In our daily conversations with clients and prospects here at goatrisksolutions.com, we’re seeing a clear market shift: organisations are moving away from heavyweight, code-heavy GRC platforms toward simpler, human-centred tools that people actually use. This isn’t an anti-enterprise rant; it’s a reminder that risk management succeeds only when the many can engage, not when the few can model or report.
Management thinkers have long warned that complexity and bureaucracy are the silent killers of performance and growth. Tools and processes accrete features, workflows multiply, and energy drains away from outcomes into administration. In risk, that means people stop reporting issues early, owners avoid updating actions, and risk registers become historic rather than living.
UX (User Experience) research backs this up: poor usability depresses productivity and adoption. Inside large organisations, success isn’t just about whether a system or individual expert can complete a task, but whether the organisationcan – across different roles, devices, and contexts. If everyday users can’t navigate a UI (User Interface), error rates rise and engagement falls.
Even big-name enterprise platforms acknowledge the problem. Recent commentary from Workday’s product leadership openly discusses variability in user experience and the need to move away from monolithic systems to more usable, task-oriented interfaces. The message is universal: if users can’t do the job quickly, they won’t do it at all.
Let’s talk time and money.Traditional GRC implementations often demand long selection cycles, dedicated external consultants, and months of configuration and integration before a system can be introduced. Analysts and vendors alike note that implementations commonly stretch well beyond three months, with change management and integration hurdles slowing adoption and ballooning total cost of ownership.
Worse, once live, every new taxonomy tweak, workflow variant, or report often requires additional coding or specialist admin skills. That friction discourages iteration – exactly when you need to adapt controls, owners, and metrics as your risks evolve.
But isn’t risk complex and dynamic?
Sometimes, yes – and that’s the point. There are legitimate use cases for deep complexity. Think:
In these domains, intricate models, data lineage, and auditability are the job. You need a small number of specialist skills, platforms and model governance to comply.
The mistake is assuming every risk process requires that level of machinery. Most organisations don’t run trading books or mega-infrastructure projects – but they do face real risks and opportunities that need consistent identification, and assessment, clear ownership, timely actions, and transparent reporting. For those outcomes, simplicity isn’t a “nice to have”; it’s the only way to achieve broad cultural engagement.
Risk culture is about daily behaviours by the majority of people within an organisation – the speed with which risks and issues are surfaced, the quality of conversations about uncertainty in decisions, and the follow-through on actions. Sustained change happens when most people can see risk, speak risk, and act on risk without friction. McKinsey’s work on risk culture and transformation highlights exactly this: momentum, behaviours, and clear ownership drive durable impact. Tools should enable that, not stand in the way.
At its best, risk management isn’t a side activity or a compliance checkbox – it’s part of the conversation about the business itself. When the dialogue stays anchored to objectives, measures of success, and the real decisions leaders face, engagement follows naturally.
Stakeholders already have full day jobs. If risk is framed as an extra layer of administration, it will always struggle to gain traction. But if the important issues are being discussed – what could derail a project, delay a launch, harm reputation, or block delivery – people lean in, because it’s directly tied to their goals and is part of the ‘day job’.
Embedding risk thinking into “everything we do and don’t do” makes the process relevant rather than distracting. Done well, risk management facilitates better decisions, faster pivots, and sharper execution. It allows organisations to outpace competitors through agility and nimbleness – not by avoiding risk altogether, but by understanding and managing it in context.
Too often, organisations invest in risk technology simply to “do the paperwork faster” – to fill registers, complete assessments, or generate reports at speed. That misses the point.
The true role of risk technology is to make risk management work: to improve conversations, sharpen accountability, and drive better outcomes for the business. It should help identify issues earlier, prioritise actions, and support informed choices about where to invest time, capital, and attention.
If the system doesn’t make the organisation safer, faster, more resilient, or more competitive, then it isn’t creating value – it’s just adding admin in a shinier wrapper.
Independent market observers describe a GRC landscape that now spans broad platforms and specialised, best-of-breed solutions. The practical trend we see with customers: start simple where adoption and culture matter most; integrate selectively where specialist depth is required. That balanced approach reduces risk fatigue and gets you outcomes sooner.
It also reflects how modern software is shifting: smaller, composable tools, better UX, and no-code configuration for the 80% of use cases – with targeted integrations for the 20% that truly need heavyweight analytics or regulatory specifics.
Every buyer weighs these three. The trick is sequencing:
In other words: earn complexity. Don’t buy it up front.
Heavyweight systems will always have a place in deeply regulated, model-driven domains. But for most organisations trying to engage non-risk experts, collaborate across functions, and drive accountability, simplicity is not a compromise – it’s the strategy.
If this resonates and you’re re-evaluating your tooling, we’re happy to share what we’re learning at goatrisksolutions.com: practical ways to make risk visible, social, and accountable – without the drag of unnecessary complexity and cost.
Find out more about GOAT Risk™Scale risk with confidence