How IBM’s OpenPages Helps Visualize Risk Management
IBM’s OpenPages is an artificial intelligence-driven governance, risk, and compliance software platform that’s gaining tremendous popularity amongst companies that are seeking to streamline their risk management activities. The ability to visualize risk management is one of the many features found within the IBM OpenPages platform and it’s these graphical data depictions that are leading to increased incidences of data-driven decision-making across all industries and business sectors.
Gone are the days of plain rows of numbers, with no clear contextual depiction of these data points and their broader significance. Today, data visualizations are the standard for data reporting, whether it’s your company’s sales figures, website performance data, or financial figures for consideration in an upcoming budget session.
Data visualization refers to the use of graphical elements, like colorful charts, graphs, and illustrations to depict data sets and the relationship between multiple data points. But how can you leverage these graphics-based data visualizations for the evaluation of your risk mitigation efforts and the development of an updated risk management strategy?
What is IBM OpenPages and How is this Platform Related to Risk Management Visualizations?
IBM’s OpenPages is an AI-powered GRC software platform that runs on an IBM cloud-based platform called Cloud Pak for Data. This scalable platform is designed for managing a company’s legal and regulatory compliance-related issues, governance, and risk management.
OpenPages is equipped with an incredibly intuitive user interface and also features artificial intelligence technology known as IBM Watson. Developed in 2010 through IBM’s DeepQA project, IBM Watson is a form of artificial intelligence that is designed to answer questions that are “posed in natural language.”
As an enterprise GRC software platform, IBM OpenPages has modules for several different aspects of a company’s risk management landscape. These modules include the following:
- Operational Risk Assessment and Management
- Financial and Model Risk Governance (MRG)
- Company Policy Management
- Financial Controls Management
- IT Governance
- Internal Audits and Reporting
- Legal and Regulatory Compliance Management
An increasing number of companies are turning to platforms like IBM OpenPages as they strive to visualize the data surrounding risk management-related issues. This leads to a better understanding of a company’s risk management landscape, allowing for more effective risk mitigation across all areas of the business.
What is Data Visualization?
Data visualization is an increasingly popular method for sharing data and depicting the relationships that exist between data points. Data visualizations come in many different forms, from colorful graphs and charts to infographic elements and illustrations. These graphical renderings are gaining favor because most people find they are eye-catching and easy to understand, especially when compared to something such as a plain numerical chart.
The rise of big data and analytics has spurred the development of data visualization tools, which may be integrated into an enterprise software platform’s reporting and analytics panel or offered as a stand-alone feature. An example of the latter would be a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) site. These PaaS sites can gather data from a website or enterprise software system and then, they generate visualizations with the collected data points. Users can then compile these visual elements to create exportable data visualization reports.
IBM’s OpenPages is an example of an enterprise software platform with integrated data visualization tools. This feature set is ideal for those who are seeking to visualize risk management issues as they work to make data-driven decisions on this topic.
How Does IBM’s OpenPages Help Visualize Risk Management Issues?
The IBM OpenPages GRC software platform offers an effective tool for visualizing risk management and risk mitigation-related data. But how does this scalable AI-powered risk management software platform help to bring this information into clearer focus?
A Better Understanding of the Data
Effective risk management activities are driven by data. As such, data-driven decision-making is key to the development of a risk mitigation strategy that will bring results. But how do you ensure that key decision-makers will understand all of the data that’s presented to them? And will they understand its significance relative to the broader risk management landscape and the company’s long-term strategic goals?
With IBM OpenPages, you’ll have the ability to present risk management data using visualizations that clearly convey this important data and its relevance within the larger scheme of things.
Visual Depictions of Relationships Between Data Points
Viewing a batch of numbers can be problematic if there is no clear depiction of the relationship between those values. While some people can form a mental image to clearly understand the relationships between data points, most struggle with this and require a visual depiction. For example, you may have 12 data points — one number for each month’s sales totals. But at a glance, it’s hard to ascertain exactly how sales have increased or decreased month to month. A bar graph serves as an easy data visualization since the height of each bar will clearly show how sales have fluctuated over the 12-month period. Colors can also be used to show month-to-month changes. For instance, if March is higher than February, the bar for March would be green; meanwhile, if the figure for March reflected a decrease, the bar would be depicted in red.
These relationships between data points are extremely important when evaluating data as part of the risk management assessment process. This makes IBM’s OpenPages a very effective tool for risk management evaluation.
Easier Trend and Pattern Identification
If you’re seeking to guard against losses and negative consequences, a proactive stance is far more effective than a reactive approach. Pattern and trend identification allows you to predict the future with remarkable accuracy, thereby allowing for more effective risk mitigation efforts. Predictive capabilities give you the power to develop a proactive risk management strategy that lets you neutralize threats and close areas of vulnerability before the company sees an adverse impact.
These predictions are important when you’re strategizing, especially in the realm of risk management. IBM OpenPages uses AI technology and data visualizations to help you identify patterns and trends — patterns and trends that may otherwise prove elusive. In fact, AI is extremely effective for trend identification because this technology can easily cut through the fog that tends to cloud a human’s view. OpenPages’ visualization tools can then be used to generate a visual depiction of the data trends, providing stakeholders and decision-makers with an easy-to-digest overview of risk management-related data.
IBM OpenPages, Data Visualization and Technology for Risk Management
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to risk management and the visualization of risk management-related data. IBM’s OpenPages is just one GRC solution and many companies find that their needs do not perfectly align with those that are offered by an off-the-shelf software solution. For these companies, a custom digital transformation development project can generate a significant ROI by equipping businesses with the enterprise software and data visualization tools that they need to succeed.
If you’re ready to develop leverage data visualization as part of your company’s risk management efforts, we invite you to contact the team here at iTech. We’ll collaborate with your business as we work to understand your risk management challenges and your goals for the future. Then, we’ll develop an innovative digital transformation solution to help you make the most of your data, with data visualization tools and other technologies that will help your company achieve its risk management goals and objectives. Contact the team at iTech today to begin a discussion about your risk management plan and how our technology can help you overcome obstacles and achieve your goals.