Two articles in Risk Management magazine in the late 1990’s decrying the lack of good ERM technology solutions were the motivation for spearheading RIMS’ recently published Executive Report on ERM technology. Unfortunately, the ERM technology landscape is still confusing and potentially frustrating.
The technology solution market is immature. There is no handful of vendors with a majority of market share. As a result, there are plenty of options but buyers need to do a fair amount of work to find their perfect solution. Another source of potential confusion for users is market segmentation; ERM vs. GRC vs. RMIS vs. Process vs. Audit. Focusing on functionality may allow users to cut across all segments.
One of the key findings from the two surveys (users and vendors) incorporated into the Executive Report is that MS Excel is far and away the most popular, with possibly as much as 75% of users. This is not surprising if one assumes that risk managers are focusing on building their ERM process more than on buying a technology solution.
Based on the self-reported results from the vendors (which are no substitute for due diligence), there is good functionality for foundational ERM tasks. Those are likely what most risk mangers need in any event. However, there was less functionality with the more complex functionality, such as modeling.
Enterprise Risk Management Technology Solutions is available free to everyone who registers at www.RIMS.org/ResourceLibrary