Building a Risk Framework for Your Microsoft Dynamics Environment

In the last article, we discussed the importance of risk management and how having a formalized approach can lead to more efficient and effective decision making.  Additionally, taking a risk based approach to auditing Microsoft Dynamics is not only best practice, but will save you a tremendous amount of time and money during internal and external audits. 

The first step in building a successful risk management environment is building a risk framework. This article will discuss how to develop one at your organization.

A common challenge we see in many Microsoft Dynamics environments is difficulty identifying which risks are relevant to the company.   These companies end up implementing excessive controls or auditing excessive amounts of data because they do not understand where their risks truly exist. This has a major impact on productivity and costs.  To avoid these misdirected activities, companies need to implement effective risk management which begins with knowing thy corporate self.

Every company faces a unique set of risks based on industry, size, location, etc., and every company should conduct risk assessment workshops to identify the specific risks that they face.  To ensure a comprehensive evaluation of risk, the workshops should include key stakeholders and business process owners who have an in-depth understanding of each area of the business.  Separate workshops may be conducted for each business process but it is advisable to include business process owners from related areas like finance and IT in each session.  The output of these workshops will be a prioritized list of risks and the necessary mitigation strategies to minimize risk where it cannot be eliminated.

The first step in the workshop is brainstorming all of the risks that each area of the business ...