A Knowledge-based Decision Support Tool for Enterprise Risk Management

Enterprise risk management (ERM) refers to a set of processes and methods used by organizations to manage their business risks. In this paper we present a knowledge-based, ERM decision-support tool to help identify, assess, prioritize, analyze and to design solutions to mitigate risks faced by organizations. This design tool is expected to be used both by business consultants as well as client organizations. Several ERM methodologies and tools have been presented in the past. Three key features differentiate our work from the prior-art. First, our knowledge-based ERM tool contains a rich repository of risk content organized for efficient search, and retrieval. This speeds up the risk, and root cause identification and helps conduct the risk assessment and analysis in a structured and consistent manner. Second, the classic and traditional qualitative and quantitative risk analytics are enriched with novel visualizations to help users query and view risk content. This provides useful insight in the context of the larger business environment. Finally, the tool supports the risk management life-cycle by integrating design-time activities with day-to-day risk monitoring and management. This encourages risk management at enterprise level rather than in silos and enables proactive management of risks. Feedback from beta test of this tool with ERM consultants at a large IT consulting company has been very positive and the tool is currently in use at the same company.