As organizations navigate their regulatory needs in 2025, many will recognize the increased and growing operational complexity this gives to their business. The limitations of siloed Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) functions are starting to become more evident. Traditional, fragmented approaches to GRC lead to inefficiencies, duplicated efforts, and a lack of visibility across enterprise-wide processes. This also leads to difficulty in dealing with external assessors and auditors and maintaining a line of sight of risk throughout the business.
To address these challenges, businesses are shifting toward integrated GRC strategies—standardizing taxonomies, streamlining workflows, and centralizing data to enhance operational resilience, improve decision-making, and reduce costs. This article explores how organizations implement these strategies and the benefits of a unified approach.
Challenges of Siloed GRC Functions
When GRC activities are managed in silos—spread across different teams, systems, and processes—organizations face several potential issues:
- Duplicated Efforts – Risk assessments, compliance audits, and control testing often overlap across departments, leading to wasted resources and higher costs. This may additionally include duplication of effort across regulations or compliance frameworks, audits, and readiness analyses.
- Inconsistent Taxonomies – Different teams use varied risk terminologies and frameworks, making cross-functional collaboration difficult. This may lead to divergent risk management methodologies and even inconsistent risk treatment.
- Fragmented Data: Information stored in disconnected systems limits an organization’s ability to gain real-time (or near real-time) insights into risk exposure and compliance status.
These inefficiencies not only drive up operational costs but also hinder proactive responses to regulatory changes and emerging risks.
Key Elements of an Integrated GRC Strategy
To move beyond siloed functions, organizations are beginning to adopt integrated GRC strategies built around four key pillars:
1. Standardized Taxonomies: Standardizing risk, compliance, and control definitions ensures stakeholders operate with a shared understanding. A unified taxonomy:
- Automated compliance reporting reduces manual workload and improves efficiency.
- Coordinated processes allow teams to respond more quickly to threats and thereby mitigate risk faster.
- Defined roles ensure ownership across risk and compliance activities, which encourages clear accountability.
Example: Financial institutions are aligning taxonomies with frameworks such as COSO ERM, ISO 31000, and NIST to ensure consistency across risk and compliance functions.
2. Streamlines Workflows: By integrating workflows, organizations eliminate redundancies and can potentially automate repetitive tasks. Benefits include:
- Automated compliance reporting reduces manual workload and improves efficiency.
- Coordinated processes allow teams to respond more quickly to threats and thereby mitigate risk faster.
- Defined roles ensure ownership across risk and compliance activities, which encourages clear accountability.
Example: Organizations using platforms like ServiceNow or RSA Archer can automate compliance workflows, reducing the time spent on regulatory reporting.
3. Centralized Data and Visibility: A centralized GRC platform combines risk and compliance data from multiple sources, providing:
- Near real-time risk insights through dashboards and predictive analytics.
- Regulatory agility with up-to-date compliance tracking.
- Enterprise-wide collaboration is achieved by providing a single source of truth for all stakeholders.
Example: Companies are leveraging GRC platforms and AI-powered analytics tools to identify vulnerabilities, track regulatory changes, and predict emerging risks. These tools combine integrations with the organization’s information security environment as well as provide a space as a repository for compliance and risk data (e.g., policies, procedures, risk registers, vendor assessments, security controls).
4. An integrated GRC framework can help facilitate communication between compliance officers, risk managers, IT auditors, and business leaders. This collaboration:
- Breaks down silos between departments.
- Enhances strategic decision-making at the business level.
- Improves accountability in risk ownership regardless of where that accountability lies.
Example: Many organizations have started aligning their compliance programs with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives, which are typically enterprise-wide. This can help ensure that regulatory and operational risks are managed comprehensively as an organizational initiative.
Benefits of GRC Integration
Adopting a unified GRC approach offers several potential advantages:
- Cost Efficiency – Think of the benefits of eliminating redundant processes and how that can lower operational costs and optimize resource allocation. An enterprise with organizations on the same page will help move towards more budget-friendly initiatives.
- Enhanced Risk Management – Every organization would like more proactive management of risks. Integrated processes (e.g., cyber incident response planning) and centralized data (i.e., security controls and documentation in a GRC platform) can enable more efficient risk identification and response.
- Regulatory Agility – Organizations that integrate information and processes can more quickly adapt to evolving regulations related to privacy mandates, industry-specific compliance frameworks, or new legislation.
- Improved Cybersecurity – Centralized data and control management support improved security line of sight, implementation status, and effectiveness of threat intelligence and risk mitigation efforts.
Using Technology as an Enabler
The move toward integration is certainly driven by technological advancements. The following are some examples of this:
- AI and Automation – AI-driven solutions have begun to streamline compliance monitoring, risk assessments, and fraud detection. Organizations that extensively use AI may report lower data breach costs. Automated readiness assessments are another way organizations are getting a line of sight into their compliance status.
- Cloud-Based Platforms – Scalable, cloud-based GRC solutions enable real-time data sharing and cross-functional collaboration. Solutions like Compliance as a Service (CaaS) can further support this centralization.
- RegTech Solutions – Emerging regulatory technology has started to automate compliance processes, ensuring organizations remain ahead of changing mandates throughout the world.
The Future of GRC is Integrated
As regulatory pressures and cybersecurity risks continue to evolve, organizations can no longer afford fragmented GRC approaches. Integrated GRC strategies—enabled by standardized taxonomies, automated workflows, centralized data, and advanced technologies—are essential for achieving efficiency, resilience, and agility.
For organizations still managing risk and compliance in silos, now is the time to embrace a unified framework. The benefits go beyond regulatory compliance—integrated GRC strategies empower businesses to stay competitive in a risk landscape that is likely to continue growing in complexity.
Next Steps
- Assess your current GRC framework for inefficiencies.
- Identify key areas where integration can drive improvements.
- Explore technological solutions that align with your organization’s needs.
How is your organization approaching GRC integration in 2025? Let’s start the conversation.