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Governance and risk in information technology
information technology project and need support to help me learn.
This project aims to expose you to GRC framework and practices. The attached documents
(Survey0, Survey00,Survey1,Survey2,Survey3, Survey4
are part of these practices that you need to use to apply on your selected Al Dhafer Hospital.
So please convert these questions into google froms so you can easily distribute them.
You need to follow the case studies that were mentioned in the attached
paper(Governance_Risk_and_Compliance_A_Strategic_Alignme.) and apply there methods.
Second, please choose at lease three people in diffrent positions from the selected
orginzations. They should give you their views about the practices that were mentined in
the paper. What can you suggest them to improve. What are the challanges they are facing
McKinsey GRC survey adresses many dimentions including Transparency & insight, Risk
appetite & strategy, Processes, Organization and governance, Risk culture. Please refer to
the attached file and discuss your fingings after you do the assessmnet from these
dimentions.
Requirements: 1000
See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289228158Governance, Risk and Compliance:
A Strategic Alignment Perspective Appliedto Two Case StudiesConference Paper in IFIP
Advances in Information and Communication Technology · September 2012DOI:
10.1007/978-3-642-33332-3_19CITATIONS4READS4,4523 authors, including:Some of the
authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:A Roadmap OUT of
mEdical deserts into supportive Health WorkForce initiatives and policies (ROUTE-HWF)
View projectEU Joint Action on Health Workforce Planning and Forecasting View
projectAbbas ShahimVrije Universiteit Amsterdam7 PUBLICATIONS 31 CITATIONS SEE
PROFILERonald BatenburgNivel – Research for better care304 PUBLICATIONS 2,826
CITATIONS SEE PROFILEAll content following this page was uploaded by Ronald
Batenburg on 12 January 2018.The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.
M.D. Hercheui et al. (Eds.): HCC10 2012, IFIP AICT 386, pp. 202–212, 2012. © IFIP
International Federation for Information Processing 2012 Governance, Risk and
Compliance: A Strategic Alignment Perspective Applied to Two Case Studies Abbas
Shahim1, Ronald Batenburg2, and Geert Vermunt3 1 VU University Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Atos Consulting, Utrecht, The Netherlands
abbas.shahim@atos.net 2 Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands r.s.batenburg@uu.nl
3 BWise, Rosmalen, The Netherlands geert.vermunt@bwise.com Abstract. Governance, Risk
and Compliance (GRC) has become critical for or-ganizations and so is the need to support
this by ICT. This paper positions GRC into an integrated strategic perspective, providing
guidelines to assess maturity and defining paths for achieving strategic alignment. The
approach is applied to two case studies, clarifying the organizations’ GRC maturity “as is”
and “to be”. These cases were studied in the utilities and financial sectors, both show that
organizations can have similar GRC maturity levels but follow quite differ-ent paths to
achieve alignment with regard to GRC. While the Dutch utility company stuck to a path
where the organizational strategy with respect to GRC was taken as a starting point, the
financial institution followed a path in which the IT solution strategy was leading. In
interpreting this result, it appears that the existing IT assets are strongly impacting the
selection of the alignment path. More case studies are advocated to further validate the
approach and contribute to optimize the strategic and integrated perspective on GRC.
Keywords: compliance, governance, risk management, strategic alignment. 1 Introduction
From the turn of the millennium, the trusted face of our global economy familiar to many of
us has deeply and rapidly changed. Its irreversible shape represents a strong compliance
driven approach to business governance that has dominated the agenda of the board ever
since. This fundamental and quick transformation is the result of the most known
accounting scandals that occurred shortly after the beginning of this cen-tury: the collapse
of Enron and the fall of WorldCom. As a response to these corpo-rate failures, the Sarbanes-
Oxley Act, often abbreviated to SOX (see [16] for further information), was created and
passed by the United States Congress in 2002 to stress the importance of business control
and auditing so that the national confidence in the securities markets was restored again.
Compliance with this enacted legislation is not only required of organizations that are
publicly traded in the United States, but is also
Governance, Risk and Compliance 203 mandatory for those outside of the Unites States
under certain circumstances (e.g., foreign companies listed on the New York stock
exchange). In consequence, organi-zations have placed a great emphasis on description,
design and effectively operating controls with the purpose to adequately govern, mitigate
risks and comply with SOX [19] – see also [18]. In general, it can be stated that the tightened
regulatory compli-ance pressure put on organizations especially by SOX has in fact given a
boost to the improvement of the existing GRC practices in the business and information
technol-ogy (IT) sector [7]. Nowadays, organizations are confronted with broader GRC-
associated matters that have established a new reality in which traditional strategies and
assumptions seem to fail [6] – see also [20]. GRC is not new. Issues and challenges with
respect to governance, risk manage-ment and compliance have always formed a substantial
concern for a majority of organizations. Although the abbreviation of this concept indicates
an interrelation between its components, the fact is that these functions are yet executed
mostly in a fragmented fashion [15]. What is new about GRC is the awareness of
organizations to take a united perspective to this concept for creating added-value and
realizing com-petitive advantage. It is rightfully noted that the need for an integrated
approach to this concept should at least be fulfilled by sophisticated risk management
frameworks, improved compliance disciplines, revamped structures and modern
technologies so that an advanced as well as a sound governance on a corporate level can be
practiced more readily. GRC as a set of integrated concepts can thus be of significant value
and make a contribution to outpace the competition when applied holistically within or-
ganizations [14]. Hence, due to this organizational impact, it is necessary to strategize the
interrelated GRC perspective and to ascertain that it will be aligned properly with the
business mission. In practice, however, we hardly encounter the full convergence of GRC
disciplines in theoretical strategic models. GRC implementations are largely based on
pragmatic compliance-related activities, and on reporting about these domi-nating actions
despite the clear need to embrace an incorporated and strategic GRC view across business
units, oversight functions and strategies. This is the main driver of the present paper that
addresses the research question: How can an integrated GRC approach be applied in
organizations using a strategic alignment perspective? The paper is organized as follows.
Next, we present a brief overview of definitions of integrated GRC. Thereafter we show how
a strategic alignment perspective on GRC results in an approach used to assess the GRC
maturity and alignment paths. In the empirical part of the paper, the approach is applied to
two different case studies. The results of both case studies are presented, leading to a
conclusion that will be discussed in the final part of this contribution. 2 Integrated GRC 2.1
Definitions Various definitions of GRC are provided in the literature (e.g., [21] – see also
[3]). Using different point of views, the definitions mostly describe this concept in terms of
controlling and improving processes. A scientific GRC definition indicates the ethics
204 A. Shahim, R. Batenburg, and G. Vermunt in addition to other pertinent aspects such as
risk appetite, internal policies and exter-nal regulations [14]. The definition presented by
one of the Big Four accountancy firms describes that GRC is not a technology tool, but a
model that leaders look at to drive maximum value out of the business model [6].
Throughout the rest of this paper, we refer to the GRC definition provided by the Open
Compliance & Ethics Group (OCEG) for two main reasons. First, we notice that it is the one
that is most referred to in the literature and in practice (e.g., [2], and [8] – see also [10] and
[5]). Second, This global non-profit think tank expounds its view on an integrated approach
to cre-ate a GRC system by means of four perspectives [33, 34]: 1) integration of GRC dis-
ciplines, 2) integration of GRC activities across risk categories and departments, 3)
integration of GRC activities with business processes, and 4) integration to provide a single
version of the truth. OCEG stresses the synergistic impact of an integrated approach to this
concept and explains that it is more than solely the consolidation of three disciplines. It
defines GRC as follows [9]: “a system of people, processes and technology that enables an
organization to understand and prioritize stakeholder ex-pectations, set business objectives
congruent with values and risks, achieve objectives while optimizing risk profile and
protecting value, operate within legal, contractual, internal, social and ethical boundaries,
provide relevant, reliable and timely informa-tion to appropriate stakeholders, and enable
the measurement of the performance and effectiveness of the system.” 2.2 A Strategic
Alignment Perspective One of the key elements in the OCEG definition of GRC is the notion
of alignment to achieve integration – of disciplines, activities and information. As a concept,
alignment has a long history in both organization science and information systems research.
Schol-ars in the 1990s already argued that companies fail to realize performance improve-
ments due to the lack of alignment between the business and IT strategies [4]. Results of
studies dedicated to measuring the effect of business-IT alignment on performance indi-
cate that there is a positive correlation between business-IT alignment and organiza-tional
performance, in which top performers are those companies which effectively align their
business with their IT strategies. This outcome comes to vitiate the claim that highly
sophisticated IT can solely improve business performance, but what is of greater
importance is the alignment between both IT and business strategies [17]. Following this
line of argumentation, it can be expected that if an organization integrates GRC it will
benefit more from IT if its applications are in conformance with the business proc-esses
present in the organization. In this context strategic or business-IT alignment im-plies the
process of finding the right match and the alignment between a GRC solution and the
organization. If this alignment perspective is applied to integrated GRC, a model can be
defined as in figure 1. This model is based on the strategic alignment model of Henderson
and Venkatraman [4] and positions an instance of the integrated GRC ap-proach on both the
business and on the IT dimension. The idea is that alignment can be realized by bringing the
business and IT strategy together, where strategy is involving formulation and
implementation [4].
Governance, Risk and Compliance 205 GRC ToolInfrastructure and Processes GRC
ToolStrategyGRC Organization Infrastructure and Processes GRC Organization Strategy
External Internal Business IT Strategic fit Functional integration GovernanceRisk
ComplianceControls GovernanceRiskCompliance Controls Fig. 1. GRC plotted in the strategic
alignment model by [4]; the GRC strategic alignment model The vision of GRC from a
strategic alignment perspective is plotted on the four domains from the strategic alignment
model, based on the two building blocks de-fined by Henderson and Venkatraman: strategic
fit and functional integration [4]. The strategic fit dimension represents the integration of
the external and internal domain. The external domain, on a business level, addresses the
arena in which corporate decisions are made concerning strategy and distinctive strategy
attributes which dis-tinguish the firm from competitors. The element ‘Governance’ is
positioned in this domain because it is concerned with the GRC strategy in the organization.
The inter-nal domain, on a business level, pertains to the organizational structure and the
critical business processes that are available in the organization. The elements of ‘Risk’,
‘Control’ and ’Compliance’ are positioned in this domain because these elements relate to
the structure of GRC and the processes involved with GRC, e.g. the risk-control structure in
the organization. The fit between the external and internal domain in the business domain
is argued to be critical when maximizing economic perform-ance [1]. This relation can be
reflected in the IT domain, resulting in a proposition that in the IT domain a similar
separation between the external and internal domains can be made and that a fit between
these domains is critical for IT in an organization [4]. Integrating the business and the IT
domain is coined by Henderson and Venkatraman as functional integration. In the GRC
perspective, the IT domain repre-sents the GRC solution which forms a system of record for
GRC in the organization. The strategic alignment model distinguishes two kinds of
functional integration be-tween the business and IT domain: strategic integration (i.e.
attempts are made to align both business and IT strategy) and integration of organization
and processes (i.e. operational integration concerned with aligning infrastructure and
processes on both business and IT level) [4]. Following the strategic alignment model of
Henderson and Venkatraman, four alignment paths can be applied to the GRC domain
illustrated in figure 2:
206 A. Shahim, R. Batenburg, and G. Vermunt A B GRC Solution Infrastructure GRC Solution
Strategy GRC Organizational Strategy GRC Organizational Strategy GRC Solution
Infrastructure GRC Organizational Infrastructure C D GRC Solution Strategy GRC
Organizational Infrastructure GRC Solution Infrastructure GRC Organizational
Infrastructure GRC Solution Strategy GRC Organizational Strategy Fig. 2. Four paths to
reach strategic alignment in GRC (A: Strategy execution, B: Technology transformation, C:
Competitive potential, D: Service level) 1. The “strategy execution” path, translated to a GRC
perspective, is displayed as “A”. This path indicates that GRC strategy and GRC
infrastructure are con-structed in the business domain. A GRC solution is selected which
could form a fit between the GRC infrastructure on both business and IT domain. 2. The
“technology transformation” path for GRC is displayed as “B”. In this per-spective a GRC
strategy is developed in a business domain and a GRC solution is selected which concurs
with this strategy. The infrastructure from the GRC solu-tion is embedded in the
organization. 3. The “competitive potential” path, translated to a GRC perspective, is
displayed as “C”. In this path the strategy from the GRC solution is the driver. The GRC strat-
egy and infrastructure in the business domain are geared towards the strategy which is
adopted in the GRC solution. 4. The “service level” path for GRC is displayed as “D”. In this
case the vision of GRC adopted in the GRC solution is integrated in the GRC organizational
infra-structure. 3 Methods and Measurements 3.1 A GRC Framework To operationalize and
measure the GRC strategic alignment model as presented in figure 1, the next step needed is
a specification of practices related to GRC and a
Governance, Risk and Compliance 207 maturity scale to measure these practices. For this
aim, practices were distilled from the OCEG maturity models covering GRC. Governance
includes 12 practices: code of conduct, strategy, organizational chart, accountabilities,
meetings between account-able parties, process integration with business process, KPIs,
reporting, budget, cost/benefit monitoring, transparency, and training. Risk holds 7
practices: risk as-sessment, risk overview, risk overview contains IT risks, risk review,
incident report-ing, emergency process for gaps and incidents, and root cause analysis for
gap or incident. Compliance contains 4 practices: overview of regulatory boundaries, over-
view of internal and external rules and regulations, compliance review, and processes when
confronted with non-compliance [36, 37, 38]. Table 1 provides our measure-ment
framework and shows the proposed five-point scale for maturity levels to meas-ure the
three GRC domains. Table 1. GRC domains and number of practices derived from OCEG [11],
[12], [13] Domain # Practices Maturity levels 1 2 3 4 5 Governance 12 Risk 7
Compliance 4 The five-level GRC maturity scale is defined as follows: 1. The practice is not
available in the organization. 2. The organization is developing the practice. 3. The practice
is available in the organization, but fragmented or used inconsis-tently throughout the
organization. 4. The practice is integrated, available in the organization, and used
consistently. 5. The practice is consistently measured and undergoing improvements. We
base this scale on the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), which was originally developed by
the Software Engineering Institute [22]. The CMM five-level model fits our aim to
specifically assess how IT contributes to the maturity of GRC from an alignment perspective.
We are aware that there is specific literature describing GRC maturity levels as well such as
the model developed by KPMG [6]. 4 Analysis of Two Case Studies In 2008, two case studies
of Dutch companies were performed on the role that IT fulfilled in supporting the GRC
processes in the organization. The two main goals were (1) to investigate how the
organization achieved strategic alignment of IT with the business (applying the four
alignment parts as presented in figure 2), and (2) to assess the organization on its GRC
maturity (applying the maturity model as pre-sented by Table 1). The approach followed
during the two case studies can be
208 A. Shahim, R. Batenburg, and G. Vermunt described as follows. Firstly, a site visit was
planned that included semi-structured interviews with GRC managers. The GRC managers
that were invited to the inter-views had an in-depth knowledge of the organizations’ GRC
maturity and deployment of a GRC solution in the organization. The interviews were used to
assess the GRC maturity of the organization, by means of a questionnaire based on the
measurement framework and practices. This questionnaire covers all three domains, the
organiza-tion’s GRC practices and the accompanying five-point maturity scale. The
interview partners were asked to score, for each GRC practice, the “as is” maturity and how
the alignment with IT helped to reach a certain “to be” maturity. For each of the three
domains (Governance, Risk and Compliance) the scores on the practices were aver-aged.
This processing of the answers resulted in a visualization of the GRC maturity status of the
organization, describing the “as is” and “to be” maturity. This visualiza-tion was
subsequently validated during a site visit. Secondly, the GRC-managers of the organizations
were interviewed on the deployment process of IT in their organiza-tion, and to document
their experiences in aligning IT with the business processes. Based on this interview, the
type of alignment path followed by the organization (as defined in figure 2) was
reconstructed and likewise validated. 4.1 Case 1: Dutch Utilities Company Setting & GRC
Maturity. This company is a large energy producer and supplier with its customer base
located in the Netherlands and Belgium. The company houses approximately 5,500
employees and has a turnover of approximately 9 billion euro. The organization was one of
the first companies in the utilities sector to begin with separate compliance activities and
integrating these activities with governance and risk management. The GRC maturity
questionnaire that was completed by the re-spondents resulted into the figure 3, indicating
the present state of GRC maturity and the maturity level the organization is aiming for
within 2-3 years. The company proved to be performing at a maturity level of 3+ for many
GRC areas, especially risk management. The lower maturity in the Governance domain can
be explained because of the fact that the GRC organization is not yet modelled. The
company’s ambition is to charter the entire GRC organization with the use of IT and to raise
maturity. Also the Compliance domain is lagging behind with respect to Risk management.
This can be explained by compliance processes that are not performed as integrated
throughout the organization and the use of other, siloed, “home-made”, software.
Evaluations on the way the software in the company is used should guide the compliance
processes to a higher level. Strategic Alignment. Following our conceptual model as
presented in figure 2, the deployment of the GRC IT solution in this case study can be
classified as the “Tech-nology transformation” path illustrated in figure 4. The company
sensed the need for a specialized solution to support GRC and defined high-level business
requirements that should be matched by the GRC solution strategy. The implementation of
the GRC solution infrastructure was then done simultaneously and according to the speci-
fications of the GRC solution strategy.
Governance, Risk and Compliance 209 012345GovernanceRiskComplianceTo bePresent
Fig. 3. The present and to be GRC maturity of the Dutch utilities company that was assessed
GRC Solution Infrastructure GRC Solution Strategy GRC Organizational Strategy Fig. 4.
Strategic alignment by the Dutch utility company through the “technology transforma-tion”
path The utility company used IT to manage the controls throughout the organization.
Future plans consisted of the ambition to evaluate how an improved connection with other
IT solutions available in the company (e.g. process modelling software) could be reached, or
whether an entirely different solution should be deployed to replace several different
solutions. This could bring the alignment between IT and business and the maturity of the
GRC processes to yet a higher level. 4.2 Case 2: Dutch Financial Institution Setting & GRC
Maturity. This company is a worldwide financial institution that delivers services in the area
of banking, investments, life assurances and pensions. The roots of the institution are
present in the Netherlands. The company houses ap-proximately 107,000 employees and
has a turnover of approximately 47 billion euro. Besides laws like SOX, the institution has to
comply with the Basel II framework (see www.bis.org/publ/bcbsca.htm for further
information). This set of international stan-dards and best practices has led to a specific
arrangement of the organization into four departments operating as silos. The maturity
questionnaire as completed by the
210 A. Shahim, R. Batenburg, and G. Vermunt respondents results in figure 5. It shows the
present state of GRC maturity and the maturity the organization is aiming for within 2-3
years. The institution proves to be at a 3+ maturity for all three areas. The ambition is still
to keep on improving the maturity of the GRC practices in their organization, supported by a
GRC solution. The institution is quite ambitious in its approach towards GRC. This is, among
others, represented by the fact that a chief risk officer is represented on the board. The or-
ganization recognizes that a higher maturity concerning GRC can only be obtained by
enhancements in the integration between the four departments and to start performing
GRC as one integrated activity across the institution. IT needs to play a critical part in this
process of integration, but can only be effectively used when it is aligned with the GRC
business processes across the organization. 012345GovernanceRiskComplianceTo
bePresent Fig. 5. The present and to be GRC maturity level of the Dutch financial institution
that was assessed GRC Solution Strategy GRC Solution Infrastructure GRC Organizational
Infrastructure Fig. 6. Strategic alignment of the Dutch financial institution through the
“service level” path Strategic Alignment. As shown in figure 6, the deployment of the IT
solution can be characterized by the “service level” perspective, following our conceptual
model in figure 2. When aligning IT with the business, the GRC solution strategy of the
finan-cial institution was the main driver because the actual GRC solution infrastructure
Governance, Risk and Compliance 211 would act as an addition to already available
software. Then, the GRC IT solution was adapted the business processes, based on the
processes incorporated in the software. Currently the solution is fully operational within
the Operations & IT department, and several other departments have followed this
implementation. The institution has the ambition to further deploy the solution throughout
the organization, creating one integrated way of handling GRC. 5 Conclusions This paper
was triggered by a need to answer the research question: How can an inte-grated GRC
approach be applied in organizations using a strategic alignment perspec-tive? To achieve
an answer to this question, several theoretical definitions of integrated GRC were reviewed,
and a strategic alignment perspective was developed for the GRC domain which resulted in
an approach to assess the GRC maturity and alignment paths for organizations. The
empirical part of the paper then showed how the strategic perspective on GRC and its
corresponding assessment framework were applied to two case studies. A large Dutch
utility company and a financial institution were studied through a limited number of
interviews with responsible managers who also provided feedback on the GRC assessment.
Comparing the results of the two case studies showed that organizations have attained
similar GRC maturity levels, while they have followed quite different paths to align IT to the
business domain. Where the organizational strategy with regard to GRC led at the Dutch
utility com-pany, the financial institution selected a path in which the IT solution strategy
was taken as starting point. In interpreting this result, it appears that the existing IT assets
impact strongly on the selection of the alignment path. This paper provides new insights
but also invites an initiation of new directions for further research. One such direction is to
practically support organizations that ex-perience Governance, Risk and Compliance as
separate and siloed concepts, and want to develop a holistic and united perspective to these
concepts. Obviously, another direction for further research is to further validate and enrich
our GRC maturity and alignment approach. References 1. Chandler, A.D.: Strategy and
Structure: Chapters in the history of American Enterprise. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1962)
2. Dupuis, M., Endicott-Popovsky, B., Wang, H., Subramaniam, I., Du, Y.: Top-down man-dates
and the need for organizational governance, risk management, and compliance in China: A
discussion, Asia-Pacific Economic Association (APEA). In: Sixth Annual Confe-rence, Hong
Kong (July 2010) 3. Frigo, M.L., Anderson, R.J.: A strategic framework for governance, risk
and compliance. Strategic Finance 90(8), 20–61 (2009) 4. Henderson, J.C., Venkatraman, N.:
Strategic alignment: Leveraging Information Technol-ogy for transforming organizations.
IBM Systems Journal 32(1), 472–484 (1999)
212 A. Shahim, R. Batenburg, and G. Vermunt 5. Koenig, D.R.: Enterprise risk management:
A 360 degree review, Ductilibility, LLC, Sep-tember 11 (2008) 6. KPMG: Survival of the most
informed: GRC comes of age – How to envision, strategize, and lead to achieve enterprise
resilience. KPMG International Cooperative (2010) 7. Madlener, J.J.: The implications of
integrating governance, risk and compliance in busi-ness intelligence systems on corporate
performance management. Erasmus University Rot-terdam (2008) 8. Marks, N.: What is
GRC and why does it matter? SAP, London (2010) 9. Mitchell, S.L., Stern Switzer, C.: GRC
capability model Red Book 2.0. Open Compliance & Ethics Group, OCEG (April 2009) 10.
MHI: Collaborative accountability in governance, risk, & compliance: Creating harmony
across business roles, White Paper, MHI (2010) 11. OCEG: OCEG Corporate Compliance and
Ethics Maturity ModelTM (2007a), http://www.oceg.org/Download/OCCEMM 12. OCEG:
OCEG Corporate Governance Maturity ModelTM (2007b),
http://www.oceg.org/Download/CGMM 13. OCEG: OCEG Matrix Adapted from RIMS ERM
Risk maturity Model (2007c), http://www.oceg.org/Download/RIMSERMM 14. Racz, S.,
Weippl, E., Seufert, A.: A frame of reference for research of integrated gover-nance, risk and
compliance (GRC). International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) (2010) 15.
Robb, D.: IT-business alignment takes a step forward with GRC, CIO Update (March 9, 2010)
16. Sarbanes, P., Oxley, M.: Text of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. US Congress, Washington (2002)
17. Scheper, W.: Business IT Alignment: oplossing voor de productiviteitsparadox. Informa-
tion Science. Utrecht University, Utrecht (2002) 18. Streng, R.J.: Corporate governance,
internal control and risk management: The key role of information systems. Bertius
Publishers, Moordrecht (2010) 19. Tarantino, A.: Governance, risk and compliance
handbook: Technology, finance, environ-mental, and international guidance and best
practices. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken (2008) 20. Tiazkun, S., Borovick, L.: Governance,
risk and compliance. White Paper. IDC (2007) 21. Vemuri, A.: Strategic themes in risk and
compliance. FINSight 2, 2–5 (2008) 22. Venkatraman, N., Henderson, J.C., Oldach, S.:
Continuous Strategic Alignment: Exploit-ing Information Technology Capabilities for
Competitive Success. European Management Journal 11(2), 139–149 (1993) View
publication stats
2/2/23, 4:47 AMGlobal GRC User SurveyPage 1 of
2https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5TBKPJV Global GRC User Survey
DisappointedImprovedSatisfiedVerySatisfiedNoimprovementneededN/AProcess - ease
ofinstallation/integrationPerformance - resultsmet or exceededexpectationsPrice - product
valuemet or exceededproduct expensePeople - strongtechnical expertiseTraining/Support -
service after the saleOther (please specify)14. Please rate your degree of satisfaction with
your current GRC tools/application?
2/2/23, 4:47 AMGlobal GRC User SurveyPage 2 of
2https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5TBKPJVPowered bySee how easy it is to create a
survey.
2/2/23, 4:46 AMGlobal GRC User SurveyPage 1 of
2https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5TBKPJVGlobal GRC User Survey Low valueSome
valueMediumvalueHigh valueSuperiorvalueN/ARisk analysis/modelingBusiness
workflowsDocumentmanagementRegulatory updatesExternal risk
incidentsRiskdashboard/reportingRisk assessmentsAudit findingsOnline policies
&proceduresLegal libraryIT standardsIncident managementBusiness continuityBoard
reportingDataintegration/aggregation13. Please rate the importance of GRC application
features:
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2https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5TBKPJV Powered bySee how easy it is to create a
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Governance and risk in information technology.pdf

  • 1. Governance and risk in information technology information technology project and need support to help me learn. This project aims to expose you to GRC framework and practices. The attached documents (Survey0, Survey00,Survey1,Survey2,Survey3, Survey4 are part of these practices that you need to use to apply on your selected Al Dhafer Hospital. So please convert these questions into google froms so you can easily distribute them. You need to follow the case studies that were mentioned in the attached paper(Governance_Risk_and_Compliance_A_Strategic_Alignme.) and apply there methods. Second, please choose at lease three people in diffrent positions from the selected orginzations. They should give you their views about the practices that were mentined in the paper. What can you suggest them to improve. What are the challanges they are facing McKinsey GRC survey adresses many dimentions including Transparency & insight, Risk appetite & strategy, Processes, Organization and governance, Risk culture. Please refer to the attached file and discuss your fingings after you do the assessmnet from these dimentions. Requirements: 1000 See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289228158Governance, Risk and Compliance: A Strategic Alignment Perspective Appliedto Two Case StudiesConference Paper in IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology · September 2012DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-33332-3_19CITATIONS4READS4,4523 authors, including:Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:A Roadmap OUT of mEdical deserts into supportive Health WorkForce initiatives and policies (ROUTE-HWF) View projectEU Joint Action on Health Workforce Planning and Forecasting View projectAbbas ShahimVrije Universiteit Amsterdam7 PUBLICATIONS 31 CITATIONS SEE PROFILERonald BatenburgNivel – Research for better care304 PUBLICATIONS 2,826 CITATIONS SEE PROFILEAll content following this page was uploaded by Ronald Batenburg on 12 January 2018.The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. M.D. Hercheui et al. (Eds.): HCC10 2012, IFIP AICT 386, pp. 202–212, 2012. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2012 Governance, Risk and Compliance: A Strategic Alignment Perspective Applied to Two Case Studies Abbas Shahim1, Ronald Batenburg2, and Geert Vermunt3 1 VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Atos Consulting, Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • 2. abbas.shahim@atos.net 2 Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands r.s.batenburg@uu.nl 3 BWise, Rosmalen, The Netherlands geert.vermunt@bwise.com Abstract. Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) has become critical for or-ganizations and so is the need to support this by ICT. This paper positions GRC into an integrated strategic perspective, providing guidelines to assess maturity and defining paths for achieving strategic alignment. The approach is applied to two case studies, clarifying the organizations’ GRC maturity “as is” and “to be”. These cases were studied in the utilities and financial sectors, both show that organizations can have similar GRC maturity levels but follow quite differ-ent paths to achieve alignment with regard to GRC. While the Dutch utility company stuck to a path where the organizational strategy with respect to GRC was taken as a starting point, the financial institution followed a path in which the IT solution strategy was leading. In interpreting this result, it appears that the existing IT assets are strongly impacting the selection of the alignment path. More case studies are advocated to further validate the approach and contribute to optimize the strategic and integrated perspective on GRC. Keywords: compliance, governance, risk management, strategic alignment. 1 Introduction From the turn of the millennium, the trusted face of our global economy familiar to many of us has deeply and rapidly changed. Its irreversible shape represents a strong compliance driven approach to business governance that has dominated the agenda of the board ever since. This fundamental and quick transformation is the result of the most known accounting scandals that occurred shortly after the beginning of this cen-tury: the collapse of Enron and the fall of WorldCom. As a response to these corpo-rate failures, the Sarbanes- Oxley Act, often abbreviated to SOX (see [16] for further information), was created and passed by the United States Congress in 2002 to stress the importance of business control and auditing so that the national confidence in the securities markets was restored again. Compliance with this enacted legislation is not only required of organizations that are publicly traded in the United States, but is also Governance, Risk and Compliance 203 mandatory for those outside of the Unites States under certain circumstances (e.g., foreign companies listed on the New York stock exchange). In consequence, organi-zations have placed a great emphasis on description, design and effectively operating controls with the purpose to adequately govern, mitigate risks and comply with SOX [19] – see also [18]. In general, it can be stated that the tightened regulatory compli-ance pressure put on organizations especially by SOX has in fact given a boost to the improvement of the existing GRC practices in the business and information technol-ogy (IT) sector [7]. Nowadays, organizations are confronted with broader GRC- associated matters that have established a new reality in which traditional strategies and assumptions seem to fail [6] – see also [20]. GRC is not new. Issues and challenges with respect to governance, risk manage-ment and compliance have always formed a substantial concern for a majority of organizations. Although the abbreviation of this concept indicates an interrelation between its components, the fact is that these functions are yet executed mostly in a fragmented fashion [15]. What is new about GRC is the awareness of organizations to take a united perspective to this concept for creating added-value and realizing com-petitive advantage. It is rightfully noted that the need for an integrated approach to this concept should at least be fulfilled by sophisticated risk management
  • 3. frameworks, improved compliance disciplines, revamped structures and modern technologies so that an advanced as well as a sound governance on a corporate level can be practiced more readily. GRC as a set of integrated concepts can thus be of significant value and make a contribution to outpace the competition when applied holistically within or- ganizations [14]. Hence, due to this organizational impact, it is necessary to strategize the interrelated GRC perspective and to ascertain that it will be aligned properly with the business mission. In practice, however, we hardly encounter the full convergence of GRC disciplines in theoretical strategic models. GRC implementations are largely based on pragmatic compliance-related activities, and on reporting about these domi-nating actions despite the clear need to embrace an incorporated and strategic GRC view across business units, oversight functions and strategies. This is the main driver of the present paper that addresses the research question: How can an integrated GRC approach be applied in organizations using a strategic alignment perspective? The paper is organized as follows. Next, we present a brief overview of definitions of integrated GRC. Thereafter we show how a strategic alignment perspective on GRC results in an approach used to assess the GRC maturity and alignment paths. In the empirical part of the paper, the approach is applied to two different case studies. The results of both case studies are presented, leading to a conclusion that will be discussed in the final part of this contribution. 2 Integrated GRC 2.1 Definitions Various definitions of GRC are provided in the literature (e.g., [21] – see also [3]). Using different point of views, the definitions mostly describe this concept in terms of controlling and improving processes. A scientific GRC definition indicates the ethics 204 A. Shahim, R. Batenburg, and G. Vermunt in addition to other pertinent aspects such as risk appetite, internal policies and exter-nal regulations [14]. The definition presented by one of the Big Four accountancy firms describes that GRC is not a technology tool, but a model that leaders look at to drive maximum value out of the business model [6]. Throughout the rest of this paper, we refer to the GRC definition provided by the Open Compliance & Ethics Group (OCEG) for two main reasons. First, we notice that it is the one that is most referred to in the literature and in practice (e.g., [2], and [8] – see also [10] and [5]). Second, This global non-profit think tank expounds its view on an integrated approach to cre-ate a GRC system by means of four perspectives [33, 34]: 1) integration of GRC dis- ciplines, 2) integration of GRC activities across risk categories and departments, 3) integration of GRC activities with business processes, and 4) integration to provide a single version of the truth. OCEG stresses the synergistic impact of an integrated approach to this concept and explains that it is more than solely the consolidation of three disciplines. It defines GRC as follows [9]: “a system of people, processes and technology that enables an organization to understand and prioritize stakeholder ex-pectations, set business objectives congruent with values and risks, achieve objectives while optimizing risk profile and protecting value, operate within legal, contractual, internal, social and ethical boundaries, provide relevant, reliable and timely informa-tion to appropriate stakeholders, and enable the measurement of the performance and effectiveness of the system.” 2.2 A Strategic Alignment Perspective One of the key elements in the OCEG definition of GRC is the notion of alignment to achieve integration – of disciplines, activities and information. As a concept, alignment has a long history in both organization science and information systems research.
  • 4. Schol-ars in the 1990s already argued that companies fail to realize performance improve- ments due to the lack of alignment between the business and IT strategies [4]. Results of studies dedicated to measuring the effect of business-IT alignment on performance indi- cate that there is a positive correlation between business-IT alignment and organiza-tional performance, in which top performers are those companies which effectively align their business with their IT strategies. This outcome comes to vitiate the claim that highly sophisticated IT can solely improve business performance, but what is of greater importance is the alignment between both IT and business strategies [17]. Following this line of argumentation, it can be expected that if an organization integrates GRC it will benefit more from IT if its applications are in conformance with the business proc-esses present in the organization. In this context strategic or business-IT alignment im-plies the process of finding the right match and the alignment between a GRC solution and the organization. If this alignment perspective is applied to integrated GRC, a model can be defined as in figure 1. This model is based on the strategic alignment model of Henderson and Venkatraman [4] and positions an instance of the integrated GRC ap-proach on both the business and on the IT dimension. The idea is that alignment can be realized by bringing the business and IT strategy together, where strategy is involving formulation and implementation [4]. Governance, Risk and Compliance 205 GRC ToolInfrastructure and Processes GRC ToolStrategyGRC Organization Infrastructure and Processes GRC Organization Strategy External Internal Business IT Strategic fit Functional integration GovernanceRisk ComplianceControls GovernanceRiskCompliance Controls Fig. 1. GRC plotted in the strategic alignment model by [4]; the GRC strategic alignment model The vision of GRC from a strategic alignment perspective is plotted on the four domains from the strategic alignment model, based on the two building blocks de-fined by Henderson and Venkatraman: strategic fit and functional integration [4]. The strategic fit dimension represents the integration of the external and internal domain. The external domain, on a business level, addresses the arena in which corporate decisions are made concerning strategy and distinctive strategy attributes which dis-tinguish the firm from competitors. The element ‘Governance’ is positioned in this domain because it is concerned with the GRC strategy in the organization. The inter-nal domain, on a business level, pertains to the organizational structure and the critical business processes that are available in the organization. The elements of ‘Risk’, ‘Control’ and ’Compliance’ are positioned in this domain because these elements relate to the structure of GRC and the processes involved with GRC, e.g. the risk-control structure in the organization. The fit between the external and internal domain in the business domain is argued to be critical when maximizing economic perform-ance [1]. This relation can be reflected in the IT domain, resulting in a proposition that in the IT domain a similar separation between the external and internal domains can be made and that a fit between these domains is critical for IT in an organization [4]. Integrating the business and the IT domain is coined by Henderson and Venkatraman as functional integration. In the GRC perspective, the IT domain repre-sents the GRC solution which forms a system of record for GRC in the organization. The strategic alignment model distinguishes two kinds of functional integration be-tween the business and IT domain: strategic integration (i.e.
  • 5. attempts are made to align both business and IT strategy) and integration of organization and processes (i.e. operational integration concerned with aligning infrastructure and processes on both business and IT level) [4]. Following the strategic alignment model of Henderson and Venkatraman, four alignment paths can be applied to the GRC domain illustrated in figure 2: 206 A. Shahim, R. Batenburg, and G. Vermunt A B GRC Solution Infrastructure GRC Solution Strategy GRC Organizational Strategy GRC Organizational Strategy GRC Solution Infrastructure GRC Organizational Infrastructure C D GRC Solution Strategy GRC Organizational Infrastructure GRC Solution Infrastructure GRC Organizational Infrastructure GRC Solution Strategy GRC Organizational Strategy Fig. 2. Four paths to reach strategic alignment in GRC (A: Strategy execution, B: Technology transformation, C: Competitive potential, D: Service level) 1. The “strategy execution” path, translated to a GRC perspective, is displayed as “A”. This path indicates that GRC strategy and GRC infrastructure are con-structed in the business domain. A GRC solution is selected which could form a fit between the GRC infrastructure on both business and IT domain. 2. The “technology transformation” path for GRC is displayed as “B”. In this per-spective a GRC strategy is developed in a business domain and a GRC solution is selected which concurs with this strategy. The infrastructure from the GRC solu-tion is embedded in the organization. 3. The “competitive potential” path, translated to a GRC perspective, is displayed as “C”. In this path the strategy from the GRC solution is the driver. The GRC strat- egy and infrastructure in the business domain are geared towards the strategy which is adopted in the GRC solution. 4. The “service level” path for GRC is displayed as “D”. In this case the vision of GRC adopted in the GRC solution is integrated in the GRC organizational infra-structure. 3 Methods and Measurements 3.1 A GRC Framework To operationalize and measure the GRC strategic alignment model as presented in figure 1, the next step needed is a specification of practices related to GRC and a Governance, Risk and Compliance 207 maturity scale to measure these practices. For this aim, practices were distilled from the OCEG maturity models covering GRC. Governance includes 12 practices: code of conduct, strategy, organizational chart, accountabilities, meetings between account-able parties, process integration with business process, KPIs, reporting, budget, cost/benefit monitoring, transparency, and training. Risk holds 7 practices: risk as-sessment, risk overview, risk overview contains IT risks, risk review, incident report-ing, emergency process for gaps and incidents, and root cause analysis for gap or incident. Compliance contains 4 practices: overview of regulatory boundaries, over- view of internal and external rules and regulations, compliance review, and processes when confronted with non-compliance [36, 37, 38]. Table 1 provides our measure-ment framework and shows the proposed five-point scale for maturity levels to meas-ure the three GRC domains. Table 1. GRC domains and number of practices derived from OCEG [11], [12], [13] Domain # Practices Maturity levels 1 2 3 4 5 Governance 12 Risk 7 Compliance 4 The five-level GRC maturity scale is defined as follows: 1. The practice is not available in the organization. 2. The organization is developing the practice. 3. The practice is available in the organization, but fragmented or used inconsis-tently throughout the organization. 4. The practice is integrated, available in the organization, and used
  • 6. consistently. 5. The practice is consistently measured and undergoing improvements. We base this scale on the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), which was originally developed by the Software Engineering Institute [22]. The CMM five-level model fits our aim to specifically assess how IT contributes to the maturity of GRC from an alignment perspective. We are aware that there is specific literature describing GRC maturity levels as well such as the model developed by KPMG [6]. 4 Analysis of Two Case Studies In 2008, two case studies of Dutch companies were performed on the role that IT fulfilled in supporting the GRC processes in the organization. The two main goals were (1) to investigate how the organization achieved strategic alignment of IT with the business (applying the four alignment parts as presented in figure 2), and (2) to assess the organization on its GRC maturity (applying the maturity model as pre-sented by Table 1). The approach followed during the two case studies can be 208 A. Shahim, R. Batenburg, and G. Vermunt described as follows. Firstly, a site visit was planned that included semi-structured interviews with GRC managers. The GRC managers that were invited to the inter-views had an in-depth knowledge of the organizations’ GRC maturity and deployment of a GRC solution in the organization. The interviews were used to assess the GRC maturity of the organization, by means of a questionnaire based on the measurement framework and practices. This questionnaire covers all three domains, the organiza-tion’s GRC practices and the accompanying five-point maturity scale. The interview partners were asked to score, for each GRC practice, the “as is” maturity and how the alignment with IT helped to reach a certain “to be” maturity. For each of the three domains (Governance, Risk and Compliance) the scores on the practices were aver-aged. This processing of the answers resulted in a visualization of the GRC maturity status of the organization, describing the “as is” and “to be” maturity. This visualiza-tion was subsequently validated during a site visit. Secondly, the GRC-managers of the organizations were interviewed on the deployment process of IT in their organiza-tion, and to document their experiences in aligning IT with the business processes. Based on this interview, the type of alignment path followed by the organization (as defined in figure 2) was reconstructed and likewise validated. 4.1 Case 1: Dutch Utilities Company Setting & GRC Maturity. This company is a large energy producer and supplier with its customer base located in the Netherlands and Belgium. The company houses approximately 5,500 employees and has a turnover of approximately 9 billion euro. The organization was one of the first companies in the utilities sector to begin with separate compliance activities and integrating these activities with governance and risk management. The GRC maturity questionnaire that was completed by the re-spondents resulted into the figure 3, indicating the present state of GRC maturity and the maturity level the organization is aiming for within 2-3 years. The company proved to be performing at a maturity level of 3+ for many GRC areas, especially risk management. The lower maturity in the Governance domain can be explained because of the fact that the GRC organization is not yet modelled. The company’s ambition is to charter the entire GRC organization with the use of IT and to raise maturity. Also the Compliance domain is lagging behind with respect to Risk management. This can be explained by compliance processes that are not performed as integrated throughout the organization and the use of other, siloed, “home-made”, software.
  • 7. Evaluations on the way the software in the company is used should guide the compliance processes to a higher level. Strategic Alignment. Following our conceptual model as presented in figure 2, the deployment of the GRC IT solution in this case study can be classified as the “Tech-nology transformation” path illustrated in figure 4. The company sensed the need for a specialized solution to support GRC and defined high-level business requirements that should be matched by the GRC solution strategy. The implementation of the GRC solution infrastructure was then done simultaneously and according to the speci- fications of the GRC solution strategy. Governance, Risk and Compliance 209 012345GovernanceRiskComplianceTo bePresent Fig. 3. The present and to be GRC maturity of the Dutch utilities company that was assessed GRC Solution Infrastructure GRC Solution Strategy GRC Organizational Strategy Fig. 4. Strategic alignment by the Dutch utility company through the “technology transforma-tion” path The utility company used IT to manage the controls throughout the organization. Future plans consisted of the ambition to evaluate how an improved connection with other IT solutions available in the company (e.g. process modelling software) could be reached, or whether an entirely different solution should be deployed to replace several different solutions. This could bring the alignment between IT and business and the maturity of the GRC processes to yet a higher level. 4.2 Case 2: Dutch Financial Institution Setting & GRC Maturity. This company is a worldwide financial institution that delivers services in the area of banking, investments, life assurances and pensions. The roots of the institution are present in the Netherlands. The company houses ap-proximately 107,000 employees and has a turnover of approximately 47 billion euro. Besides laws like SOX, the institution has to comply with the Basel II framework (see www.bis.org/publ/bcbsca.htm for further information). This set of international stan-dards and best practices has led to a specific arrangement of the organization into four departments operating as silos. The maturity questionnaire as completed by the 210 A. Shahim, R. Batenburg, and G. Vermunt respondents results in figure 5. It shows the present state of GRC maturity and the maturity the organization is aiming for within 2-3 years. The institution proves to be at a 3+ maturity for all three areas. The ambition is still to keep on improving the maturity of the GRC practices in their organization, supported by a GRC solution. The institution is quite ambitious in its approach towards GRC. This is, among others, represented by the fact that a chief risk officer is represented on the board. The or- ganization recognizes that a higher maturity concerning GRC can only be obtained by enhancements in the integration between the four departments and to start performing GRC as one integrated activity across the institution. IT needs to play a critical part in this process of integration, but can only be effectively used when it is aligned with the GRC business processes across the organization. 012345GovernanceRiskComplianceTo bePresent Fig. 5. The present and to be GRC maturity level of the Dutch financial institution that was assessed GRC Solution Strategy GRC Solution Infrastructure GRC Organizational Infrastructure Fig. 6. Strategic alignment of the Dutch financial institution through the “service level” path Strategic Alignment. As shown in figure 6, the deployment of the IT solution can be characterized by the “service level” perspective, following our conceptual model in figure 2. When aligning IT with the business, the GRC solution strategy of the
  • 8. finan-cial institution was the main driver because the actual GRC solution infrastructure Governance, Risk and Compliance 211 would act as an addition to already available software. Then, the GRC IT solution was adapted the business processes, based on the processes incorporated in the software. Currently the solution is fully operational within the Operations & IT department, and several other departments have followed this implementation. The institution has the ambition to further deploy the solution throughout the organization, creating one integrated way of handling GRC. 5 Conclusions This paper was triggered by a need to answer the research question: How can an inte-grated GRC approach be applied in organizations using a strategic alignment perspec-tive? To achieve an answer to this question, several theoretical definitions of integrated GRC were reviewed, and a strategic alignment perspective was developed for the GRC domain which resulted in an approach to assess the GRC maturity and alignment paths for organizations. The empirical part of the paper then showed how the strategic perspective on GRC and its corresponding assessment framework were applied to two case studies. A large Dutch utility company and a financial institution were studied through a limited number of interviews with responsible managers who also provided feedback on the GRC assessment. Comparing the results of the two case studies showed that organizations have attained similar GRC maturity levels, while they have followed quite different paths to align IT to the business domain. Where the organizational strategy with regard to GRC led at the Dutch utility com-pany, the financial institution selected a path in which the IT solution strategy was taken as starting point. In interpreting this result, it appears that the existing IT assets impact strongly on the selection of the alignment path. This paper provides new insights but also invites an initiation of new directions for further research. One such direction is to practically support organizations that ex-perience Governance, Risk and Compliance as separate and siloed concepts, and want to develop a holistic and united perspective to these concepts. Obviously, another direction for further research is to further validate and enrich our GRC maturity and alignment approach. References 1. Chandler, A.D.: Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the history of American Enterprise. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1962) 2. Dupuis, M., Endicott-Popovsky, B., Wang, H., Subramaniam, I., Du, Y.: Top-down man-dates and the need for organizational governance, risk management, and compliance in China: A discussion, Asia-Pacific Economic Association (APEA). In: Sixth Annual Confe-rence, Hong Kong (July 2010) 3. Frigo, M.L., Anderson, R.J.: A strategic framework for governance, risk and compliance. Strategic Finance 90(8), 20–61 (2009) 4. Henderson, J.C., Venkatraman, N.: Strategic alignment: Leveraging Information Technol-ogy for transforming organizations. IBM Systems Journal 32(1), 472–484 (1999) 212 A. Shahim, R. Batenburg, and G. Vermunt 5. Koenig, D.R.: Enterprise risk management: A 360 degree review, Ductilibility, LLC, Sep-tember 11 (2008) 6. KPMG: Survival of the most informed: GRC comes of age – How to envision, strategize, and lead to achieve enterprise resilience. KPMG International Cooperative (2010) 7. Madlener, J.J.: The implications of integrating governance, risk and compliance in busi-ness intelligence systems on corporate performance management. Erasmus University Rot-terdam (2008) 8. Marks, N.: What is GRC and why does it matter? SAP, London (2010) 9. Mitchell, S.L., Stern Switzer, C.: GRC capability model Red Book 2.0. Open Compliance & Ethics Group, OCEG (April 2009) 10.
  • 9. MHI: Collaborative accountability in governance, risk, & compliance: Creating harmony across business roles, White Paper, MHI (2010) 11. OCEG: OCEG Corporate Compliance and Ethics Maturity ModelTM (2007a), http://www.oceg.org/Download/OCCEMM 12. OCEG: OCEG Corporate Governance Maturity ModelTM (2007b), http://www.oceg.org/Download/CGMM 13. OCEG: OCEG Matrix Adapted from RIMS ERM Risk maturity Model (2007c), http://www.oceg.org/Download/RIMSERMM 14. Racz, S., Weippl, E., Seufert, A.: A frame of reference for research of integrated gover-nance, risk and compliance (GRC). International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) (2010) 15. Robb, D.: IT-business alignment takes a step forward with GRC, CIO Update (March 9, 2010) 16. Sarbanes, P., Oxley, M.: Text of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. US Congress, Washington (2002) 17. Scheper, W.: Business IT Alignment: oplossing voor de productiviteitsparadox. Informa- tion Science. Utrecht University, Utrecht (2002) 18. Streng, R.J.: Corporate governance, internal control and risk management: The key role of information systems. Bertius Publishers, Moordrecht (2010) 19. Tarantino, A.: Governance, risk and compliance handbook: Technology, finance, environ-mental, and international guidance and best practices. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken (2008) 20. Tiazkun, S., Borovick, L.: Governance, risk and compliance. White Paper. IDC (2007) 21. Vemuri, A.: Strategic themes in risk and compliance. FINSight 2, 2–5 (2008) 22. Venkatraman, N., Henderson, J.C., Oldach, S.: Continuous Strategic Alignment: Exploit-ing Information Technology Capabilities for Competitive Success. European Management Journal 11(2), 139–149 (1993) View publication stats 2/2/23, 4:47 AMGlobal GRC User SurveyPage 1 of 2https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5TBKPJV Global GRC User Survey DisappointedImprovedSatisfiedVerySatisfiedNoimprovementneededN/AProcess - ease ofinstallation/integrationPerformance - resultsmet or exceededexpectationsPrice - product valuemet or exceededproduct expensePeople - strongtechnical expertiseTraining/Support - service after the saleOther (please specify)14. Please rate your degree of satisfaction with your current GRC tools/application? 2/2/23, 4:47 AMGlobal GRC User SurveyPage 2 of 2https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5TBKPJVPowered bySee how easy it is to create a survey. 2/2/23, 4:46 AMGlobal GRC User SurveyPage 1 of 2https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5TBKPJVGlobal GRC User Survey Low valueSome valueMediumvalueHigh valueSuperiorvalueN/ARisk analysis/modelingBusiness workflowsDocumentmanagementRegulatory updatesExternal risk incidentsRiskdashboard/reportingRisk assessmentsAudit findingsOnline policies &proceduresLegal libraryIT standardsIncident managementBusiness continuityBoard reportingDataintegration/aggregation13. Please rate the importance of GRC application features: 2/2/23, 4:46 AMGlobal GRC User SurveyPage 2 of 2https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5TBKPJV Powered bySee how easy it is to create a survey.Other (please specify)