Assurance Without Limits: Rethinking QAIP - 7 October
Regulation is not the burden. Fragmentation is.
Ten platforms, compared on the four things that decide whether a governance programme holds together: what it covers, what it runs on, where it starts, and where the evidence ends up.
Start with one workflow. Add the next without rebuilding anything.
SustainGRC is governance intelligence infrastructure. Governance, sustainability, risk management, internal audit, and cyber and business resilience run on one data model across 40+ modules. Organisations move from established GRC platforms when they want those five domains on the same record rather than reconciled between products, and when they want one workflow operating before the wider programme is scoped.
Governance, sustainability, risk management, internal audit, and cyber and business resilience sit on the same record. Not five products behind one login, and not a carbon module bought in and stitched to the side. When a control changes, every domain that depends on it sees the change.
40+ modules · one schema · one audit trail
Quality assurance is part of the workflow rather than a review that happens afterwards. Evidence is captured at the point of work, ownership is explicit, and the record carries its own provenance — so an assessment that was defensible on the day it was made is still defensible when it is challenged.
Evidence captured in the workflow, not reconstructed for the audit
Designed by chief audit executives, risk leaders, sustainability and assurance practitioners who have run these functions and been questioned by an audit committee. The vocabulary is the buyer's own — risk register, control testing, business continuity plan, board reporting.
Practitioner-designed workflows, reviewed by practising specialists
Silos are rarely a culture problem. They are usually a data problem wearing a culture costume: four functions maintaining four versions of the same control because no system lets them share one. On a single model, collaboration stops being a meeting and becomes the default state of the record.
Owns the control and records the work where the work happens.
Sees the same record, adds challenge, and never re-requests evidence that already exists.
Tests against the record rather than against a spreadsheet exported three weeks ago.
Reads a report that traces back to the underlying evidence in one step.
Select a platform. Every comparison uses the same four dimensions, drawn from published product documentation.
Established enterprise GRC
What MetricStream is known for. Long-established enterprise GRC with deep risk and compliance functionality and a large installed base.
What buyers ask us for next. Teams evaluating alternatives typically ask for sustainability and resilience on the same record as risk and audit, and for a first workflow that is live before the wider programme is scoped.
| Dimension | MetricStream | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | Risk, compliance and audit as the core estate; sustainability addressed through separate products or partners. | Governance, sustainability, risk, internal audit, and cyber and business resilience on one model. |
| Data model | Module-oriented, with mapping between modules. | Single schema. One control, one owner, one evidence chain across every domain. |
| Starting point | Programme-scale implementations are the norm. | One workflow. The next is added without rebuilding the first. |
| Where the evidence lives | In the module that captured it. | On the record, with provenance attached and readable by every domain that needs it. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.
Established enterprise GRC
What MetricStream is known for. Long-established enterprise GRC with deep risk and compliance functionality and a large installed base.
What buyers ask us for next. Teams evaluating alternatives typically ask for sustainability and resilience on the same record as risk and audit, and for a first workflow that is live before the wider programme is scoped.
| Dimension | MetricStream | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | Risk, compliance and audit as the core estate; sustainability addressed through separate products or partners. | Governance, sustainability, risk, internal audit, and cyber and business resilience on one model. |
| Data model | Module-oriented, with mapping between modules. | Single schema. One control, one owner, one evidence chain across every domain. |
| Starting point | Programme-scale implementations are the norm. | One workflow. The next is added without rebuilding the first. |
| Where the evidence lives | In the module that captured it. | On the record, with provenance attached and readable by every domain that needs it. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.
Integrated risk management
What Archer IRM is known for. One of the longest-standing names in integrated risk management, known for configurability across large risk programmes.
What buyers ask us for next. Buyers looking at alternatives ask about time to a first working outcome, and whether sustainability and resilience can share the same record as enterprise risk without a second build.
| Dimension | Archer IRM | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | Integrated risk management with a strong cyber and operational risk centre of gravity. | Five domains on one model, including sustainability and business resilience. |
| Data model | Highly configurable; configuration is where the flexibility lives. | Opinionated schema out of the box; configured, not constructed. |
| Starting point | Configuration-led deployments led by specialists. | One workflow, then the next. |
| Where the evidence lives | In the configured application. | On the record, with the confirmation history that produced it. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.
Risk workflow automation
What LogicGate is known for. Modern, flexible risk workflow building — well regarded for how quickly a team can shape a process.
What buyers ask us for next. Evaluators ask what happens when the programme grows past workflow automation into sustainability reporting, assurance quality and board-level evidence.
| Dimension | LogicGate | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | Risk and compliance workflow, extended by building. | Five domains supplied as governed workflows, not assembled from a canvas. |
| Data model | Flexible structures defined per application. | One governed schema shared across domains. |
| Starting point | Build the workflow, then populate it. | Start on a workflow that already reflects practitioner method. |
| Where the evidence lives | In the workflow that captured it. | On the record, portable to any report that needs it. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.
Business management platform
What Corporater is known for. A configurable business management platform covering governance, performance and risk in one environment.
What buyers ask us for next. The question we are asked most is how much configuration sits between purchase and a working risk register — and how the interface holds up in front of an audit committee.
| Dimension | Corporater | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | Broad governance and performance coverage across a configurable framework. | Five domains, each supplied as a practitioner workflow rather than a framework to configure. |
| Data model | Framework-driven, shaped to the organisation during implementation. | Shared schema from day one; local variation handled without re-architecture. |
| Starting point | Configuration of the framework precedes use. | One workflow live first; scope grows without a rebuild. |
| Where the evidence lives | In the configured object model. | On the record, with provenance the board can follow. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.
Connected reporting
What Workiva is known for. Strong connected reporting and disclosure, widely used for financial and sustainability reporting cycles.
What buyers ask us for next. Buyers ask what governs the data before it reaches the report — the control testing, the risk register, the resilience plan that the disclosure depends on.
| Dimension | Workiva | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | Reporting and disclosure across financial and sustainability data. | The governance underneath the report, and the report, on the same model. |
| Data model | Linked documents and data connections across reporting artefacts. | Operational records first; disclosure is a view of them. |
| Starting point | The reporting cycle. | The workflow that produces what the report asserts. |
| Where the evidence lives | Linked to the reported figure. | On the operating record, from which the reported figure is drawn. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.
Internal audit management
What TeamMate+ is known for. A long-established internal audit management product with a deep following among audit teams.
What buyers ask us for next. Chief audit executives ask whether the audit record can sit alongside risk, resilience and sustainability rather than in an audit-only environment the rest of the organisation cannot see.
| Dimension | TeamMate+ | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | Internal audit lifecycle: planning, fieldwork, issues, reporting. | Internal audit alongside risk, governance, sustainability and resilience on one model. |
| Data model | Audit-centric structures. | Shared schema: audit reads the same record the first and second lines maintain. |
| Starting point | The audit plan. | Audit planning, or a risk workflow, or resilience — whichever is most pressing. |
| Where the evidence lives | In the audit file. | On the record, so the finding and the control history are the same object. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.
Connected risk
What AuditBoard is known for. Widely adopted connected-risk platform with a strong audit and SOX heritage and a well-liked interface.
What buyers ask us for next. Evaluators ask about sustainability and business resilience depth, and about whether the platform reads as board-grade infrastructure or as a departmental tool.
| Dimension | AuditBoard | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | Audit, SOX, risk and compliance, extending outward from an audit heritage. | Five domains designed together, including sustainability and resilience. |
| Data model | Connected modules across the risk estate. | One model, one schema, one evidence chain. |
| Starting point | Audit and controls. | Any of the five domains — the model does not change. |
| Where the evidence lives | In the connected module. | On the record, with provenance carried with it. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.
Board governance and GRC
What Diligent is known for. Board governance heritage with a broad GRC estate assembled across several products, including carbon accounting acquired rather than built.
What buyers ask us for next. The recurring question is whether the sustainability record and the risk record are genuinely the same record, or two systems reconciled at reporting time.
| Dimension | Diligent | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | Board governance, risk and compliance, with sustainability added through acquisition. | Five domains built on one model from the outset. |
| Data model | Product-family integrations across an assembled estate. | One schema. Nothing to reconcile between domains. |
| Starting point | The board layer, or the acquired product for the domain in question. | The workflow the organisation needs first. |
| Where the evidence lives | In the originating product. | On the shared record. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.
Platform-extended risk
What ServiceNow IRM is known for. Integrated risk management delivered as an extension of a large workflow and service-management platform.
What buyers ask us for next. Risk and audit leaders ask how much of the delivery depends on platform administrators, and whether sustainability and assurance quality are first-class or bespoke builds.
| Dimension | ServiceNow IRM | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | Risk and compliance built on the wider platform. | Governance, sustainability, risk, audit and resilience supplied as practitioner workflows. |
| Data model | The platform's data model, extended for risk. | A governance data model, designed for governance. |
| Starting point | Platform build and configuration. | One workflow, in the practitioner's own vocabulary. |
| Where the evidence lives | In platform records and tasks. | On the governance record, provenance attached. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.
GRC and cyber risk
What SureCloud is known for. GRC and cyber risk management with a well-defined product set and a strong UK footprint.
What buyers ask us for next. Buyers with a sustainability or board-governance requirement ask whether those domains are covered on the same platform or need a second purchase.
| Dimension | SureCloud | SustainGRC |
|---|---|---|
| Domain coverage | GRC and cyber risk management. | Adds sustainability, board governance and business resilience on the same model. |
| Data model | Product-set structures across GRC and cyber. | One schema across five domains. |
| Starting point | The GRC or cyber requirement. | Any domain — including the sustainability workflow that triggers the second purchase elsewhere. |
| Where the evidence lives | In the product that captured it. | On the shared record. |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation.