Sizing Up the 2010 GRC Market: Continuous Monitoring Tops the List of Spending Priorities
Posted on November 19th, 2009 by Katina »Permalink
In addition to apple cider, turkeys and holidays, this time of year also marks the beginning of the “year in review” and “year ahead” article season. Louis Thompson, over at Compliance Week get us kicked off this week with his column on what lies ahead for the 2010 proxy and annual meeting season. His prediction? Nothing short of the “greatest challenges that most have experienced in recent memory”. Yikes!
So what are companies doing to make those annual meetings go more smoothly? While, following on in the spirit of the season we have – hot off the presses – AMR Research’s annual GRC market study and spending forecast (access a complimentary copy of the report here) to give us a sneak peek. According to John Hagerty and Bob Kraus US companies will pour $29.8 billion at governance, risk & compliance in 2010. With 47% of that money going towards internal efforts there’s clearly more than a little room to automate and improve current approaches.
As you drill down into the details of the study it gets pretty interesting. Continuous controls monitoring (CCM) tops the list of 2010 GRC software investment priorities. According to AMR, the market has shifted as companies look not just to “define the GRC universe” but to take the next step towards managing and monitoring against it. Translation: companies have invested billions of dollars in documenting their processes but they often have little assurance that those policies are being adhered to. Manual processes and self-assessments are still the rule when it comes to evaluating whether the rules are being followed (don’t forget that’s where $14 of the $29.8 billion is going to go next year).
Enter continuous controls monitoring. Asked about why they were investing in CCM, respondents to AMR’s survey focused on cost reduction, fraud reduction, process improvement and policy enforcement. “System configuration, security and access privileges, and the monitoring of business transaction/process (largely financial activities) are moving up the list in terms of priority,” the report says. Heck…as companies save some money with their CCM investments that should leave a little extra to spruce up graphics in the annual reports to get them through the tough 2010 proxy and annual meeting season that lies ahead.
Want to see the full AMR Research spending study? You can access it here. We’ll also be peeling back the layers and looking at data in more detail so we share additional insights as you kick off your own 2010 planning.
March 6th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
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