Why User Experience Matters While Choosing a GRC Software

Today’s organizations face a plethora of challenges managing compliance, keeping up with internal policies, and improving social security practices. Needless to say, that managing compliance and risk management programs manually is a painful task. Fortunately, there is an influx of software applications in the compliance and risk management space claiming to reduce compliance and risk managers’ pain. However, an unintuitive GRC platform laden with poor user experience will only add to problems.

A compliance and risk management platform is a significant investment. How do you select a GRC tool? What is the importance of user experience when evaluating a GRC tool? These are some of the questions you need to seek answers to before selecting the tool. Just in the case of any other software, usability and user experience is the key. If the software is not usable and ignores user satisfaction, customer retention might not be easy.

Breaking down user experience

There is a tendency to use the term user experience interchangeably with the user interface. The fact is that they are different. User interface refers only to the aesthetics of the software. User experience covers all aspects of the end-users interaction with a product, and the user interface is a part of it. The goal of a good user experience is to accomplish the exact needs of the customer without fuss. The best UX focuses on simplifying the functionality and improving the user’s interaction with the product.

It should:

• Let customers accomplish their goals easily
• Saves time and money
• Allow them to perform difficult tasks effortlessly.

Why UX matters?

When there is a gap in the customers’ expectations from a great GRC platform and your product offering, it turns into bad UX costs. If your customers encounter a bad experience, if they don’t find what they need or can’t reach someone, they will abandon the product and not come back. For example, if the user experience does not allow the user to create and assign a control quickly after a risk assessment, it fails the purpose of an effective GRC platform. If the compliance team cannot collaborate on a document or a compliance obligation, or the leadership team does not get enough insights from the reports or dashboards, it can lead to wasted efforts, time, and frustration. In some cases, it can even add up to their tasks. 

The common characteristics of bad UX are:

• A decrease in employee productivity
• Decreased user adoption
• Increased employee frustration

Bad UX has a price. You should prevent users from experiencing negative emotions in their interaction with the platform and implement an optimal user experience.  A good UX’s goal concerning a GRC platform is to let various stakeholders do what they need to do and help your organization remain compliant and keep risks at bay. To achieve this, adopt a user-centered design approach, perform usability tests and envisage how users will use the application, identify mistakes, correct them. The next best way is to understand how your customers feel about your application. Ask for their feedback. Customer feedback forms and NPS are effective tools to measure and understand customers’ overall satisfaction.

VComply’s approach to user experience

VComply pays special attention to the usability and the overall experience of the user. We place focus on the following aspects of the user experience:

Navigation: There is a popular quote within the designer circle “It doesn’t matter how good your application is if users can’t find their way around it.” Giving potential customers access to the information they want in the easiest way possible is the key. We keep our navigation and user experience simple, thereby reducing the friction points and making the experience enjoyable. For example, VComply makes it very easy to create or oversee a control associated with a SOC2 or GDPR framework. 

Familiarity: We use a familiar approach in design and use simple and familiar elements within our interface. We have made it intuitive so that even first-time users should be able to use it easily. 

Consistency: We kept our interface consistent across the VComply platform as it makes it easy for users to identify and familiarize themselves with the usage patterns. 

Flexibility and efficiency: VComply knows the exact needs of its customers and their intents. Flexibility refers to allowing each type of customer to do what they need. For example, VComply allows an executive to know his compliance task on a particular day and a compliance officer to oversee a task or gain insights on overall compliance performance. When it comes to efficiency, the platform allows users to fulfill their tasks effortlessly and derive great value out of its features.

Legacy GRC tools aren’t equipped or efficient enough to keep pace with the new-age user experience, which should be seen as a risk. Remember, compliance is considered an ongoing process, and your tools should also embody that attribute. The ability to evolve and proactively adapt to an enjoyable user experience should be a functionality that the GRC tool offers. The VComply suite is equipped to address this need and does so seamlessly to successful compliance efforts.