Reed Elsevier
According to Marion Houghton, Risk Manager at Reed Elsevier, Reed Elsevier's main exposures to risk revolve around intellectual property such as risks to the company's business model for paid subscriptions their scientific and technical publications. The company sought a risk management information system (RMIS) to automate and enhance risk reporting in order to better analyze, prioritize, and act on the most significant exposures.
Risk Register Powers an Action-Oriented, Scientific Approach
In developing the RMIS, one of Houghton's key goals was to make the risk assessment process more fulfilling. "Releasing time for those facilitating the risk assessments to do the clever work, the critical thinking, and to really apply their skills and knowledge is very important. Risk Register eliminates the drudgery of operating a complex database and working directly with data."
By deploying Risk Register, the company can track over time the progress being made in addressing each risk entered in the system. "After all, risk management is about trying to reduce the risks and not just recording them and saying what you're doing about them." Houghton states. "The whole point is to make sure risk management is embedded in the business, and we're now making risk assessment and control a living process."
As Risk Register rolls out within the organization. Houghton expects enhanced reporting to be especially valuable at all levels of the company. Much of the work of generating, distributing, and accessing reports will be automated. Risk champions won't have to build reports, but simply access them. Moreover, the reports will be concise, color-coded, and customized based on criteria such as the user's business unit, region, and position within the company.
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