Today's business climate is complex and increasingly difficult to predict. Stakes are rising in a global market in which competition is fierce and brand loyalty is fickle. Across all industries, companies are grappling with high expectations and margin pressures. And at the same time, businesses face unprecedented numbers of legal, regulatory, and business partner mandates, as well as value chain requirements that affect nearly every aspect of their operations.

According to a September 2006 benchmarking survey conducted by the Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG) and SAP on governance, risk, and compliance (GRC ), most organizations today have a reactive approach to GRC management - a fire-drill method of channeling precious resources and management attention to address specific regulatory mandates independently in isolation from each other. The end result is a series of fragmented GRC activities and data sources that increase costs, limit visibility into business risks - and ultimately hinder business agility.

To help companies become less reactive - and increase their organizational agility - executives need a clear path to GRC maturity. This SAP Executive Insight focuses on helping executives determine:

• What are the consequences of today's typical GRC approaches?
• Where do their organizations stand from a GRC maturity perspective?
• How can they lay the foundation for an effective GRC strategy?