MetaCompliance achieves top ranking in independent Global GRC Report by Hypatia Research

Jan. 18, 2012 - PRLog -- A UK Company was formed in 2003 to develop a type of policy management software for customer’s needs that would later become described as Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC). This company was called Metacompliance and its vision of making compliance easier for organisations in the Public and Private sector was to prove attractive to the market as Legislative and Regulatory requirements began to become increasingly part of everyday norms.

The company’s focus on providing its clients with cost effective “commercial off the shelf” compliance software has been recently validated by the findings in a report published by Boston-based Industry Analysts, Hypatia Research. In their “Best Practices & Drill-Down GRC Q1. 2012: Data Access & Security Report", Hypatia ranked Metacompliance first place among the Global GRC Vendors and Service Providers evaluated. The report stated that Metacompliance was “one of only two vendors to rank highly in both Compliance and Data Access & Security.”

Commenting on his company’s performance in Hypatia's primary GRC research, Robert O’Brien CEO of Metacompliance said "We have always believed that compliance was an issue that organisations would take time over. This allowed us to invest in bringing software that is innovative and functionally deep to the market, in line with customer’s appetite for their next phase of GRC. The research carried out by the analysts at Hypatia, reflect our own understanding of the maturity of the GRC Market." Mr O’Brien continued, "It is particularly satisfying for a small UK Company to be ranked ahead of companies such as Symantec and McAfee."

The Hypatia Best Practices & Drill Down GRC Q1. 2012: Data Access & Security Report recognises that Governance, Risk and Compliance are a critical issue for organisations of all sizes, creating "a drumbeat of urgency and uproar". The report recognises the early stage nature of the converged GRC Market and its research highlights a significant level of confusion among customers and vendors alike. However, "Hypatia believes that, given its ability to underpin data governance through access controls, security is a crucial element of integrated GRC. We believe that when companies whose foundations began in Security Policy and Compliance - such as EMC (through its RSA Division), McAfee, Metacompliance and Symantec - continue to expand their GRC capabilities and other vendors continue to emphasise the importance, this element will become more obvious.

Speaking on the first place ranking achieved by Metacompliance, senior analysts and report authors Howard Baldwin and Leslie Ament of Hypatia shared, "We segmented our ‘Drill-Down study on GRC capabilities into four assessment areas: 1) Governance, 2) Risk, 3) Compliance and 4) Data Access & Security because until recently, most vendors offered GRC from the perspective of only one or two of the following approaches:

   --  Enterprise risk and risk intelligence
   --    Operational risk, or
   --     IT GRC

Thus, we determined to provide organizations with guidance via our drill-down on which GRC software solutions are complimentary to, or available to easily integrate with existing legacy systems, applications and other GRC software. Out of 30 GRC vendors evaluated, Metacompliance was one of only two vendors to rank highly in both the Compliance and Data Access & Security categories. Our primary research of over 440 companies revealed that nearly 50% of customers ultimately do map enterprise risk, operational risk and/or IT GRC together depending on the maturity level (level 3 or 4) of the organization."

Metacompliance Limited
With its International Headquarters in London and its research and development centre in N.Ireland, http://www.metacompliance.com has a focus on enabling organizations to deliver user awareness and compliance in a cost effective manner. The company develops user awareness and policy management software for the Private and Public sector that automates the increasing demands of IT Assurance regulations and the related user awareness requirements that have become a significant burden on modern business. The company has developed a suite of products that can be matched to the information assurance maturity of a customer’s workforce. These products have extensive functionality in the area of Policy Management, Third Party Compliance Management, Incident Reporting and Risk Management. Metacompliance solutions meet the requirements of all sizes of organisations, in terms of complexity and scale.

Hypatia Research.
Independent industry analyst firm Hypatia Research, LLC
http://www.hypatiaresearch.com delivers high impact market intelligence, industry benchmarking, best practice, and vendor selection research for how businesses use technology and service providers to capture, manage, analyze and apply customer intelligence to enhance performance and accelerate growth. Coverage includes: CRM, Business Intelligence, Customer Analytics, Social Media, Marketing Automation, Information Management, and GRC. Since 2001, clients have relied on us for industry insight, expertise and independent market research for guidance in assessing various technology and service options. Visit our online research library at http://store.hypatiaresearch.com

Contact:
   Lynn Jennings
   Metacompliance Limited
   02079179527
   Email