The Challenge of Complexity
Managing these diverse obligations across multiple systems and teams was increasingly challenging. During the development of our platform we faced similar hurdles: spreadsheets, emails, isolated tools and data made it hard to maintain oversight and consistency.
To address this, we embarked on implementing an integrated Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) platform designed to bring structure, visibility, and coordination to our Business Resilience activities.
The GRC Transformation Journey
Implementing such a platform was not just a technical project; it was a strategic transformation for us. The goal was to connect every aspect of Business Resilience — from risk management and incident response to vendor risk and data protection — within a single ecosystem.
To achieve this, the project team first mapped out existing processes and tools. The new GRC solution was then designed to reflect and continuously improve these processes, creating workflows for automation of manual tasks and real-time visibility into risks and compliance status.
In addition, the platform was integrated with existing corporate systems, such as:
- CMDB (Configuration Management Database) – to link risks and assessments directly to IT assets.
- BCM (Business Continuity Management) Tool – to align risk and business continuity data.
- Jira – to synchronize security findings and remediation activities with technical and operational teams.
These integrations turned static data into living, connected intelligence.
A One-Stop Shop for Resilience
The platform is to become our unified environment for several key functions:
- Risk Management: Centralizing risk assessments allows teams to identify, evaluate, and monitor security and data protection risks in one place. The platform supports standard methodologies, improving comparability and reporting across departments.
- Compliance Management: With the ever-growing set of regulatory and internal requirements, the tool tracks obligations, assigns responsibilities, and documents evidence — reducing audit preparation time and ensuring ongoing compliance.
- Vendor Security: Telecommunications rely heavily on third-party providers. The platform enables structured vendor assessments, integrating results with overall risk profiles and helping ensure that supplier relationships remain secure and compliant.
- Incident Management: Security incidents and data breaches can now be logged, tracked, managed and linked through standardized workflows, improving communication between security and operational teams.
Instead of chasing spreadsheets and emails, teams started to work from the same source of truth — improving accuracy, accountability, and collaboration across different teams.
Lessons from Implementation
Rolling out such a system requires coordination with Technology, Legal, Procurement, Process Owners and the Vendor. A key challenge is aligning processes that had evolved differently in each area, sometimes also duplicating efforts. We spent significant time mapping existing workflows, simplifying them where possible, creating comprehensive dashboards and translating them into the platform’s structure and limitations.
The Benefits of an Integrated GRC Approach
The impact of the new GRC tool is already visible:
- Improved visibility: Management can view key risks, incidents, and compliance statuses through unified dashboards.
- Efficiency gains: Automation reduces manual reporting and duplicate work.
- Consistency: Shared templates and data strengthen the collaboration across teams.
- Faster response: Centralized incident, risk and assessment tracking enables quicker decision-making.
- Audit readiness: Evidence and documentation are available in real time, reducing preparation efforts.
Looking Ahead
As the company continues to evolve, so will its governance and resilience capabilities. But the foundation is now solid — a connected, intelligent system that brings clarity to complexity and strengthens trust across the organization.
However, to keep in mind, the system is only as effective as the people who use it. Training sessions, clear communication, and involving business is a key to foster full adoption.
