Expert Insights: Breaking Down Silos with 5 Keys to Connected Data and Teams
What are the top five keys to breaking down silos for connected data and teams? Melissa Pici (Senior IT Audit Manager, Syniverse) hosts an insightful talk that covers:
- Understanding the connections within your GRC ecosystem
- Identifying relationships between data
- Cultivating trust, relationships, and transparency in your organization
Watch the full conversation, and read the can’t-miss highlights below.
The first key is understanding your connections. The GRC ecosystem is made up of risk management, governance, and compliance. All of these elements are part of a larger ecosystem made up of data. You have data sources, storage, mining, analytics, visualization, and more. Each of these things impacts the other. Ensuring that you have quality data sources and understand how they are all connected is critical to adding value to the reports and information that you provide.
The second key is becoming a relationship expert. Even if you don’t have the right data, you may be able to solve for it. Consider a basic algebraic equation of A+B=C. If you know what A and C are, you can likely solve for B. Here’s an example. Say that you have a list of users and a list of servers. However, you’re looking for potentially the next piece of information that goes with that. The other information that’s provided in the listings that you get may help you solve for the piece that you’re missing. That’s one of the ways you want to start thinking about how data is connected and looking at what’s in front of you.
The third key is becoming a business partner. It’s critical to remember that you interact with and rely on people, not the technology. Technology is just the method by which we accomplish this. And again, it’s really important to know that those relationships are earned. I have gotten to where I am in my business today because of the relationships that I’ve continued to build over the years. Trust is earned when action meets words. As you’re building those relationships and you’re talking with them, you’re also building the rapport that allows your auditee to know that they can trust you. That’s one of the ways that you’re going to build your connections on teams outside of your organization, meaning across the company, but also in your team. Trust, relationships, and transparency are critical to success.
The fourth key is to focus on and engage with your strengths. One of our values that we have is called reimagine the possibilities. Just because it’s always been done that way doesn’t mean it always has to be done that way. Challenge it. If you do challenge it and realize that you’re doing it in the most effective way, you’re good to go. That process has now been pressure tested. However, if you’ve kicked the tires and taken it for a test drive, you may find a different way of doing things that improves your workflow.
The fifth key is to expand your skills and knowledge. Technology is a major capacity multiplier for your organization. It can serve as a huge differentiator in how you do your job, address time and budget constraints, and examine areas that need improvement, leadership, and social influence. In other words, technology helps you identify your purpose and next steps to move things along. That’s why a single source of truth is critical, which is one of the best things that AuditBoard does for all of our teams and stakeholders.
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