
- Extensive data visualization and reporting capabilities
- Comprehensive data integration across all GRC components
- Advanced policy management (creating, managing approvals, distributing, and updating policies)
- Internal control management
- Efficient compliance reporting
- Risk monitoring and mitigation
Automation is another important consideration for any GRC solution. Your chosen platform must automate the repetitive and time-consuming monitoring, evidence management, and reporting processes inherent to every GRC program.
Step 5: Keep the program agile and build gradually
Creating and implementing an all-encompassing GRC program in one go might be overwhelming for everyone involved. The oversight function can be stressful for upper management, and your teams may experience a substantial learning curve with the new workflow.
To avoid unsatisfactory outcomes, it’s best to start with a specific part of your organization to test the program. Select a specific function, such as IT, and see how your teams respond to the proposed implementation.
As adoption success rate increases, you can expand your GRC program to include other departments and additional activities. This gradual approach is far more digestible and helps you implement a sustainable program with minimal operational disruptions. With time, the program can mature into enterprise GRC (EGRC) to ensure a fully tech-enabled, holistic GRC function.
Additionally, review your program after any changes in your risk and regulatory profile to update relevant processes and procedures.
Implement a robust GRC program effortlessly with Vanta
Software-supported GRC implementation lets you execute a successful program without painstaking or duplicative work. If you’re in need of a platform that makes this happen, Vanta is an ideal choice.
Vanta is a compliance and trust management solution that helps you implement an effective GRC program through automated workflows, useful integrations, risk management and reporting functions, controls monitoring, and built-in guidance.
The platform equips you with a dedicated GRC suite, which comes with various features designed to make GRC implementation seamless and efficient. You get:
- Automated control monitoring across frameworks
- Automated evidence collection
- GRC implementation resources like policy templates
- Centralized risk management
- Vendor risk management
- People management tools
- Vulnerability management
- Extensive customization
Vanta offers a host of other features via its numerous compliance products. You can also build custom frameworks for your unique regulatory needs and demonstrate the efficacy of your GRC program to stakeholders through a live Trust Center.
You can schedule a custom GRC suite demo to explore how Vanta can optimize your GRC implementation process at any scale.
{{cta_simple7="/cta-modules"}} | GRC product page
Implementing a GRC program
How to implement a GRC program: An actionable guide
Implementing a GRC program
A well-developed GRC framework is essential to sustainable and risk-aware operations. It helps your organization scale with minimal risk of regulatory and security disruptions, as well as ensure viable, streamlined risk management and compliance processes.
The problem here is that building such a framework can be a considerable challenge for most organizations. A solid GRC program has numerous dynamic elements, such as risk monitoring, audits, and accountability management, which can be stressful to harmonize without sufficient planning and guidance.
Our guide covers all the essential information you need to know about successful and efficient GRC implementation, including:
- Components of GRC implementation
- Common implementation challenges you might encounter
- A five-step process for successful GRC implementation
What does GRC implementation entail?
GRC implementation is the process of unifying governance, risk management, and compliance policies and procedures into a defined program. The idea is to ensure these concepts aren’t siloed or performed without sufficient visibility or order. Successful GRC implementation should remove process-related friction and bring key organizational stakeholders on the same page.
Cross-department collaboration is the foundation of successful GRC implementation because of the process dependency among multiple departments (IT, HR, legal, etc.). The objective is to adopt a centralized framework and tech stack that complements an organization's strategic goals and makes delegation and accountability straightforward.
A defined GRC implementation process also ensures the organization’s long-term goals are informed by compliance obligations and risk exposure. Key decisions, such as onboarding a new vendor or policy development, are built around the GRC program, which fosters a shared understanding of GRC principles and a healthy security culture.
{{cta_withimage8="/cta-modules"}} | GRC implementation guide
Ideal components of GRC implementation
The granular components of GRC implementation can vary according to your industry. You cannot work with a one-size-fits-all approach because each sector comes with a specific regulatory and risk landscape.
To mitigate some of this dispersion and provide organizations with more clarity regarding GRC implementation, the Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG) developed the GRC Capability Model. The framework’s latest version (v3.5) documents the best practices of over 250 large organizations, helping them structure these practices into a robust GRC program.
The GRC Capability Model has four components:
- Learn: Ensure a complete understanding of an organization’s culture, context, and key stakeholders
- Align: Harmonize the organization’s GRC strategy and workflow with its overarching objectives
- Perform: Encourage action that aligns with an organization's GRC principles and deters unfavorable behavior
- Review: Monitor and evaluate the implementation and operational effectiveness of the established procedures and policies
As an iterative concept, the GRC Capability Model encourages continuous improvements to an organization’s GRC program to ensure alignment with the ever-evolving regulatory and risk landscape.
Considering the predominantly cloud-based environment most organizations operate in today, technology is another essential component of successful GRC implementation. Comprehensive software is critical to creating a unified program and ensuring streamlined operations with manageable oversight.
Why should you implement an effective GRC program?
An effective GRC program future-proofs your operations by letting your organization operate in alignment with industry-standard regulations and best practices. Five important benefits of such a program include:
- Effective risk management: A well-defined GRC program promotes a thorough understanding of your organization’s risk profile. This lets you develop or adopt a robust risk management framework that accounts for all notable threats.
- Better decision-making and alignment: GRC implementation removes guesswork from your decision-making processes by giving your key stakeholders complete visibility into consistent, up-to-date data across departments to plan forward.
- Operational scalability: Scaling your organization expands its risk profile and compliance obligations, which is more resource-intensive and requires stronger in-house teams. With a GRC program in place, your team gets a more aligned approach to scaling and adapting to the new expectations.
- Undisrupted compliance: Effective GRC enables ongoing compliance by developing an elaborate process with clearly assigned roles and responsibilities, helping you avoid legal and operational hiccups.
- Improved ROI on security investments: Estimating the return on security investments isn’t easy due to quantification challenges, which can block potential investments. A GRC program can help concretize and demonstrate the benefits of advanced security and ensure timely investments for security improvements.
GRC implementation: Challenges to expect
Developing and implementing an all-encompassing GRC program takes time and meticulous planning. As you navigate the process, you might encounter several challenges, most notably:
- Siloed communication channels: Department-level communication is often strictly vertical and lacks a horizontal component that ensures efficient collaboration. It can create a lack of visibility into interconnected GRC tasks, which delays key actions like policy updates and vendor reviews.
- Lack of in-house expertise: Effective GRC implementation involves a collaborative effort between IT, security, and legal experts. The development, implementation, and maintenance of your GRC program will most likely be challenging without hiring enough skilled professionals.
- Time- and resource-intensive continuous monitoring processes: Efficient monitoring is essential to your GRC program’s long-term evolution. Without adequate technology integration, continuous monitoring becomes a manual task which can consume a considerable amount of your team’s time and resources.
- Industry-specific GRC complexity: Heavily regulated industries like finance and healthcare are always under immense legislative pressure, which demands tight GRC initiatives around conducting regulatory audits, maintaining documentation, and reporting.
- Employee resistance: Implementing a GRC program may lead to an overhaul of your current processes. The transition can be stressful for your team (especially without proper training, tech, and guidance), which can slow down the implementation and dilute the program’s effectiveness.
{{cta_webinar1="/cta-modules"}} | Webinar: Scaling your GRC program with automation and AI
5 steps to effective GRC implementation
The following steps can help you overcome common GRC implementation challenges and develop a robust program:
- Assess your GRC requirements
- Ensure alignment of the key stakeholders
- Develop a program implementation plan
- Select and integrate the right GRC technology
- Keep the program agile and build gradually
Step 1: Assess your GRC requirements
Most organizations already perform basic GRC tasks, but turning these tasks into a structured implementation process requires planning. That’s why the first step to developing a successful GRC program is to review your current posture and understand what your unique GRC requirements are.
At this stage, you should perform two essential activities:
- Conduct a risk assessment: Use quantitative and qualitative risk assessment methodologies to understand your risk profile, as well as map and score threats
- Perform an internal compliance audit: Compare your current compliance posture and the applicable regulations and standards to perform an effective gap analysis—which will serve as the baseline for a solid compliance program
You’ll use the above information to outline the foundational GRC requirements that will guide the program’s specifics, including auditing processes, the necessary technology, and hiring needs.
.
Step 2: Ensure alignment of the key stakeholders
Stakeholder misalignment is common during GRC implementation. Each of your key stakeholders may consider their needs as the priority, which can cause conflict. For example, the board of directors might suggest a complete overhaul of some processes, but the affected department managers might push for adopting the new procedures in an iterative format.
To avoid long-term misalignment, you should invest some effort toward getting everyone on the same page before proceeding with GRC implementation.
Start by getting the buy-in from top management. They can get their respective departments on board with the GRC program. Make sure to demonstrate the financial/revenue impact of your GRC program because doing so is crucial for getting C-level executives to agree to it.
The departments affected by the GRC program should be notified of any relevant changes in advance so that you can gather their feedback before implementing them. Ideally, you’ll also develop an effective training program and create sufficient educational resources to support your teams.
Step 3: Develop a program implementation plan
GRC implementation requires the execution and harmonization of numerous activities, so a granular implementation plan is essential to the program’s success. The plan should encompass progressive activities and micro-processes alongside the timelines for their implementation.
Some of the key considerations you’ll need to make during the planning stage include:
- The GRC scope
- Roles and responsibilities
- Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics
- Impact on current workflows
Additionally, you should develop comprehensive communication channels so that the affected team members can reach out for help or provide feedback as needed. You may also want to determine trackable implementation metrics so that you can fine-tune processes as needed.
{{cta_withimage8="/cta-modules"}} | GRC implementation guide
Step 4: Select and integrate the right GRC technology
GRC implementation requires technology—and your organization-wide processes should be built around it. While there are plenty of solutions out there, finding the best one can get overwhelming.
To avoid analysis paralysis while searching for the best option, focus on the following features:
- Extensive data visualization and reporting capabilities
- Comprehensive data integration across all GRC components
- Advanced policy management (creating, managing approvals, distributing, and updating policies)
- Internal control management
- Efficient compliance reporting
- Risk monitoring and mitigation
Automation is another important consideration for any GRC solution. Your chosen platform must automate the repetitive and time-consuming monitoring, evidence management, and reporting processes inherent to every GRC program.
Step 5: Keep the program agile and build gradually
Creating and implementing an all-encompassing GRC program in one go might be overwhelming for everyone involved. The oversight function can be stressful for upper management, and your teams may experience a substantial learning curve with the new workflow.
To avoid unsatisfactory outcomes, it’s best to start with a specific part of your organization to test the program. Select a specific function, such as IT, and see how your teams respond to the proposed implementation.
As adoption success rate increases, you can expand your GRC program to include other departments and additional activities. This gradual approach is far more digestible and helps you implement a sustainable program with minimal operational disruptions. With time, the program can mature into enterprise GRC (EGRC) to ensure a fully tech-enabled, holistic GRC function.
Additionally, review your program after any changes in your risk and regulatory profile to update relevant processes and procedures.
Implement a robust GRC program effortlessly with Vanta
Software-supported GRC implementation lets you execute a successful program without painstaking or duplicative work. If you’re in need of a platform that makes this happen, Vanta is an ideal choice.
Vanta is a compliance and trust management solution that helps you implement an effective GRC program through automated workflows, useful integrations, risk management and reporting functions, controls monitoring, and built-in guidance.
The platform equips you with a dedicated GRC suite, which comes with various features designed to make GRC implementation seamless and efficient. You get:
- Automated control monitoring across frameworks
- Automated evidence collection
- GRC implementation resources like policy templates
- Centralized risk management
- Vendor risk management
- People management tools
- Vulnerability management
- Extensive customization
Vanta offers a host of other features via its numerous compliance products. You can also build custom frameworks for your unique regulatory needs and demonstrate the efficacy of your GRC program to stakeholders through a live Trust Center.
You can schedule a custom GRC suite demo to explore how Vanta can optimize your GRC implementation process at any scale.
{{cta_simple7="/cta-modules"}} | GRC product page
| Role: | GRC responsibilities: |
|---|---|
| Board of directors | Central to the overarching GRC strategy, this group sets the direction for the compliance strategy. They determine which standards and regulations are necessary for compliance and align the GRC strategy with business objectives. |
| Chief financial officer | Primary responsibility for the success of the GRC program and for reporting results to the board. |
| Operations managers from relevant departments | This group owns processes. They are responsible for the success and direction of risk management and compliance within their departments. |
| Representatives from relevant departments | These are the activity owners. These team members are responsible for carrying out specific compliance and risk management tasks within their departments and for integrating these tasks into their workflows. |
| Contract managers from relevant department | These team members are responsible for managing interactions with vendors and other third parties in their department to ensure all risk management and compliance measures are being taken. |
| Chief information security officer (CISO) | Defines the organization’s information security policy, designs risk and vulnerability assessments, and develops information security policies. |
| Data protection officer (DPO) or legal counsel | Develops goals for data privacy based on legal regulations and other compliance needs, designs and implements privacy policies and practices, and assesses these practices for effectiveness. |
| GRC lead | Responsible for overseeing the execution of the GRC program in collaboration with the executive team as well as maintaining the organization’s library of security controls. |
| Cybersecurity analyst(s) | Implements and monitors cybersecurity measures that are in line with the GRC program and business objectives. |
| Compliance analyst(s) | Monitors the organization’s compliance with all regulations and standards necessary, identifies any compliance gaps, and works to mitigate them. |
| Risk analyst(s) | Carries out the risk management program for the organization and serves as a resource for risk management across various departments, including identifying, mitigating, and monitoring risks. |
| IT security specialist(s) | Implements security controls within the IT system in coordination with the cybersecurity analyst(s). |
Explore more GRC articles
Introduction to GRC
Implementing a GRC program
Optimizing a GRC program
Governance
Risk
Compliance
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