IMPACT 2016 has come and gone, and risk practitioners from across the United States and Europe were thrilled with the results. IMPACT 2016 was differentiated by the passion behind real customer stories, all shared with actionable takeaways. Topics included third-party risk management, performance integration, cybersecurity, and reporting to the board.
LogicManager’s annual ERM community conference was a breeding ground for new ideas and best practices, drawn from a broad range of industries. We’re excited to share some of those takeaways:
- Hot Topics:
- Third-party risk management
Vendor risk management was possibly the hottest topic at IMPACT 2016. Attendees discussed how, by including their entire vendor communities in their ERM/GRC programs, they’re able to manage contract renewal, use task management for document collection, automate approval workflows, conduct risk assessments, escalate incidents, and execute compliance reviews.
- Cybersecurity and IT frameworks
All industries face the threat of increasing and rapidly evolving cyberattacks. A particularly compelling part of the conference was a detailed walkthrough of a major bank’s ERM program. The company has selected the most appropriate frameworks from industry standards like ISO, COBIT, NIST, and others, and linked them directly to risks, controls, monitoring activities, and governance policies across the enterprise.
- Integrating Performance
IMPACT 2016 participants identified performance management as an integral part of risk management, as does LogicManager. Users from a large public retirement system in Texas demonstrated how these concepts and features come alive in the field; they cascade balanced scorecard objectives to area managers, and feedback is aggregated back up to the board. This connect everyday activities and contributes to the achievement of corporate objectives.
- Shared successes, new ideas, and learning how others are driving value at their organizations.
Customers revealed at IMPACT 2016 that a major success factor was effective engagement of core business areas. Presenters, panelists, and other participants connected and shared how they achieved this engagement. Most often (no matter the industry), they revealed that by approaching different departments and asking managers simple questions such as What are you most concerned about? they were able to foster a culture that values proactive engagement across departments.
“I have pages of notes about how other people are using the system,” said one attendee. “I was totally impressed with how many different industries use LogicManager.”
Conference participants discussed their favorite reports and dashboards, as well as how they use them to communicate with their boards and oversight committees. These insights triggered new ideas and incentives for collaboration after the conference.
- Innovation and change require risk management.
The keynote session, which I delivered with Dr. Paul Walker, Chair in Enterprise Risk Management at St. John's University, focused on how to recognize risks accompanying innovation. It also addressed how to practically identify missing, weak, or outdated controls.
Technology is rapidly changing all industries; the insurance industry is being disrupted by autonomous vehicles, banking by block-chain, and the Internet of Things which is connecting everyday objects – including appliances, cars, clothing, and medical devices – to the internet. This creates a new challenge: how to manage risk across the organization while preserving (and improving) performance?
- There are countless ways to embed a risk-based approach.
One of the most common remarks at IMPACT 2016 was a) that a lot of industries use LogicManager’s ERM software, and b) that the system’s use cases are very diverse.
LogicManager users are successful for a simple reason; the software doesn’t force organizations to adapt a brand new, unfamiliar methodology. It pulls existing processes into a more cohesive whole, increasing efficiency standardizing of any process.
- LogicManager product roadmap 2017.
We shared a roadmap of what is being rolled out to users in 2017, using a live demonstration to give attendees a direct view of the platform’s future. The LogicManager team presented the latest in user experience design, including gamification, making the software more intuitive than ever, improved navigation, and automating rules that can work in the background and route issues to users.
Conference attendees were then connected with both their LogicManager advisors and each other, opening the floor to collaboration and discussion of these new technologies.
For us, IMPACT 2016 was an opportunity to get to know our community and our users: What are they most concerned with? What are their biggest successes, questions, and hopes for the future of the product and the industry?
In a business environment where the primary goal is company performance, it is our job to ensure it can be achieved in concert with the management of surprises and without sacrificing company values or standards. It was unanimous that everyone can hardly wait for IMPACT 2017!
To hear our customer’s highlights from the conference, watch our short IMPACT 2016 video. To learn more about LogicManager, watch our About Us video.
Comments