The Diligent effect: Proven savings in one consolidated platform
Consolidating GRC software is more than an exercise in spring cleaning; it’s an opportunity to sharpen your enterprise’s decision-making at the highest level.
In the previous three blogs in this vendor consolidation series, we’ve covered:
- The challenges and inefficiencies that come with an unconsolidated approach to vendor relationships
- A five-step process for identifying areas within your enterprise that could benefit from consolidation
- Why governance, risk and compliance (GRC) systems are a prime target for cost-effective and value-added tech consolidation
In this fourth and final blog, we’ll detail the benefits of consolidating your GRC software with the Diligent One Platform, the only unified solution designed to centralize all your governance, risk, audit, compliance and ESG activities.
Businesses who embrace this one vendor/one solution approach to GRC will unlock cost savings and labor efficiencies that enable them to thrive, even in unpredictable economic and regulatory conditions.
Data-backed savings
Forrester Consulting recently published a Total Economic Impact (TEI) report detailing the ROI enterprises may realize by deploying Diligent’s GRC software.
The results were clear: switching to Diligent yielded an 18% ROI for companies that previously handled all board processes manually or managed board-level operations with a scattered network of multiple software solutions.
The report also makes it clear that Diligent’s positive impact is not limited to one business unit or efficiency vector. By consolidating GRC efforts into one flexible, streamlined platform, enterprises are able to effect transformational change across business channels in these key areas:
1. Improved efficiency
By centralizing governance, risk, audit, compliance and ESG solutions into a single platform, enterprises can streamline operations and workflows.
This empowers administrators to manage the software themselves, eliminating the need for ongoing IT support and yielding measurable results.
In fact, the Forrester report shows that enterprises that switch to Diligent spend 50-60% less time creating and sharing board and committee materials.
2. Lower costs
Heightened efficiency translates directly into labor cost savings –– more than $62,000 over three years, according to Forrester.
The same goes for entity management. Forrester found that users of Diligent Entities can save up to 70% more time on entity and subsidiary data gathering, entry and management.
By automating repetitive functions and leveraging customizable templates, governance professionals can turn the once tedious, time- and cost-consuming task of preparing board materials into a streamlined workflow that maximizes clarity while minimizing expenditures.
3. Support for growth
The Forrester report found that a common motivator behind switching (or consolidating) to Diligent was to reduce the risk of material loss when critical documents are distributed via a mix of email, physical documents and SaaS platforms.
By consolidating with the Diligent One Platform, organizations can store and share key materials with ease, eliminating the workaround solutions that stymie the development of internal operations.
4. Readiness for evolving challenges
The way you do business is changing, and so are enterprise priorities. With Diligent, organizations can find the insights they need to navigate new areas of focus, such as sustainability and climate risk, cyber risk, and evolving regulations.
Take sustainability efforts as an example. Forrester found that, by modeling benefits and costs over three years, Diligent ESG can enable companies to:
- Reduce disclosure auditing costs by 50%
- Spend 60-80% less time collecting, validating and sharing energy use data
- Achieve a 167% return on investment
5. Elevated risk management
Unifying your audit, compliance and risk mitigation programs under a single platform provides the 360-view your organization needs to proactively manage threats and quickly spot emerging opportunities.
And in the midst of rapid regulatory change and uncertain economic and geopolitical conditions, the consolidated view provided by the Diligent One Platform can prevent risks from slipping through the cracks and protect enterprises from preventable financial loss.
According to one Diligent Audit customer, “Now, we are covering more [risk areas]. We can do 100% coverage using analytics instead of having to sample 25% to 30% of the population, which means we can do deep dives. Additionally, because we automate, it lessens the possibility of a mistake.”
6. Enhanced board and executive visibility
A scattered and disorganized approach to GRC makes it impossible for board members and executives to get a clear, accurate, real-time handle on the information that powers effective oversight.
With new Board Reporting Dashboards from Diligent, pre-configured, customizable templates make it easier than ever to share the most important data with leadership.
By delivering consistent, easy-to-understand reports in the board’s language, risk, audit and compliance leaders can empower directors to make better decisions and provide even stronger oversight.
Case study: CRICO
26 hospitals, 14,000 physicians, and over 300 healthcare organizations depend on CRICO for insurance solutions that enable them to operate safely and confidently. But prior to implementing Diligent Boards, CRICO relied on disparate digital and paper-based processes that were resource-intensive and presented security challenges. The company’s disconnected processes also made it difficult to store data for easy search and reference.
After consolidating their disparate GRC solutions and digitizing manual process, CRICO used Diligent to increase its agility and risk management which, in turn, helped them survive the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
By facilitating remote board meetings, organizing votes and capturing proxies in a single, searchable source of truth, Diligent has improved compliance related to documentation and retention. It’s also been a tremendous asset for CRICO’s legal team, who often need to locate historical documents and can now do so through one centralized software solution.
Unlock the power of a single platform
The Diligent One Platform delivers all the benefits of vendor consolidation that we’ve outlined in this series with a full suite of leading GRC solutions, all housed under one roof.
Eliminate the risks of juggling multiple vendors and unlock cost savings and efficiency gains with:
- Automated analytics, monitoring and controls
- Purpose-built applications that provide a single source of truth and highlight emerging risks and opportunities
- Embedded market intelligence to inform better decision-making
- Pre-built, customizable reporting templates to help you save time while you provide the insights leadership needs
- Secure and private generative AI that super-charges public data insights without compromising your privacy and security needs.
Ready to see how the Diligent One Platform can transform your GRC management? Request a demo today.
