On February 15, Forrester released
The Forrester Wave: Governance, Risk, and Compliance Platforms, Q1 2018. SAP continues to be rated a leader. But the market for governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) platforms is maturing, and at SAP, we believe the criteria for evaluating and selecting a vendor are evolving.
Should you choose the GRC vendor with the strongest current offering or the GRC vendor with the strongest strategy?
Or is there a third and better option?
I think there is. To illustrate my point, let's take a look at car entertainment systems as an example.
Keep Your Eyes on the Road, Not the Vendor
Anyone buying a new car has access to consumer reports comparing and rating vehicle manufacturers and models against a variety of criteria. Vehicle entertainment systems are among the criteria rated.
However, for most vehicles made in the last 5-10 years, the supplier of the original equipment vehicle entertainment system is not displayed. In some cases, the supplier is not even mentioned in the owner’s manual. There may be a lesson here for customers looking for GRC solutions.
In automobiles, the entertainment system is an outcome, not a separate process. The outcome is evaluated, not the vendor. Customers evaluate and purchase the complete vehicle, not an individual component.
In my recent vehicle purchase, the UI of the OEM entertainment system was rated poorly in several analyst reports.
The real issue, however, isn’t whether the vehicle entertainment system’s UI is easy to learn. That may be a useful criterion for an in-home entertainment system. But the critical criterion for the UI in a vehicle entertainment system is this: Can you use it while keeping your eyes on the road?
That is the essential outcome. Acoustic performance is a given.
But can the system add value and synergies from other vehicle systems through native integration and continuous monitoring?
- Does the entertainment system provide continuous monitoring of the vehicle navigation system, integration with the alarm system, compatibility with the mobile communication and vehicle maintenance systems?
- Does it provide audio alerts for maintenance and safety issues?
- Will it warn you of hazards ahead?
- Does it connect to the cloud?
- Does it make the vehicle better?
The specific stand-alone features and UI of the entertainment system in your vehicle are important but secondary to the main goal.
Integration of the system into the vehicle’s overall performance is the key criterion. Criteria that help you select a home entertainment system are not useful for evaluating a system for your car. And beyond the core capabilities that are important for your home entertainment system, are there other features that add value and influence the car-buying decision?
The Path for ERP Providers in the GRC Market
The goal is balance and integration. GRC performance without strategy is short-lived. GRC strategy without strong capability is not effective. Growing both simultaneously is difficult, but in the end, is the only sustainable option.
I’d suggest that is exactly where an ERP provider should be positioned and exactly the trajectory to follow.
Eventually, GRC systems, like car entertainment systems, will be subsumed into the ERP landscape of your business. The value of the GRC systems will lie in their integration into the underlying ERP system and the cloud and their contribution to performance, not in their stand-alone virtues.
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This article originally appeared on SAP's D!gitalist magazine and has been republished with permission.
