Everything you need to know about SaaS GRC
Gowsika
Feb 29, 2024
According to a recent study by Deloitte, 40% of organizations plan to invest in Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions or upgrade their existing implementation. This demonstrates the rising demand for agile solutions specifically designed for today’s dynamic business environments. Crafted to fit Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms, modern GRC solutions leverage technology to streamline governance processes, minimize risks, and ensure regulatory compliance more effectively.
The emergence of Modern SaaS GRC solutions offers a transformative approach to address the challenges that businesses face today in the GRC landscape. In this blog, we will discuss the significance of Modern GRC solutions and their pivotal role in shaping contemporary business frameworks.
What is a SaaS GRC tool?
A SaaS GRC tool (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) is a cloud-based solution assisting organizations in handling IT operations and ensuring compliance with regulations and risk standards.
SaaS GRC tools automate data governance by establishing comprehensive frameworks and controls, fostering standardized practices for regulatory adherence, transparent policies, centralizing documentation, and streamlining processes, ensuring effective oversight and accountability throughout the organization.
These solutions employ risk management methodologies, leveraging analytics and AI capabilities to identify, assess, and prioritize risks. They enable organizations to develop robust mitigation strategies, monitor real-time risk exposure, and make informed decisions to address emerging threats.
SaaS GRC platforms automate compliance workflows, track regulatory changes, and ensure alignment with industry standards. They streamline audits, generate detailed compliance reports, maintain compliance-related documentation repositories, ensure adherence to evolving regulations, and minimize compliance gaps.
Modern Saas GRCs Vs. Traditional GRC solutions
Understanding the differences between modern SaaS GRC and traditional GRC solutions greatly helps in making better, more informed decisions. Each of them have distinct advantages and challenges, making it crucial to align them with the organization’s specific needs, infrastructure, and long-term strategic objectives. Some of the significant differences are listed below:
Infrastructure and deployment: SaaS GRC solutions are cloud-based software, eliminating the need for extensive on-premise hardware. This approach allows organizations to outsource IT responsibilities, reducing the workload associated with software maintenance and troubleshooting, a common aspect in traditional GRC setups.
Payment mode: SaaS applications follow a subscription-based payment model, typically requiring monthly fees. In contrast, traditional GRC solutions are procured through an upfront license purchase. Traditional on-premise solutions often include additional maintenance and support charges, while SaaS subscription fees generally incorporate software licenses, support, and related expenses.
Scalability: SaaS GRC solutions are highly scalable, allowing businesses to quickly adjust usage levels based on their requirements. On the other hand, traditional GRC solutions might require significant investment in hardware and resources to scale.
Updates and maintenance: SaaS solutions provide automatic updates, ensuring users can access the latest features and security enhancements without manual processes. Meanwhile, traditional GRC setups may require manual updates that need dedicated IT resources and time.
Accessibility: SaaS GRC solutions offer remote access via the cloud, allowing users to collaborate and work from anywhere with an internet connection. In contrast, traditional GRC solutions typically require on-premise access within the official network, limiting mobility and remote capabilities.
Also, find out how to automate GRC.
Embrace the future of compliance with Sprinto
Why GRC software is important for SaaS companies
GRC software is very crucial as it lays the foundation for managing risks within a company. It’s not just about choosing a tool but also instilling a cultural shift that embeds GRC principles within the culture of the organization. A SaaS GRC helps you establish best practices based on industry standards and guides stakeholders as they get accustomed to the GRC platform.
An effective GRC solution equips security and compliance teams with complete control environment views, offering easy access to metrics vital for evaluations and continuous compliance checks. This means handling critical tasks on a unified platform, covering compliance, internal audits, risk management, and policy applications.
Furthermore, GRC software simplifies team communication, generating clear risk reports for stakeholders. Implementing GRC SaaS platforms brings transformative changes to streamline operations, enhance overall enterprise risk management, and fortify compliance frameworks, making it a significant component for organizations building on their operational resilience.
Related reading: What is GRC Compliance?
How to choose the right SaaS GRC tool
Understanding what makes an ideal GRC tool can significantly impact how an organization manages its GRC functions. Here are some crucial aspects to consider when seeking the perfect GRC SaaS tool.
Compliance monitoring: A reliable GRC solution should monitor compliance efforts continuously, streamline policy management, detect gaps, and provide real-time alerts for regulatory changes, ensuring adaptability to evolving compliance standards.
Audit capabilities: The right solution possesses robust audit management features for seamless internal audits, third-party risk assessments, and compliance audits, ensuring comprehensive compliance management.
Centralized dashboard: Organizations must prioritize the ability to display GRC data, key performance indicators, and relevant real-time metrics within a single-source centralized dashboard.
Workflow management: It’s vital to seek a user-friendly interface that enables the creation, execution, and monitoring of GRC workflows without the need to extensively set up and implement business processes.
Risk assessment and reporting: Organizations need to prioritize a solution offering advanced risk assessment, preferably AI-powered analytics, to assess, quantify, predict, and mitigate risks.
Content management: An effective SaaS GRC tool should facilitate document management and storage, allowing diverse file types and documentation for various GRC functions like policy and incident management, audit, and compliance records.
High-level security measures: The right solution ensures robust security features like encryption, continuous monitoring tools, and strict user access management to safeguard sensitive data and protect against potential breaches.
Continuous compliance is the next big thing! Get there first with Sprinto
Advantages of SaaS GRC software
SaaS GRC software is a beacon of efficiency and adaptability, offering a multitude of advantages to organizations. Some of the benefits of SaaS GRC software are listed below:
- Accessibility: Cloud-based SaaS GRC enables easy access from anywhere, ensuring scalability to accommodate business growth.
- Time to value: SaaS GRC software offers quick implementation and user-friendly interfaces that diminish the learning curve. With ready-to-use applications and free trials, it enables swift onboarding for all team members and helps you achieve quicker ROI.
- Cost-effectiveness: Most SaaS GRCs have a pay-as-you-go model that allows accurate budgeting for scalable GRC programs, which is ideal for small-to-medium businesses seeking cost-efficient solutions.
- Regulatory compliance: Saas GRC ensures alignment with industry regulations, enabling seamless conduction of internal audits and external audits.
- Risk management: SaaS GRC solutions simplify risk identification and mitigation by selecting and assessing desired security controls through integrated risk management.
- Enhanced visibility: Saas GRC offers a centralized dashboard for a comprehensive view of the organization’s risk profile, enabling real-time data-driven decisions.
Challenges of not having specialized GRC tools
Managing GRC tasks without specialized tools hinders operational efficiency and accuracy in your GRC efforts. Here are some of the significant challenges companies may face without a dedicated solution:
- Inefficient processes: Manually handling GRC tasks can lead to inefficiencies, making it difficult to streamline operations and ensure compliance accuracy.
- Disjointed information: Without dedicated tools, GRC-related data remains siloed across various systems, hindering centralized views and complicating decision-making.
- Compliance complexity: Coping with evolving regulations and diverse compliance requirements manually often leads to errors, and staying updated can be difficult.
- Risk identification and mitigation: Without specific tools, identifying and addressing organizational risks becomes cumbersome.
- Lack of visibility and reporting: The absence of dedicated tools limits visibility into risks and compliance status, making accurate reporting challenging for stakeholders.
Leverage GRC automation with Sprinto
Sprinto is a comprehensive compliance automation that enables SaaS organizations to seamlessly manage their GRC process and establish a robust continuous compliance posture.
The platform integrates risk and compliance management frameworks and creates a forum that brings together multiple teams to work on common themes such as security, regulation, and compliance.
With an intuitive user interface that offers real-time insights, Sprinto provides a comprehensive view of an organization’s security and compliance status within a single platform. Its automated evidence collection and reporting functionalities streamline preparations for both internal and external audits by consistently generating compliance reports.
Key GRC features of Sprinto include:
- Efficient risk identification and management for threat mitigation
- Automated compliance management for various frameworks like SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and more
- Streamlined reports and evidence collection, facilitating internal and external audits
- Integrated incident management and disaster recovery planning modules
- Third-party risk management capabilities
- Workflow automation for repetitive tasks and streamlined processes
- Real-time, actionable analytics presented on a centralized dashboard for informed decision-making
“When you know everything is connected, and 3000-4000 checks are happening automatically, hitting that 95% compliance mark is easy,” he notes. “Sprinto sends (compliance) alerts that go out on a regular basis making it easy to see where we are succeeding and lacking. I think it’s a proactive approach to security and compliance,” Sunil adds.
Check out: How HubEngage transformed compliance processes with Sprinto’s automation
Conclusion
Building a robust GRC strategy is crucial for an organization’s success. Embracing Saas GRC software acts as a facilitator, simplifying GRC management and aids during internal GRC audits. But what’s the easiest way for effective GRC management?
This is where Sprinto emerges as a game-changer and helps you enhance your GRC functionality. The software’s systematic approach helps you to effectively map controls to requirements, mitigate critical risks, and adapt to evolving frameworks for sustained compliance. Unlike other compliance programs that demand months to achieve compliance, Sprinto gets you audit-ready within a 14-business-day turnaround.
FAQs
Does GRC automation fit small and medium-sized businesses?
The answer is Yes. GRC automation acts as a significant tool for smaller and medium-sized organizations by cutting repetitive tasks, boosting efficiency, and saving costs effectively.
How do you select the best GRC SaaS automation tool?
To choose the right GRC automation, start by understanding your organization’s needs and matching them with price and compatibility. Look for top-notch features that streamline GRC workflows. For an affordable compliance automation platform, consider Sprinto.
Mention some best practices for effective GRC management.
Effective GRC management best practices include:
- Craft a strategic plan and share it with stakeholders
- Leverage suitable technologies for better efficiency
- Refine and adapt your GRC audit process
- Stay updated on the latest trends and regulatory requirements
