Allgress: Navigating GRC Complexity through A Bonafide Integrated GRC Platform

Jeff Kushner, CMO

The complexity that exists today with the rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT) and the adoption of cloud computing requires organizations to have better oversight with fewer resources now more than ever before. Monitoring, assessing, and efficiently managing the risk associated with the rapidly changing business environment has put pressure on organizations of all sizes to more effectively manage business risk from within and their partners.

Vendors for the last several years have proclaimed any possible solution that does one or more functions to identify, report and/or take some corrective action describe themselves as a vendor that manages risk, compliance, and security or sometimes called Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). A bonafide GRC platform is focused on automating the activities associated with the entire process of assessment, reporting and remediation for compliance, risk, and security management activities for the so-called extended organizations which includes the organization and their partners.

“The Changes occurring at every intersection of the internet based computing environment is now overwhelming organizations. Nonautomated methods can no longer provide the actionable insight and continuous monitoring required for organizations to identify potential looming business risk before it impacts them,” remarks Jeff Kushner, Chief Marketing Officer at Allgress. These crucial challenges our being addressed with an easy-to-use flexible solution that be utilized for a few GRC functions or the entire risk management lifecycle from Livermore, CA-based Allgress Since 2008, The Allgress solution helps to converge disparate risk silos and automate the processes of IT risk, compliance, and governance across the extended organizations, regardless of size and maturity level.

The Allgress Business Risk Intelligence solution is an operationally efficient and effective solution allowing IT security, risk, and compliance governance based on potential risk impact by considering policies, people process, and business assets. It provides business, security and risk professionals the actionable information they need to prioritize expenditures according to their risk posture. The company's Insight Risk Management platform provides clients with comprehensive real-time 'risk oversights,’ continuous monitoring with actionable insights, and coordinated risk management, so companies’ can stay compliant with evolving technology regulations and best practices.

The offering is differentiated in the market by its affordability, simple-to-understand pricing model, visualization capabilities, and time to implement the solution

The Allgress solution helps to automate the IT risk, compliance, and governance processes across organizations, regardless of sizes and maturity levels. “Risk management requires bringing together policies, processes, and technologies to meet every company’s mission and objectives regarding risk posture, fostering greater operational efficiency,” adds Kushner. The Allgress Business Risk Intelligence Solution deploys automation, advanced visualization, streamlined workflows, and integrates existing data feeds—reducing the complexity and cost of risk management. This unique solution provides businesses with required actionable information that helps to prioritize and justify their expenditures according to the organization's risk posture.

The Allgress platform comprehensively automates the complex process of risk assessment, risk analysis, and final reporting to constituent authorities that is traditionally accomplished through manually with cumbersome spreadsheets and emails. The multi-modular, flexible solution, deployed both on-premise and through the cloud, collects the data stored in disparate repositories in the organization, correlates and analyzes it, providing an intuitive risk overview report with actionable information for enterprise risk management. With such a single pane of glass pane view of the organization's current risk status, the platform can identify the risk evaluation gaps and decide on the eventual compliance necessities for newer regulations or third party vendors. This assists the customer enterprise to prioritize the required actions in a streamlined workflow and allocate budgets accordingly to manage the 'risk incident' efficiently.

Allgress' solution with its extensive policy library has been highly beneficial to multiple organizations in varied sectors to meet their GRC requirements. One of the biggest advantages of Allgress' platform lies in its modular architecture coupled with an easy-to-use interface that seamlessly integrates with multiple modules. A customer company, according to its requisites, can avail the full solutions suite or some of the platform's modules, therefore optimizing its resource expenditures. For instance, one such customer encountered consequential challenges in monitoring and addressing its risk issues on time, as most of its internal processes were manual. By subscribing to a couple of modules from the Allgress' solution suite, the client could effectively reduce the entire risk management time span from months to weeks—enabling to identify risks quicker and addressing the potential risk loopholes.

Allgress, one of the first GRC vendors in utilizing AWS with its product Get Compliant, has recently announced its alliance with Hosting.com to provide effortless compliance, security, and risk assessment management on the cloud. The company also aims to enhance its database by partnering with multiple other companies and integrating its platform with their products. Discussing Allgress' value proposition to its broad customer base, Kushner points out that modern businesses put more emphasis on easy-to-use platforms in addition to the cost effectiveness of those solutions. The company, therefore, focuses on delivering more customer-friendly solutions coupled with AI to foster 'better risk visualization and incident management with quicker time-to-value' for clients. “Greater use of artificial intelligence and bots will play an increasing role as we enhance our solutions,” concludes Kushner.