Financial Services Firms Plan to Invest in Collaborative Technologies Despite Security Concerns

Jan. 1, 2013 - PRLog -- Manalapan, New Jersey – December 17, 2012: FSO Knowledge Xchange has released the results of its latest industry survey: Collaborative Technologies and the Impact of GRC: Balancing Risk with Rewards. The report provide insights into how financial services organizations view collaborative tools and technologies such as cloud computing, social media, and mobile devices and how they are addressing new governance, risk, and compliance challenges.  

“Those financial firms that can figure out how to balance GRC with the need to embrace collaborative tools and technologies will reap tremendous benefits,” notes Rekha Vatsa, FSOkx co-founder and CEO. “In the past several years, leading firms have invested in their GRC infrastructures and are well positioned to continue to provide transparency and oversight even when using technologies such as social media that are perceived as less secure.”

Among the findings:

ü  More than three-quarters (86 percent) of respondents believe that managing IT risk has become more challenging in the past few years.

ü  In spite of security concerns, many respondents plan to invest in cloud computing within the next 12 months. Nearly half (46 percent) of respondents plan to invest in private and hybrid clouds to reduce costs and improve scalability. Thirty-nine percent of firms are undecided about investing in cloud platforms and 15 percent have opted against moving their data into the cloud.

ü  The overwhelming majority of financial services firms (93 percent) consider social media to be high risk.

ü  Almost three-quarters (73 percent) of respondents say that their IT risk management systems are above average in coping with technology-related risks. Only nine percent believe that their IT risk management systems are inadequate.

ü  Nearly three-fourths of firms surveyed will increase spending on infrastructure (73 percent) and security and privacy (73 percent) in the next 12 months.

Collaborative Technologies and the Impact of GRC: Balancing Risk with Rewards is available to FSOkx members. For more information on membership, please contact Rekha Vatsa at rvatsa@fsokx.com. For a list of current research reports and FSOkx’s 2013 research topics, please visit FSOkx.com.

About the Survey

The evolution of collaborative technology continues to change how financial services organizations do business and interact with customers. Consumers and employees are increasingly dependent on tools and technologies such as smart phones, cloud computing, social media, and instant messaging for everyday communication, collaboration, and work. On the one hand, financial services firms have experienced far-reaching benefits from implementing these technologies, while on the other hand these new technologies have intensified the need for organizations to step up their Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) policies to meet more demanding regulations and to manage the increased risk associated with these technologies.

FSOkx conducted a survey to evaluate the strategies and policies that banking, insurance, and capital markets firms have implemented to overcome the challenges of using collaborative technologies in their business processes.