A new partnership between Ovations Technologies, SAI360 and Linkroad, a European technology and consulting group with extensive expertise in governance, risk and compliance (GRC), has brought an integrated GRC and ethics platform to the pan-African market.
Ovations now serves as the regional implementation and digital enablement partner for SAI360 and will work closely with Linkroad on implementations in Africa, combining local market knowledge with Linkroad’s GRC consulting and implementation experience.
AI-powered SAI360 unifies capabilities for enterprise risk assessments and management, regulatory compliance, internal audits and controls with external risk intelligence and third-party dependencies. It also integrates its robust GRC and ethics software with a comprehensive compliance learning management library on a single platform.
Ovations Technologies CTO Deon van Niekerk says SAI360 enhances Ovations’ broader GRC portfolio: “SAI360 fits in with our client life cycle management value proposition, where we offer best-practice anti-money laundering solutions, fraud solutions and know your customer (KYC) solutions and tweak them for the local nuances of each territory. We believe SAI360 offers a more cost-effective and comprehensive alternative to other GRC solutions, and we’ve seen strong interest in it.”
Van Niekerk says local mines have been among the first to explore the benefits of SAI360.
“We have already completed multiple demos and RFPs in the mining sector, where we see a lot of demand currently. Many organisations in the mining industry have a number of GRC issues that they need to address,” he says.
Financial services, telecommunications and the public sector are also key target markets for Ovations, he says.
The partnership also draws on Linkroad’s experience supporting organisations in managing complex regulatory requirements, strengthening governance frameworks and implementing integrated GRC solutions across different industries.
Van Niekerk believes cost is a key consideration in the local market, making SAI360 an attractive proposition. “SAI360 is typically around half the price of other similar solutions. As a software as a service solution, it’s simpler and quicker to implement so you get your return on investment in a shorter time. The total cost of ownership is lower because it’s easier to maintain yourself. To future-proof the solution, it’s got all the GRC modules you need already pre-integrated,” he says.
He says other major benefits of SAI360 are ease of use and flexibility, with organisations able to choose from a broad range of modules.
“With over 20 modules available, the modules that get quite a bit of traction locally are the normal regulatory compliance modules, with all the necessary controls in place. Enterprise risk and incident management are particularly popular in mining, and we see a lot of interest in features to support ethics, such as declarations of interests and gifts,” Van Niekerk says.
“There is a module specifically for organisations that have a lot of third parties, such as financial services, to support risk management assessment and due diligence on their third-party suppliers. There’s a finance component module for internal audits and controls.”
He also highlights a module supporting operational resilience and business continuity planning. A new module coming to market early next year will support AI governance – an area of key interest for local businesses, he says.
Van Niekerk says SAI360 overcomes the challenges of managing risk on spreadsheets and disparate systems. “A lot of organisations still use spreadsheets or dated tools, so we see a clear gap in the market for this kind of solution,” he says. “With SAI360, they can just take best practice out of the box, deploy and use it instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.”
He adds: “Although there are different modules, all the modules use a single data layer so that policy management and compliance controls are tightly integrated with each other, making it easy to improve GRC across the business, with automated controls in place.”
He notes that the built-in training modules also support compliance: “For instance, if you need to go on cyber security training as part of your compliance to the ISO standards, users can complete their training in the system.”
The platform's learning library includes over 400 expert-built compliance courses, with interactive and adaptive learning and self-service editing capabilities, real-time analytics and comprehensive reporting.
Learn more about how SAI360 can help your organisation strengthen governance, risk and compliance. Visit the Ovations Technologies SAI360 page to explore the platform's capabilities and solutions.
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