MetricStream: Making GRC Simple & Pervasive for Organizations Worldwide Date:   Thursday , December 29, 2016 If the year 2016 has taught us anything, it\'s that the world is becoming more and more unpredictable. Furthermore, with the advent of novel technologies like mobile banking and the cloud - which have opened up more potential routes for cyber criminals to breach an institution\'s cyber defenses - threat detection & risk management mechanisms are at the top of mind of senior executives worldwide. But risk and opportunity being the two sides of the same coin, organizations need to be able to mitigate risks while exploiting opportunities to drive superior business performance. On the other hand, every organization has to manage a multitude of compliance issues and requirements based on their industry and geography. Failing to do so effectively will affect their overall reputation and ultimately the bottom line performance. MetricStream - a pioneer and market leader in Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Quality Management Solutions, enables clients to manage their risk and compliance effectively on a global scale through software, services and content. The company provides apps and solutions to help organizations in a variety of industries to manage their risks (enterprise, financial, operational or supplier risks), overall policies, compliance, audits, and more. MetricStream\'s mission is to enable organizations to preserve their corporate integrity, protect their brands and reputations, and drive superior business performance through GRC that is simple, pervasive, and delivered in the cloud or on-premise. The One and Only Complete Solution In the process of simplifying GRC, MetricStream enables GRC to become more pervasive. \"Take a 100,000 employee strong company that leverages our app for policy management. It will be helpful for them if it\'s available on employees\' mobiles as well. So, we\'re innovating on the overall UI to bring access to our apps, so that people can use them whenever and wherever they wish to; thereby making GRC simple as well as pervasive,\" explains Shellye Archambeau, CEO, MetricStream. Unlike its competitors who have very specific areas of focus, MetricStream provides the broadest set of apps available in the marketplace which are automatically integrated into its GRC platform. This software platform approach allows its clients to solve multiple issues around GRC across the enterprise, since these apps have the same architecture, data model and user interface. The company has partnered with quite a few top-notch organizations across the globe to integrate data (GRC intelligence) into these apps to make them a complete solution, besides taking MetricStream\'s products to the market. What makes this all even better is the \'Never say Die\' attitude of MetricStream employees, who are completely focused on the client\'s overall success by not just innovating on products, but on business practices as well. The GRC Juggernaut Though it is the ultimate dream of every organization to be recognized as the leader of their segment, only a few have garnered all the necessary elements such as technology, people, a broad set of offerings and data/content. MetricStream ensures market dominance by repeatedly proving that it has all four elements. Continuously cited as a market leader by top analysts at leading firms, including Chartis Research, Forrester Research, Gartner, GRC 20/20 Research, and InfoTech, MetricStream is the largest independent GRC firm globally with the largest talent pool in the GRC domain globally -- over 1,800+ domain experts and employees. \"We\'re the only company that has been a leader with all the top analyst firms ever since Gartner launched its first enterprise GRC Magic Quadrant in 2008,\" affirms a proud Shellye. MetricStream called it comprehensive compliance and risk, when it pioneered the GRC area in 2004, while initiating its operations simultaneously in Silicon Valley and Bangalore, until 2008 when it helped the analysts redefine the industry. Investing 19-22 percent of its revenue into R&D has helped MetricStream acquire the largest number of resources compared to any of its competitors in the GRC space. The company also has 10 patents to its name, the most recent of which was a U.S. patent for \"System and Method for Rule Based Classification of a Text Fragment\" which, when integrated with other analytics technologies, will offer businesses a true system of intelligence to predict areas of risk, and balance opportunities. Having such great energy, innovation and creativity, despite its size, has enabled MetricStream to grow at an impressive rate of 30-35 percent annually. Its growing clientele (which comprises some of the world\'s largest and most respected brands) stands as a testimony to the overall value it delivers. Cutting-Edge Technology Platform MetricStream is constantly strengthening its patented technology platform (which is in its seventh generation at present) with upcoming innovations. Cited by analysts as a leading GRC platform, this comprehensive platform enables the company to ensure that its configurable apps meet the needs of market and specific clients and provides exceptional security. MetricStream allows its customers to implement its system with an extremely robust security architecture and framework, directly on their location as well as through the cloud. Given that over 70 percent of its clients are signing up via the cloud, being the only leader in the GRC arena with a cloud-based offering creates a very strong differentiator for MetricStream. The company\'s award winning cloud operation leverages the latest technologies and approaches to ensure that overall confidentiality is maintained. \"We have a very strong cloud security architecture and team which we constantly monitor and manage,\" remarks Shellye. Noting that all 20 of its core apps reside on this GRC platform, Shellye said that an increasing number of customers are obtaining value from MetricStream\'s investments in building this private, highly secure, and scalable cloud-based offering. Apart from technology, MetricStream offers a range of initiatives around community and learning. The company\'s GRC Journey program, for instance, helps customers develop a blueprint for success in GRC, while executing a solid roadmap for the future. In addition, MetricStream\'s ComplianceOnline.com -- the largest GRC advisory network and online community -- provides a rich and comprehensive repository of the latest information, ideas, best practices, training, and tools on quality and compliance. Together, these initiatives help customers derive optimal value from their GRC programs, processes, and technology. A Great Place to Work For \"Our people are good team mates not just internally but also with our clients and partners,\" asserts Shellye. The team work, excitement of innovation and customer orientation makes this rapidly growing private company a great company to work for. MetricStream provides a unique opportunity wherein employees work in a fast paced and high energy environment in the GRC domain. Considering the fact that MetricStream has offices spread worldwide to meet customers\' demands wherever they are, employees from India who innovate, develop, and deliver GRC solutions, get to interact with customers and understand the GRC dynamics globally and deploy the apps at customer locations onsite. New hires and interns who meet MetricStream\'s high standards of excellence also have the opportunity to sharpen their knowledge by working with some of the brightest minds in the industry. Plentiful Benefits and Career Movement Opportunities MetricStream India, a talent house for GRC, has over 90 percent of the workforce based in its Bangalore offices. All its products and services are designed, built, marketed, delivered, and supported from India, which includes a 360o Product Management Life Cycle and Development program. Its new facility at AMR Tech Park with state-of-the-art infrastructure provides a good work space coupled with recreational facilities such as a gym and meditation center. Strongly believing that the families of employees are an extended family of the company, last year, MetricStream organized a \'Bring Your Child to Work\' event, which included engaging children and spouses with lots of activities such as games, a magic show, food, and a fashion show so that they could have fun, connect with others and also understand the culture of the organization. Being an equal opportunity employer having over 30 percent women employees, MetricStream is committed to creating a safe and conducive work environment for women colleagues by enforcing \'zero tolerance\' towards sexual harassment and mandating that every employee undergo training in Prevention Of Sexual Harassment. The company offers various benefits to its employees, some of which are above market standards. Besides gaining the best in industry medical insurance packages (for themselves and their families), employees also have flexible work hours (which enable them to manage personal emergencies without compromising on productivity at work), regular Reward and Recognition programs (Quarterly Awards, SPOT Awards, CTO Award for Excellence in Innovation, Service Awards and Quality Awards), free snacks and transport with security for women employees working late and most importantly, plentiful internal career movement opportunities. The case of Venky Yerrapotu, Executive Vice President of Global Professional Services, Support and Advance Engineering, MetricStream is one amongst many such growth stories. He reminisces, \"I was a Director at Oracle when I joined MetricStream in 2004 as a Solution Manager. The decision to take a step down was easy as MetricStream had the leadership, vision and market opportunity. My growth (which can be attributed to the company\'s culture of recognizing, encouraging and nourishing talent) validates my decision as we are now a 2000 people strong global leader in the GRC market\". Continuous Learning is a Process of Corporate Life Yet another attribute that sets MetricStream apart is its dynamic and energetic startup culture. The company\'s flexible and broad approach allows its people to experiment with a lot of different ideas, which is quite rare for a company of this size. \"Being a startup is a mentality; it\'s not about size,\" remarks Shellye. Confident that \'Continuous learning is a process of corporate life\', MetricStream offers many technical, functional, process and soft skill training programs to its people based on different inputs like project specific needs, appraisal inputs, upgrading of technical skills required by the industry, besides the \'New hire training\' program offered to new recruits based on their role and experience level. Furthermore, employees are also encouraged in peer based learning through classroom sessions, webinars and so on. The company organizes \'Roundtable Discussions\' with industry experts to develop new thoughts for enhancing the work quality of its people. MetricStream\'s Coffee with Leadership as well as Executive Management and Leadership Floor walks are a hallmark of the employee connect programs, which enable employees to have a direct conversation with leadership on business achievements and successes, or even showcase demos or modules of their projects that they are working on. MetricStream University (MSU) training and certification services enable rapid adoption of the MetricStream GRC Apps and Platform thereby increasing time-to-knowledge and optimizing the team\'s productivity. MSU certification enables its partners to acquire domain, functional and technical expertise through an effective training program. By learning through its world-class training (instructor led and e-learning) on MetricStream\'s Apps and Platform, MetricStream\'s partners can optimize and grow their business. \"GRC is a huge market and we want to capture more than our fair share,\" concludes a resolute Shellye. Key Management: Shellye Archambeau, CEO Shellye is a passionate leader, lecturer and writer who has held executive positions for numerous companies, including a 15-year career at IBM. Also serving on the Board of Directors for Verizon Communications and Nordstrom Inc, she has been recognized as one of the Top 25 Click and Mortar Executives by Internet World and named as one of the 46 Most Important African-Americans In Technology by Business Insider. Offices: Silicon Valley (headquarter), Bangalore (innovation and operations hub) along with sales and support centers in London, New York City, Sydney, Washington DC, and eight other cities around the world Clients: More than 350 enterprise customers worldwide including leading Fortune 500 and Global 2000 brands, as well as government agencies and international organizations Verticals: Banking and Financial Services, Retail and Consumer Goods, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, High-Tech, Manufacturing, Automotive, Energy and Food and Beverages JOG - The Festival of Philanthropy, Fun and Excitement Besides celebrating occasions like Rajyotsava Day, Diwali Fest and Sports, MetricStream also conducts a completely employee-driven joyful event called \'Joy of Giving\' during Nov/Dec as a part of the Employee Social Responsibility (ESR) initiatives, which is drawn by the own inspiration of employees, unlike in other corporates where CSR has tax saving component involved. The funds are disbursed to some non-profit NGOs identified by the JOG committee akin to SOS Children\'s Villages as well as to the support staff at MetricStream office in the form of gift vouchers. While helping community, JOG also brings comradery, fun and excitement through Games, Auction, Potluck and cultural evening. For instance, last year, one of the top winning auctioned prizes was \'get the coffee personally delivered to your cabin by one of the executives every day for two weeks\'.