What is GRC?

GRC stands for Governance, Risk management, and Compliance, which are three closely related facets of an organization's approach to business strategy, decision-making, and operations.

1. Governance: This refers to the overall management approach through which senior executives direct and control the entire organization, using a combination of management information and hierarchical structure. The corporate governance framework within an organization sets the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as the board, managers, shareholders, and other stakeholders, and lays down the rules and procedures for decision-making.

2. Risk Management: This refers to the process of identifying, assessing, and controlling threats to an organization's capital and earnings. These threats, or risks, could stem from a wide variety of sources, including financial uncertainty, legal liabilities, strategic management errors, accidents, and natural disasters.

3. Compliance:
This refers to an organization's effort to ensure that they adhere to external laws and regulations as well as internal guidelines and policies. It involves managing and auditing data to meet those compliance requirements.

GRC is important because it allows an organization to align its IT operations with its business objectives, manage risk effectively, and ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations. This can help an organization achieve its goals, minimize risk, and avoid penalties and damage to its reputation that can result from non-compliance. GRC systems often involve the use of technology to automate the gathering of information and enforcement of rules.