By Michael Rasmussen
Editor’s note: Today we are featuring a guest blog post from Michael Rasmussen, the GRC Pundit & Analyst at GRC 20/20 Research, LLC.
At its core, GRC is the capability to reliably achieve objectives [GOVERNANCE], address uncertainty [RISK MANAGEMENT], and act with integrity [COMPLIANCE]. GRC is something organizations do, not something they purchase. They govern, they manage risk, and 
they comply with obligations. However, there is technology to enable GRC related processes, such as legal and privacy, to be more efficient, effective, and agile.
However, too often the focus on GRC technology is limited to the process management of forms, workflow, tasks, and reporting. These are critical and important elements, but the role of technology for GRC is so much broader to operationalize GRC activities that are labor intensive, particularly in the context of legal and privacy. Simply managing forms, workflow, and tasks are no longer enough. Organizations need to start thinking how they can integrate eDiscovery and data/information governance solutions within their core GRC architecture.
What is needed is the ability to search, find, monitor, interact, and control data throughout the business environment. GRC platforms are excellent at managing forms, workflow, tasks, analytics, and reporting. But behind the scenes there are still labor-intensive tasks or disconnected solutions that actually find, control, and assess the disposition of sensitive data in the enterprise. eDiscovery and information governance solutions have been disconnected and not strategically leveraged for GRC purposes. Together, the core GRC platform that integrates with eDiscovery and information governance technologies builds exponential economies in efficiency, effectiveness, and agility.
Specifically, an integrated GRC solution that weds the core GRC platform with eDiscovery and information governance technology delivers full value to an organization that:
- Discovers the attributes and metadata of data no matter where it lives within the environment as a key component of GRC processes for legal and privacy compliance.
- Enables 360° awareness to assessments by discovering the information needed to conduct and deliver assessments effectively into the core GRC platform.
- Delivers a centralized console to interact with data/information and metadata of files on devices across the organization (such as network file shares, OneDrive, and Dropbox data).
- Automates the ability to interact with downstream endpoints/systems to provide the ability to search the content of records for keywords and perform analysis using regular expressions and classifiers.
- Controls data wherever it is with the ability to get to the data and analyze it from a centralized console.
An integrated approach that brings together the core GRC platform with eDiscovery and information governance technology enables the organization to discover, manage, monitor, and control data right from the central GRC platform console. It enables the organization to get centralized and accessible insight into where sensitive information is, how it is being used, and what can be done with it.
- For example. Within the GRC platform I can initiate a search based on key words or patterns (e.g., social security number). The eDiscovery/information governance solution then finds where that information is throughout the enterprise and delivers a list of records back to the GRC platform for analysis and monitoring.
This enables an integrated GRC architecture that brings 360° contextual awareness into information across the enterprise. It delivers enhanced efficiency in time saved and money saved chasing information through disconnected solutions and processes, it provides greater effectiveness through insight and control of information and enables greater agility across a dynamic environment to be responsive to issues of information governance. Together, a GRC platform with eDiscovery/information governance capabilities enables and delivers more complete and accurate data governance and privacy assessments, integrated findings, with the ability to manage remediation tasks from one central place.