In this piece, we will be introducing you to Unifii's ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management (IRM) practice.
My name is Michelle Pearson, and I’m the IRM Practice Lead at Unifii. My first IRM implementation (previously known as GRC - Governance, Risk and Compliance) gave me the unique opportunity to work both as part of the project team and as an end user, managing technology resilience for the company’s overall operational resilience.
This is achievable no matter the department, from IT to HR and finance, and at any level, using a broad range of functionalities and workflows.
The aspects of risks that the workflows help with include reputational, strategic, operational, compliance and financial risks; they all integrate with other parts of the ServiceNow platform, including SecOps (Security Operations), Application Portfolio Management (APM) and Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) to manage technology and cyber risk.
But why specifically ServiceNow for IRM?
ServiceNow IRM is a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integrated Risk Management. The key benefits of choosing ServiceNow for your IRM strategy include the following:
The product greatly improves you and your team’s decision-making through more enhanced visibility and a superior understanding of risks. Thanks to this, your business is also more effectively able to utilise its time and resources.
Managing and monitoring third-party risk is simple.
The identification and prioritisation of business-critical core processes in the delivery phase (to both internal and external customers) will mean your team work with a more coherent business continuity management program.
Your team are able to improve impact analysis and business continuity by combining data and linking and mapping information.
Integrating key risk and control indicators across any business will enable you to deliver forward-looking insights, and make much better informed, proactive executive decisions.
Our top tips for implementing IRM
Ensure your data model is aligned with the latest version of the Common Services Data Model – this will make sure that your IRM is able to align accurately to your business processes.
Cleanse your data – this can be a drawn-out process, so make sure you leave enough time to get it done! Having good, clean data in the IRM application will mean that it functions at its best.
Align with an industry best practice if possible – this will mean you have a reference to base your objectives against, and will decrease the time to value.
Get a solid roadmap in place! It’s usually easiest to define a roadmap that tackles immediate pain points upfront, before you then map out a more detailed roadmap for your long term goals.
Take time to rationalise your controls. Think about whether the control supports your business goals, prevents or detects a risk, and if it’s able to be automated to remove manual tasks.
Why choose Unifii for your IRM implementation?
Account Management is a key aspect of Unifii’s approach to IRM. Under this, we support our account managers to help our customers evolve their product, process maturity and provide guidance on industry best practices.
We know what good looks like. We’ve implemented IRM across various sectors and industries, providing us with crucial experience that benefits all of our customers.
We know what it’s like to be in the customers’ shoes; not only do we deliver all our projects with 100% permanent staff, but a large part of our workforce is made up of ex-client-side people. We’ve been on that side of the story, therefore truly understand enterprise delivery.
We recognise what real value is. We are here to help you navigate all the pitfalls and focus on getting the most out of your implementation, with no quick fixes and a focus on a long-term partnership.