Large organizations operate in a diverse risk and regulatory landscape, where even minor oversight tends to have a broader impact across departments, processes, and projects. The idea behind enterprise GRC (EGRC or eGRC) is to provide large organizations with a systemized approach to risk mitigation and compliance. Compared to traditional GRC programs, an enterprise GRC program can be generally more oriented toward removing operational silos.
An effective EGRC program helps you structure and scale extensive GRC policies and procedures to create alignment at all organizational levels. We’ve prepared this guide to help you develop a program like that—we’ll discuss:
- What EGRC is, and how it differs from traditional GRC
- What challenges you may encounter when developing an EGRC program
- What tips and tools to use for effective EGRC implementation
What is enterprise GRC?
EGRC is a holistic set of technology-enabled procedures, policies, and controls organizations implement to ensure governance, identify and mitigate risks, and maintain a culture of timely compliance, especially in highly regulated sectors like healthcare, finance, technology, and energy. From an enterprise perspective, the three GRC components would stand for the following:
- Governance: Strategic decision-making that aligns department-level objectives with an organization’s long-term goals
- Risk: Organization-level risk oversight and management typically led by a board of directors or security leaders
- Compliance: Comprehensive adherence to industry-specific standards and regulations across all departments and processes to reduce the risk of operational disruptions, penalties, and reputational damage
EGRC operates under the same operational principles as traditional GRC—only at a larger, optimized scale, which leads to some foundational differences.
{{cta_withimage8="/cta-modules"}} | GRC implementation guide
What’s the difference between GRC and EGRC?
A GRC program offers a set of procedures and policies that employees within one or more functions must follow to achieve compliance and strategic goals while maintaining operational integrity. A GRC program is almost always limited to a few departments within an organization, which ensures granular implementation and clarity.
Still, the narrow department-level focus of GRC has a notable downside—the high risk of poor cross-department visibility and operational silos, often due to the lack of innovation and technology. Additionally, as the organization grows, GRC requirements can start to differ between departments, creating misalignment.
On the contrary, EGRC practices enable a broader scope. They take a high-level approach to GRC policies and procedures and heavily rely on technology to push workflows. This ensures organization-level alignment that creates an environment to scale sustainably and foster a culture of visibility and accountability across departments.
GRC vs. EGRC: 4 key differences
The specific differences between GRC and EGRC are particularly visible in the following four elements:
- Documentation
- Collaboration
- Reporting visibility
- Use of technology
The following table outlines these differences:
Why enterprise GRC is important
By developing and implementing an effective EGRC program, you can enjoy the following benefits:
- Effective risk identification and mitigation: EGRC accounts for your organization’s entire risk landscape, letting you develop a comprehensive risk management program that addresses all mapped threats and vulnerabilities. Due to organization-wide coverage, you may also tap into strategic risks, which is not always possible with traditional GRC.
- Data-driven decision-making: By unifying all your risk and compliance management procedures and policies, EGRC enables more data-driven choices. You can make informed resource allocation decisions about specific risk mitigation strategies and security investments and organize compliance programs effectively.
- Responsible and efficient operations: EGRC helps eliminate duplicate data and processes caused by isolated department-level activities and reporting. You can create a cohesive workflow where every department and team member understands their contribution to overarching EGRC goals.
- Reputation management: Successful EGRC implementation leads to socially and legally responsible operations with accountability at each organizational level. The result is an enhanced reputation in your industry, which boosts customer trust.
- Enhanced cybersecurity: Considering how indispensable cloud-based operations are, EGRC has a strong focus on cybersecurity. With the right software and monitoring system, you can have a complete insight into your cloud security posture at all times.
Common EGRC implementation challenges
As compelling as the benefits of EGRC may be, they might be challenging to achieve in full due to its robust and expansive nature. Here are some common challenges you can anticipate:
- Stakeholder misalignment: The transition from GRC to EGRC will affect various stakeholders, who might have different viewpoints on EGRC implementation. Without firm leadership, you might encounter misalignment, conflict, and even resistance to change.
- Ineffective workflow integration: Successful workflow integration requires your organization to configure an EGRC solution according to existing activities and procedures. Many organizations may try to do the opposite—by redesigning their processes to fit an out-of-the-box solution. This can be unproductive and a slow learning curve can even expose your workflow to considerable limitations.
- Delayed decision-making: As you put the EGRC program into action, you might realize your actual processes and procedures deviate from the planned ones. You may need to revisit and fine-tune your plans, which can slow down decision-making and implementation.
- Difficulty keeping up with complex regulatory environments: Maintaining integrated EGRC solutions in complex regulatory environments, especially globally, requires effort. While EGRC does serve as a comprehensive compliance management solution, you have to proactively update risk assessments, security reviews, and other processes to help your team handle compliance across multiple frameworks, regulations, and standards.
- Technology and workforce barriers: EGRC requires abundant resources, including technology and in-house expertise. After planning your program, you might realize there are significant resource constraints you need to overcome.
{{cta_webinar1="/cta-modules"}} | Webinar: Scaling your GRC program with automation and AI
3 tips for effective EGRC implementation
To overcome the key challenges related to EGRC implementation and develop a successful program, you may want to follow these tips:
- Try to ensure buy-in from the top down
- Delegate as effectively as possible
- Leverage the right GRC software
1. Try to ensure buy-in from the top down
The all-encompassing nature of EGRC requires all the affected departments and team members to stay on the same page and remain open to workflow changes as well as adoption of new technology. To make this happen, your organization needs effective leadership that will not only ensure resource availability but also guide an organization-wide cultural shift
That’s why any EGRC planning should start with top-level executives. It can start with existing risk management personnel evolving into GRC roles—they’ll work together with C-level executives to align on the strategic goals that should be communicated to corresponding departments. Typically, these stakeholders must approve the change documentation to mature the GRC program, as well as oversee and help the organization transition to a more holistic risk-centric approach to business.
To get the buy-in of the key executives, security leaders may need to demonstrate the business impact of a potential EGRC program in tangible terms. The impact might be challenging to quantify because many EGRC activities aren’t direct revenue drivers, but linking the costs to ROI would substantially add to your case.
As EGRC adoption trickles down to other organization levels, make sure to set up adequate training and agile workflows. Be open to any process-level feedback from employees and maintain the flexibility to make adjustments as you go.
2. Delegate as effectively as possible
A solid EGRC program requires a unified, collaborative effort between many individuals and departments. Effective delegation is essential to creating a streamlined EGRC workflow and ensuring complete accountability.
As mentioned earlier, you’ll benefit from reviewing your existing security team and introducing new GRC roles to ensure everyone’s responsibilities are balanced and outlined clearly as your program matures. You should assign a GRC lead as the key decision-maker throughout the effort—the potential titles they could assume will depend on the focus area of your GRC function, and could include:
- GRC director
- Chief risk manager
- Enterprise risk director
- Third-party risk director
Some of the key tasks of different individuals and departments are outlined below:
{{cta_withimage8="/cta-modules"}} | GRC implementation guide
3. Leverage the right GRC software
Effective EGRC is virtually impossible without advanced software. You need a solution designed to handle GRC operations on a wider scale. Some of the essential features you should prioritize include:
- Compliance tracking
- Security control monitoring
- Documentation (of audit reports, incidents, etc.)
- Cross-department collaboration
- Evidence collection (for compliance audits)
Many GRC teams already have isolated tools with some of these functionalities. However, that becomes a problem as your workflow is still scattered, and your team will be bogged down by inefficiencies like manual evidence checking and tracking across different tools. EGRC is quite resource-intensive as it is, so such unoptimized processes can be expensive.
That’s why you should select a comprehensive GRC solution that enables extensive process automation. Automation can streamline repetitive and mundane tasks like compliance tracking and controls monitoring, giving your teams more time to focus on overarching EGRC goals.
Uplevel your enterprise-level GRC operations with Vanta
You don’t have to overhaul your workflows to scale your GRC program or mature it to EGRC; you can simply leverage Vanta, an end-to-end GRC solution.
Vanta’s product suite is designed to complement scalable EGRC processes with the help of automation and integration capabilities to streamline all governance, risk, and compliance components.
Vanta’s GRC product comes with the following useful features that enable simplified EGRC implementation:
- Automated control monitoring and evidence collection
- Cross-framework mapping that adds efficiency to compliance workflows
- Centralized risk visibility and management
- People management
- Revenue- and risk-informed GRC reports
- Extensive customization to fit your EGRC goals
- Centralized policy management
- 375+ integrations to centralize your workflows and documentation
You can watch this webinar to see how Vanta can support your EGRC process with automation and AI.
You can also request a custom demo tailored to your EGRC goals.
{{cta_simple7="/cta-modules"}} | GRC product page
Introduction to GRC
What is enterprise GRC?
Introduction to GRC
Large organizations operate in a diverse risk and regulatory landscape, where even minor oversight tends to have a broader impact across departments, processes, and projects. The idea behind enterprise GRC (EGRC or eGRC) is to provide large organizations with a systemized approach to risk mitigation and compliance. Compared to traditional GRC programs, an enterprise GRC program can be generally more oriented toward removing operational silos.
An effective EGRC program helps you structure and scale extensive GRC policies and procedures to create alignment at all organizational levels. We’ve prepared this guide to help you develop a program like that—we’ll discuss:
- What EGRC is, and how it differs from traditional GRC
- What challenges you may encounter when developing an EGRC program
- What tips and tools to use for effective EGRC implementation
What is enterprise GRC?
EGRC is a holistic set of technology-enabled procedures, policies, and controls organizations implement to ensure governance, identify and mitigate risks, and maintain a culture of timely compliance, especially in highly regulated sectors like healthcare, finance, technology, and energy. From an enterprise perspective, the three GRC components would stand for the following:
- Governance: Strategic decision-making that aligns department-level objectives with an organization’s long-term goals
- Risk: Organization-level risk oversight and management typically led by a board of directors or security leaders
- Compliance: Comprehensive adherence to industry-specific standards and regulations across all departments and processes to reduce the risk of operational disruptions, penalties, and reputational damage
EGRC operates under the same operational principles as traditional GRC—only at a larger, optimized scale, which leads to some foundational differences.
{{cta_withimage8="/cta-modules"}} | GRC implementation guide
What’s the difference between GRC and EGRC?
A GRC program offers a set of procedures and policies that employees within one or more functions must follow to achieve compliance and strategic goals while maintaining operational integrity. A GRC program is almost always limited to a few departments within an organization, which ensures granular implementation and clarity.
Still, the narrow department-level focus of GRC has a notable downside—the high risk of poor cross-department visibility and operational silos, often due to the lack of innovation and technology. Additionally, as the organization grows, GRC requirements can start to differ between departments, creating misalignment.
On the contrary, EGRC practices enable a broader scope. They take a high-level approach to GRC policies and procedures and heavily rely on technology to push workflows. This ensures organization-level alignment that creates an environment to scale sustainably and foster a culture of visibility and accountability across departments.
GRC vs. EGRC: 4 key differences
The specific differences between GRC and EGRC are particularly visible in the following four elements:
- Documentation
- Collaboration
- Reporting visibility
- Use of technology
The following table outlines these differences:
Why enterprise GRC is important
By developing and implementing an effective EGRC program, you can enjoy the following benefits:
- Effective risk identification and mitigation: EGRC accounts for your organization’s entire risk landscape, letting you develop a comprehensive risk management program that addresses all mapped threats and vulnerabilities. Due to organization-wide coverage, you may also tap into strategic risks, which is not always possible with traditional GRC.
- Data-driven decision-making: By unifying all your risk and compliance management procedures and policies, EGRC enables more data-driven choices. You can make informed resource allocation decisions about specific risk mitigation strategies and security investments and organize compliance programs effectively.
- Responsible and efficient operations: EGRC helps eliminate duplicate data and processes caused by isolated department-level activities and reporting. You can create a cohesive workflow where every department and team member understands their contribution to overarching EGRC goals.
- Reputation management: Successful EGRC implementation leads to socially and legally responsible operations with accountability at each organizational level. The result is an enhanced reputation in your industry, which boosts customer trust.
- Enhanced cybersecurity: Considering how indispensable cloud-based operations are, EGRC has a strong focus on cybersecurity. With the right software and monitoring system, you can have a complete insight into your cloud security posture at all times.
Common EGRC implementation challenges
As compelling as the benefits of EGRC may be, they might be challenging to achieve in full due to its robust and expansive nature. Here are some common challenges you can anticipate:
- Stakeholder misalignment: The transition from GRC to EGRC will affect various stakeholders, who might have different viewpoints on EGRC implementation. Without firm leadership, you might encounter misalignment, conflict, and even resistance to change.
- Ineffective workflow integration: Successful workflow integration requires your organization to configure an EGRC solution according to existing activities and procedures. Many organizations may try to do the opposite—by redesigning their processes to fit an out-of-the-box solution. This can be unproductive and a slow learning curve can even expose your workflow to considerable limitations.
- Delayed decision-making: As you put the EGRC program into action, you might realize your actual processes and procedures deviate from the planned ones. You may need to revisit and fine-tune your plans, which can slow down decision-making and implementation.
- Difficulty keeping up with complex regulatory environments: Maintaining integrated EGRC solutions in complex regulatory environments, especially globally, requires effort. While EGRC does serve as a comprehensive compliance management solution, you have to proactively update risk assessments, security reviews, and other processes to help your team handle compliance across multiple frameworks, regulations, and standards.
- Technology and workforce barriers: EGRC requires abundant resources, including technology and in-house expertise. After planning your program, you might realize there are significant resource constraints you need to overcome.
{{cta_webinar1="/cta-modules"}} | Webinar: Scaling your GRC program with automation and AI
3 tips for effective EGRC implementation
To overcome the key challenges related to EGRC implementation and develop a successful program, you may want to follow these tips:
- Try to ensure buy-in from the top down
- Delegate as effectively as possible
- Leverage the right GRC software
1. Try to ensure buy-in from the top down
The all-encompassing nature of EGRC requires all the affected departments and team members to stay on the same page and remain open to workflow changes as well as adoption of new technology. To make this happen, your organization needs effective leadership that will not only ensure resource availability but also guide an organization-wide cultural shift
That’s why any EGRC planning should start with top-level executives. It can start with existing risk management personnel evolving into GRC roles—they’ll work together with C-level executives to align on the strategic goals that should be communicated to corresponding departments. Typically, these stakeholders must approve the change documentation to mature the GRC program, as well as oversee and help the organization transition to a more holistic risk-centric approach to business.
To get the buy-in of the key executives, security leaders may need to demonstrate the business impact of a potential EGRC program in tangible terms. The impact might be challenging to quantify because many EGRC activities aren’t direct revenue drivers, but linking the costs to ROI would substantially add to your case.
As EGRC adoption trickles down to other organization levels, make sure to set up adequate training and agile workflows. Be open to any process-level feedback from employees and maintain the flexibility to make adjustments as you go.
2. Delegate as effectively as possible
A solid EGRC program requires a unified, collaborative effort between many individuals and departments. Effective delegation is essential to creating a streamlined EGRC workflow and ensuring complete accountability.
As mentioned earlier, you’ll benefit from reviewing your existing security team and introducing new GRC roles to ensure everyone’s responsibilities are balanced and outlined clearly as your program matures. You should assign a GRC lead as the key decision-maker throughout the effort—the potential titles they could assume will depend on the focus area of your GRC function, and could include:
- GRC director
- Chief risk manager
- Enterprise risk director
- Third-party risk director
Some of the key tasks of different individuals and departments are outlined below:
{{cta_withimage8="/cta-modules"}} | GRC implementation guide
3. Leverage the right GRC software
Effective EGRC is virtually impossible without advanced software. You need a solution designed to handle GRC operations on a wider scale. Some of the essential features you should prioritize include:
- Compliance tracking
- Security control monitoring
- Documentation (of audit reports, incidents, etc.)
- Cross-department collaboration
- Evidence collection (for compliance audits)
Many GRC teams already have isolated tools with some of these functionalities. However, that becomes a problem as your workflow is still scattered, and your team will be bogged down by inefficiencies like manual evidence checking and tracking across different tools. EGRC is quite resource-intensive as it is, so such unoptimized processes can be expensive.
That’s why you should select a comprehensive GRC solution that enables extensive process automation. Automation can streamline repetitive and mundane tasks like compliance tracking and controls monitoring, giving your teams more time to focus on overarching EGRC goals.
Uplevel your enterprise-level GRC operations with Vanta
You don’t have to overhaul your workflows to scale your GRC program or mature it to EGRC; you can simply leverage Vanta, an end-to-end GRC solution.
Vanta’s product suite is designed to complement scalable EGRC processes with the help of automation and integration capabilities to streamline all governance, risk, and compliance components.
Vanta’s GRC product comes with the following useful features that enable simplified EGRC implementation:
- Automated control monitoring and evidence collection
- Cross-framework mapping that adds efficiency to compliance workflows
- Centralized risk visibility and management
- People management
- Revenue- and risk-informed GRC reports
- Extensive customization to fit your EGRC goals
- Centralized policy management
- 375+ integrations to centralize your workflows and documentation
You can watch this webinar to see how Vanta can support your EGRC process with automation and AI.
You can also request a custom demo tailored to your EGRC goals.
{{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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