Enterprise risk management framework

Modern risk exposures are evolving rapidly. Yet, according to Gartner, only 18% of enterprise risk management (ERM) leaders feel confident in identifying and managing emerging risks. The amount of risk and relative lack of preparedness only underscores the need to create a clearer picture of the risks you face using an enterprise risk management framework. 

Regardless of size or industry, every organization approaches ERM from a different starting point. Some may be building foundational risk practices, while others are working to integrate risk management into strategic decision-making. This variation in ERM maturity is key. Early-stage organizations might focus on establishing risk governance and basic processes, while more mature entities may prioritize embedding ERM across business units and aligning it closely with performance goals.

But an ERM framework doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Instead, it’s a guide for how to put your ERM strategy into action. But what exactly is an ERM strategy, and how does that influence your framework? With many enterprise risk management frameworks available, knowing which to choose can be a challenge even after you’ve created a strategy. How do you determine the best ERM framework? And once you’ve made your assessment, how do you implement your chosen framework?

What is enterprise risk management (ERM)?

ERM is proactive and forward-looking rather than reviewing risks that have already happened, as traditional risk management tends to do. Unlike traditional risk management, ERM looks at the “opportunity” certain risks present rather than focusing on total risk avoidance. This makes ERM a strategic tool for boards rather than the reactive process that traditional risk management can be.

“ERM views risks through the lens of both protecting and creating value. The best ERM leaders take seriously not only identifying which risks to avoid but also those worth taking.” — Scott Bridgen, General Manager at Diligent Corporation

Consider this: A U.S. financial services company recently wrapped up its eighth acquisition and needed to reduce its risk. Lack of visibility across the enterprise introduced unnecessary risk and prevented the board from getting a real-time view of performance. In this case, ERM looked like implementing a single solution across ERM, compliance, policy management, internal audit and SOX. Using a single solution facilitated an integrated view of risk across the entire organization, making it easier for the board to take a risk-aware approach to growth.

You can read more about ERM's meaning and how it differs from integrated risk management in our article on ERM vs. IRM.

Types of enterprise risk

Organizations face countless different types of risk: financial, cyber, environmental and more. However, some types of enterprise risk are more common than others. Most enterprise risk management strategies should account for the following risk types:

Strategic risk: These risks would directly interfere with an organization’s ability to achieve its strategic objectives.

1. Operational risk: These risks arise during day-to-day activities, including weaknesses in processes, policies or systems.
2. Compliance risk: As the name implies, these risks occur whenever an organization is non-compliant with laws and regulations.
3. Financial risk: Companies exist to make money, and financial risks are anything that prevents companies from doing so.
4. Reputational risk: Anything damaging the organization’s public image or stakeholder trust is part of ERM, including negative media coverage, ethics violations or customer dissatisfaction.
5. Technology and cybersecurity risk: These are risks from IT systems, digital tools and cyber threats, such as data breaches or ransomware.
6. Environmental and external risk: Anything outside the organization’s control falls into this category. Examples include natural disasters, pandemics, political instability and economic downturns.
7. Human capital risk: Anything that could put your workforce at risk falls into this category. These risks typically encompass leadership turnover, labor disputes, employee turnover and more.

What is the goal of enterprise risk management?

The primary goal of enterprise risk management is to identify, assess, manage, and monitor risks across the organization. Doing so doesn’t just avoid harm but‌ helps leaders make better, more confident decisions.

In simpler terms, effective ERM helps organizations:

• Avoid costly surprises by surfacing risks before they escalate.
• Aligning risk appetite with strategy, so that the company only takes on risks it can tolerate.
• Improving resource allocation by prioritizing risks that matter most to long-term success.

When ERM is done well, risk becomes less of a threat and more of a strategic advantage.

Why is ERM important?

ERM is important because it is a strategic asset. According to PwC, 62% of organizations seek to uncover opportunities within risks. Moreover, the risk pioneers, as PwC calls it — organizations viewing risk as value creation — were more than two times more likely to have improved financial performance due to effective risk mitigation.

In this light, the right ERM strategy can make risk something to embrace. The more risks you can identify, the more you can either mitigate or become a value add for the entire organization.

ERM also helps organizations:

1. Avoid loss: Organizations that proactively identify risks can address them before they develop into operational failures, legal issues or financial losses.
2. Make better decisions: ERM zeroes in on the risks most likely to interfere with ‌ strategic objectives. With fewer risks to analyze, data is more accurate and timely, empowering boards to act strategically.
3. Define roles and responsibilities: To effectively manage risk, leadership must assign risk ownership to different people or departments. ERM facilitates greater accountability around risk, making it easier to mitigate.
4. Create a culture of compliance: ERM reduces risk by making it an organization-wide initiative. This engages employees at all levels in managing risk, yielding a more compliant culture.
5. Unlock innovation and opportunity: Well-managed risk can open doors. Organizations that understand their risk landscape are more likely to pursue new markets, partnerships and technologies with the confidence to scale responsibly.

Who is ERM for?

A common misconception is that enterprise risk management is only relevant for large corporations with complex operations and dedicated risk teams. But in reality, ERM principles are valuable for organizations of all sizes and sectors.

ERM isn’t about adding bureaucracy — it’s about making smarter, more informed decisions. Whether you're a multinational enterprise managing global risks or a growing company navigating market uncertainty, the core idea remains the same: understanding the risks that could impact your objectives, and having a structured approach to managing them.

Smaller organizations, in particular, can benefit from adopting ERM early. Building a risk-aware culture and establishing clear accountability from the outset can help avoid costly surprises down the line. And because ERM is scalable, you don’t need to implement a full-blown framework overnight. Even simple practices — like consistent risk assessments, scenario planning, or defining roles and responsibilities — can deliver meaningful value and lay the groundwork for more mature risk practices in the future.

ERM is not just for risk professionals — it’s for leaders at every level who want to build resilience, protect value, and support better decision-making across the organization.

The relationship between strategy and ERM

Enterprise risk management is a methodology, but it’s also a strategy that governs an organization’s view of and response to enterprise risks. At the same time, ERM safeguards the broader corporate strategy and objectives; ERM addresses any risks that may threaten it.

But how exactly does ERM advance risk management from being reactionary to strategic? With the right framework, ERM:

1. Identifies risks before they happen
2. Creates a holistic view of significant risks
3. Assesses risk through the lens of its impact on objectives
4. Decreases the occurrence of risks that threaten objectives

In that way, modern organizations can’t achieve their strategic objectives without an equally strategic approach to ERM. Boards should treat ERM like a meteorologist, forecasting the winds that would either help or hinder the organization as it advances to new frontiers.

Elements of an effective enterprise risk management strategy

An enterprise risk management strategy has several different pieces, all working together to inform how the organization approaches enterprise risk. As you develop your own ERM strategy, consider:

• What drives revenue: ERM protects revenue against risks. To develop an ERM strategy, you must understand where that revenue comes from. Is it a product? A set of operations? The strategy you set should secure that value driver.
• The corporate strategy: In addition to what drives revenue now, what is anticipated to drive revenue based on the corporate strategy? The ERM process should account for both.
• Risk identification: The next step is identifying risks that could inhibit the organization from achieving its objectives. Consider both existing and emerging risks that could impact organizational performance.
• Components of ERM: An ERM strategy needs nine different components. Now that you know what ERM should achieve, consider how that applies to elements ranging from your internal environment to your risk reporting.
• ERM framework: The above elements of your ERM strategy then fold into an ERM framework, which is the game plan organizations can follow to prevent risks from developing.
• ERM reporting: Monitoring is key to ERM since even the best strategies must evolve over time. Reporting gives the board visibility into ERM performance and informs how the strategy can be improved.
• ERM maturity model: Finally, organizations should consider how their ERM will mature. As organizations engage with ERM, they may use new, more comprehensive models that better suit the newfound complexity of their strategy.

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Enterprise risk management policy

Your enterprise risk management policy is your rules of the road. It sets formal expectations, principles and rules for how your organization manages risk, all rooted in your overarching ERM strategy. Following an ERM policy makes it easier for everyone at all levels to follow a consistent risk approach.

While the contents of your policy will likely be unique, a typical enterprise risk management policy template includes:

• Purpose and scope: Define why the policy exists and what areas of the organization it applies to.
• Risk management objectives: Articulate what your organization aims to achieve through ERM. This could be protecting assets, achieving strategic goals or building resilience.
• Guiding principles: Consider core values or standards to incorporate into your ERM approach, such as whether to prioritize risk-informed decision-making, transparency, accountability or something else.
• Governance and roles: Identify who is responsible for what. Outline clear areas of oversight for the board, senior management, specific risk owners, the audit committee and other key stakeholders.
• Risk appetite and tolerance: State how much risk the organization will take to pursue its objectives. For example, you could explain that you have a low tolerance for compliance violations or risks that could compromise the safety or well-being of those you serve, but a higher tolerance for financial risk within approved budgets.
• ERM process overview: Detail how you will identify, assess, treat, monitor and report risk.
• Reporting and communication requirements: Make it clear how frequently and in what format stakeholders should report risks. Include who sees which information and when.
• Policy compliance and review: Finish off your policy with details about monitoring compliance and how often you’ll review and update the policy.

What is an enterprise risk management framework?

An enterprise risk management framework puts rigor around your ERM strategy, helping you execute performance-enhancing ERM. It provides structure, consistency and the assurance that you have covered all the necessary issues.

An ERM Framework can help leadership understand, prioritize and act on key risks. It can also help those on the ground implement risk-management programs in accordance with regulatory, organizational and best-practice guidelines. Thus, it can help drive a consistent risk-management culture, minimizing the chance of risks “slipping through the cracks.”

Watch this episode of Inside America's Boardrooms as Catherine Hall, Director of PwC's Governance Insights Center, frames the ERM landscape and offers guidance for boards navigating this ever-evolving space.

How to develop an enterprise risk management framework

What are the components of an ERM framework? There are a few steps to building an enterprise risk management framework.

1. Set up a senior-level steering committee

It’s vital to have senior leadership on board to drive the development of your ERM framework forward. Your committee will play a key role in determining accountabilities and roles within the framework, signaling the project's importance to the rest of the workforce.

2. Ensure everyone has a shared understanding of risk

As with all big topics, understanding and terminology around risk can vary widely within a business. Establishing standard terms and a consistent frame of reference is an essential early step.

3. Set out roles and responsibilities

Who will take responsibility for what in your enterprise risk management strategy? There are roles not just for your board and senior leaders. Management, business unit leaders and people throughout each function all have a part to play, and you must clearly define their roles.

ERM is far from being the preserve only of your compliance, risk and internal audit teams — but their expertise will mean they have central roles in the process.

4. Identify your risks

Your business units must work with your risk management team to build a comprehensive list of organizational risks. Review your risks, including their severity and likelihood, the internal controls that manage them and your approach to mitigating them.

5. Document your risks and risk appetite

Once you’ve identified the organization’s risks, ensure every business area captures them in a formal statement. And ensure that this documents not just your risks but also your approach to dealing with them. Which risks should you avoid at all costs, and which risks can you tolerate? Are there risks you should actively take, as the potential opportunity outweighs the threat?

6. Prioritize all your risks

Prioritize the risks you face and implement mitigation plans for those you cannot avoid.

7. Establish an ERM methodology

This means putting in place consistent and agreed-upon definitions of key terms (does everyone understand the same thing by the word “risk,” for example?), roles, and processes to identify, review, measure and report the risks you face.

Many established ERM frameworks exist (and we look at these in more detail below). Explore whether you can draw on, adopt or adapt an existing framework.

8. Monitor and report on the risks you face

ERM — and implementing an ERM framework — isn’t a “once and done” exercise. It involves continuously monitoring the risks you face; these will change regularly in today’s volatile world. Therefore, your ERM framework needs to be agile, adaptable and reviewed periodically to ensure it still aligns with your business's threats.

Examples: Leading enterprise risk management frameworks

Organizations need to weigh the positives of using a tried-and-tested framework against the potential benefits of developing a customized ERM framework. For organizations considering launching an ERM program, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, what works best depends on your organization’s objectives, risk culture and current level of maturity.

Using a tried-and-tested ERM framework offers a strong starting point, especially for organizations new to enterprise risk management. These models are built on best practices, refined over time, and provide structure, common language and guidance that can help streamline implementation.

At the same time, some organizations may find that tailoring a framework to their specific needs offers greater flexibility and better alignment with internal processes. A customized approach allows you to scale ERM in a way that reflects your size, industry, and culture, which is an advantage if existing frameworks feel too rigid or overly complex for your context.

Ultimately, you don’t have to choose one or the other. Many organizations start with a recognized framework and gradually adapt it over time.

So, what is the best enterprise risk management framework? The answer is it depends on your organization’s needs, but here are several commonly used ERM frameworks:

The Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) ERM Framework

Along with the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA), the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) sponsors a risk management website. The site includes resources companies can access on ERM, including an ERM framework.

The COSO ERM Integrated Framework

The Committee of Sponsoring Organisations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) ERM framework is titled Enterprise Risk Management—Integrating with Strategy and Performance. The COSO enterprise risk management framework incorporates guidelines from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), and as such, the purpose of the COSO enterprise risk management framework is aligned closely with the needs of businesses that need to comply with SOX; financial institutions, banks and other large corporations in the scope of SOX regulation.

The ISO 31000 ERM Framework

The ISO 31000:2018 Risk Management framework is an international standard built by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It is a cyclical framework that delivers risk management guidelines and principles.

ISO reviews the framework every five years to keep pace with changes in the risk landscape. The organization can customize it, making it relevant across sectors and organization sizes.

The NIST ERM Framework

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework focuses on cybersecurity, aimed at organizations doing business with U.S. government agencies.

The COBIT ERM Framework

The COBIT ERM framework was designed by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) to connect the dots between technical and strategic risks. It recognizes that technology risks now pervade all areas of organizations and are not confined to the IT department.

The RIMS Risk Maturity Model® ERM framework

The Risk Management Society’s RIMS Risk Maturity Model® provides standardized criteria by which organizations can benchmark risk management strategies, assess the maturity of their risk mitigation programs and identify strengths, weaknesses and next steps.

The OECG GRC Capability Model

This model integrates governance, risk and compliance (GRC) into one streamlined approach. It emphasizes doing the right thing while achieving business goals, making it a sound risk approach for organizations that prioritize ethics and compliance.

The Basel II/III Framework

The Basel Frameworks II and III are best for enterprise risk management in banks and financial institutions. They focus specifically on credit risk, operational risk and market risk. The framework also guides navigating regulatory oversight.

Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT)

CIOs and digital transformation leaders may favor COBIT, an ERM model focusing on risk management with IT governance and technology lean. It offers tools for aligning IT with business goals while managing the associated risks.

Enterprise risk management plan

Your ERM plan is the blueprint that brings your framework of choice to life. It translates ERM strategy, policy and risk appetite into clear, practical steps your organization will take to identify, assess, manage and monitor risks.

Here’s a typical structure:

1. Objectives of the plan: State why the enterprise risk management plan exists and how it supports the ERM strategy and relevant organizational goals.
2. Scope: What areas or types of risks does the plan cover? This should mention enterprise-wide risk, but you could also integrate program-specific or departmental risks.
3. Risk management process: Describe each stage of the risk cycle in detail. Read more about this below.
4. Roles and responsibilities: Identify who is involved in risk management, typically the risk owner, the risk committee and the executive sponsor. Be specific about what each role is accountable for.
5. Risk register and tracking: Part of ERM is keeping a comprehensive record of new and current risks. Build an enterprise risk management plan template for tracking risks and describing how they will be maintained. Include how and when new risks will be added and current risks updated.
6. Communication and reporting plan: What reports will you generate, and for whom? Define a reporting structure and an internal communications strategy supportive of a risk-aware culture.
7. Training and capacity building: Include details about how you will train staff on risk awareness, processes and tools.
8. Integration with strategic planning and decision-making: Your risk plan should connect with budgeting, planning and project management. Documenting these linkages encourages risk-informed decision-making, not just compliance.
9. Monitoring and review: Develop a plan to evaluate and update the ERM plan, ensuring it keeps pace with the evolving risks you face.

Enterprise risk management process

Your enterprise risk management process is integral to your ERM plan. This process takes you from identifying a risk to mitigating it. In essence, there is no ERM without a documented risk management plan.

Most risk management follows a five-step ERM process:

1. Risk identification: Define how you will surface risks. This could be workshops, stakeholder interviews, audits or something unique to your organization.
2. Risk assessment: Be specific about how you will evaluate the likelihood that the risk will be borne and the impact if it does. You could score risks, create heat maps or rely on enterprise risk management software.
3. Risk prioritization: Decide how you will rank risks based on the information you collect during the assessment, then define which risks get the most attention based on those rankings.
4. Risk response and treatment: Develop strategies for addressing risks. These can include whether to accept, avoid, transfer or mitigate risks.
5. Risk monitoring and reporting: Finally, determine how you will track, review and escalate risks so that no one is left unaware.

The larger the organization, the more essential — and the more difficult — it is to follow a clear process. Duopharma Biotech Barhard, for example, maintained a complex ERM process, involving a spreadsheet with more than 2,000 risks registered and 250 risk owners across multiple global jurisdictions. It needed a solution to process data faster, reduce errors and streamline reporting to maintain this process.

The company adopted Diligent Enterprise Risk Management, expediting its ERM process. Instead of a week, it could generate reports in just three days, allowing risk teams to spend less time identifying risks and more time analyzing and prioritizing them.

“We’re now doing more analysis, which leads to more excitement and education for my team, but most importantly, more strategy for the organization,” says Anita Esa, Head of Group Risk Management at Duopharma Biotech Berhard.

ERM risk assessments in 7 steps

Whether your ERM process succeeds or fails is largely due to your risk assessments. A solid ERM risk assessment should identify and prioritize risks impacting your goals so you can respond effectively.

To conduct one:

1. Define objectives and scope: Document which goals you’re protecting. These could be financial stability, service delivery, compliance or something else. Be specific about which part of the organization you are assessing. Your objectives and scope should ultimately align with your ERM framework and risk appetite.
2. Identify risks: You then need to identify the risks you’ll assess. You could interview leadership or staff, review past incidents or audits or analyze environmental trends. Focus on those most likely to impede the goals you’ve already defined.
3. Assess likelihood and impact: Your goal in this step is to understand how likely the risk is and how bad the effect on the organization could be. ERM leaders most commonly use a 1-5 scoring scale, with criteria for each level. For example, score both Likelihood and Impact from 1 for low and 5 for high. Multiply the two together to get a total risk score.
4. Categorize risks: Rank risks using their scores from high to low. Flag your top risks as those that need immediate action or proactive monitoring. Consider qualitative context, too. Some risks may not score high but could be reputationally critical.
5. Determine risk responses: Decide how to handle each risk. This usually includes stopping the activity, reducing its likelihood or impact, getting insurance or a partner to transfer the risk or accepting the risk if it is within your tolerance.
6. Document risks: Build or update a risk register describing each risk with likelihood and impact scores, owner, current controls, planned actions and status updates. Enterprise risk management software can also do this for you.
7. Review and update regularly: Assess risk regularly as part of broader business cycles, like annual planning. You can also reassess after big events, such as a leadership change.

ERM acceptance

Imagine you have to upgrade a technology system, which will require downtime. That downtime is a risk — you could upset or even lose users. However, scheduling it during a low-usage period within user tolerance will reduce the risk. In this scenario, your best option is often ERM acceptance — identifying and understanding a risk and accepting it for now.

While your ERM risk assessment will undoubtedly yield risks worth acting on, there will always be risks you must accept and monitor. Most ERM leaders start to accept risks if:

• The cost of mitigation is higher than the potential impact
• The likelihood is low, and the impact is minimal
• The risk is inherent in a necessary activity, like upgrading your system in the example above
• There are no viable mitigation options, in which case, you make a contingency plan instead

In all cases, however, it’s important to remember that acceptance isn’t ignorance or avoidance.

Frequency of enterprise risk management framework review

How often is the enterprise risk management framework reviewed? As we noted above, the environment in which you manage risk is constantly evolving. In a volatile world, you must regularly revisit your approach to risk to ensure it positions you firmly to counter emerging threats.

The same is true of your enterprise risk management framework. As noted above, some of the ERM framework examples are reviewed on a set timeframe. Whether you adopt or draw from existing frameworks or create your own bespoke ERM framework, regular reviews of your framework’s process, structure, and steps are essential.

Consider the City of Lethbridge. While it had a legacy approach to internal audit, it launched a new enterprise risk management program that called for a systematic process for risk assessment, response, monitoring, escalation and reporting, as well as the ability to display dashboards and show the effectiveness of its controls.

Implementing a tool like Diligent ERM empowered them to immediately review which controls best captured risk, and adapt as needed. Reviewing risks regularly via the tool’s dashboard also enabled it to determine where its ERM program needs more resources.

How small to medium-sized companies can manage risk without a full-scale ERM program

Yet, SMBs face very real risks that are constantly evolving. Bad actors and hackers may even target SMBs because of the perceived unsophistication of their risk approach. So, how do you improve your risk oversight without going all-in on ERM? By using AI to zero in on risk quickly.

Tools like Diligent AI Risk Essentials offer AI-powered benchmarking to quickly identify the most popular risks based on your company, industry or category. In less than seven days, rapid implementation builds confidence with leadership and the board. It also sets a solid foundation for longer-term ERM maturity — all without the expense of building a new team or area of expertise.

Structuring your risk management plan around AI Risk Essentials:

1. Gives you visibility across 120,000+ risks: AI-powered risk benchmarking reviews risks from SEC 10k reports and identifies those most likely to impact you. This makes it easier to comb through more risks in less time and surface only those worth acting on.
2. Integrates everything you need in one platform: Use one tool for risk assessments, interactive heatmaps and key risks insights driven by AI-powered benchmarking data. No fragmentation or overgrown tech stack — just better alignment and collaboration across teams.
3. Matures your risk management quickly: Evolve your risk program from spreadsheets to intuitive, AI-powered software in a simple three-step process. This unites your team around critical risk insights so they can make proactive, risk-aware decisions.
4. Saves time and reduces complexity: Governance, risk and compliance (GRC) technology are complex by design, which can easily overburden smaller risk teams. AI Risk Essentials includes the exact features you need to manage risk effectively now without overwhelming your team.
5. Cultivates your team’s expertise: Growing your team’s knowledge base is critical to advancing your ERM approach. Diligent’s new ERM Certification and comprehensive training library make it easy to upskill your team without overlooking the risks you currently face.

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Evolve your business with enterprise risk management

Enterprise risk management is a journey, not a destination. You assess your objectives, identify risks and implement an ERM strategy that will grow with your organization. You’ll then put an ERM framework in place to guide the day-to-day execution of ERM practices. This, too, will grow over time.

Though any ERM strategy indeed has to start somewhere, spreadsheets and documents won’t always be enough to provide the security modern businesses need. For SMBs, Diligent AI Risk Essentials is an excellent starting point. It uses AI to benchmark and quickly highlight the most relevant risks for your company, industry or category.

However, for more mature ERM programs, solutions like Enterprise Risk Management from Diligent, also part of the Diligent One Platform, are better suited.

Finding the right solution for your organization is essential and Diligent’s three-tier ERM product suite makes it possible. The ERM product suite offers a range of solutions that scale with clients’ needs as they mature and require more advanced ERM solutions. Download our ERM software buyer’s guide for a complete list of criteria to consider when upgrading your current system.

FAQ

What is the meaning of ERM?

Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a structured, organization-wide approach to identifying, assessing, managing and monitoring risks that could impact your strategic objectives. Unlike siloed risk management, ERM integrates risk considerations into decision-making across all departments, helping organizations anticipate threats, seize opportunities, and achieve long-term resilience.

What is the difference between ERM and traditional risk management?

Traditional risk management often occurs in silos (e.g., IT, legal, compliance), with each department handling its own risks independently. ERM, by contrast, is enterprise-wide, aligning risk activities with strategic goals and ensuring cross-functional coordination, governance, and reporting. It’s proactive, integrated and future-focused.

What is enterprise risk management in banks?

In banking, enterprise risk management is a critical function that ensures financial institutions identify, assess and manage risks that could threaten capital, compliance or reputation. These risks include:

• Credit risk
• Market risk
• Operational risk
• Liquidity risk
• Compliance and regulatory risk

Banks must follow strict regulatory frameworks like Basel III and implement robust ERM programs to ensure stability, satisfy regulators and maintain public trust. ERM in this sector often involves advanced modeling, stress testing and real-time risk monitoring.

What challenges may I face by monitoring risk in spreadsheets?

Spreadsheets are often the starting point for risk tracking, but they come with serious limitations:

• Data silos: Risk information becomes fragmented and hard to share across teams.
• Version control issues: Multiple versions can cause confusion and errors.
• Manual updates: Increases the risk of inaccuracies and missed deadlines.
• Lack of real-time visibility: Makes it more challenging to respond quickly to emerging risks.
• Limited scalability: As your organization grows, spreadsheets become cumbersome and unmanageable.

Modern ERM software automates and centralizes risk data for better accuracy, accountability, and insight.

How do I know what level of risk maturity my organization has and identify the right software for us?

Start by assessing your risk maturity — the degree to which your risk practices are defined, repeatable and embedded into decision-making. Key indicators include:

• Do you have a risk policy or framework?
• Are risks consistently assessed across departments?
• Is leadership engaged in risk discussions?
• Are decisions informed by risk data?

Once you know your maturity level (emerging, developing, integrated, advanced), look for software that:

• Matches your current capabilities
• Offers room to grow (e.g., workflows, integrations, dashboards)
• Supports standard frameworks like COSO or ISO 31000

Some vendors even offer maturity assessment tools as part of their onboarding process.

How can I find a solution that will scale with me?

Look for an ERM platform that offers:

• User-based pricing or flexible plans: So you’re not overpaying early on.
• Customizable workflows and reporting: Adapt the platform to your needs, not the other way around.
• Robust integrations: With tools like Power BI, Salesforce, or your internal systems.
• Strong customer support and training: Ensures long-term success, especially as your team or complexity increases.

Scalability is not just about size — it’s about supporting your evolving risk culture.

What to look for in a risk solution for enterprise companies?

Enterprise-ready ERM solutions should be:

• Comprehensive enough to manage all risk types
• Configurable to your workflows
• Secure and compliant with industry standards (e.g., GDPR, SOX)
• Collaborative, supporting multi-user input and visibility Audit-ready with logs and reporting
• GRC-friendly to support governance, risk and compliance holistically

What is a risk register, and do I need one?

A risk register is a centralized record of all known risks, including their likelihood, potential impact, mitigation efforts, and status. It’s essential for:

• Monitoring enterprise-wide risk
• Prioritizing actions
• Supporting audits and reporting

ERM software usually includes dynamic, filterable risk registers.

How often should I update my risk assessments?

• High-priority risks: Review quarterly
• All risks: Refresh annually
• After major changes: Anytime strategy, operations, or the external environment shifts

Automated reminders and workflows in ERM platforms help streamline updates.

Can ERM help with ESG or cyber risk?

Yes. ERM frameworks can incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and cyber risks into your organization’s overall risk profile, enabling unified risk management across financial, operational and reputational domains.