Regulatory mandates and corporate policies are shifting technology buying decisions from IT to business executives. As a result, forward-thinking IT managers that anticipate the needs of business leadership and seek technology solutions and processes can contribute to business improvement and competitive advantage and avoid financial loss and legal liability, according to new research from the AberdeenGroup.


The research, presented in 'Compliance Gap Benchmark Report: Aligning the Risk Management Priorities of IT and Business Executives,' demonstrates that most organizations are not gaining financial benefits from their risk management programs because they fail to focus on merging compliance with risk management.


"The adoption and measurement of a risk management strategy is not easy because the concept of risk has changed with a shift in priorities," says Mounil Patel, AberdeenGroup research director for Security Solutions and Services. "More often, organizations do not recognize the importance of closing the cultural gap between business executives and information technology executives."


According to the report, Best in Class companies:


* Believe the top risk management challenge is aligning and standardizing


procedures and systems company-wide;


* Place the responsibility for risk management with the CFO;


* Use frameworks and other tools to emphasize risk in operations and tend


to stress center-led organizations and centralized risk management with


decentralized execution; and


* Utilize these key performance indicators to measure risk management


performance: Risk management spend as a percentage of revenue, cost of


achieving compliance, and risk management spend per employee


The Compliance Gap Benchmark Report arms readers with actionable tools to benchmark their enterprises' risk management programs against those of Industry Average and Best in Class performers. Readers will also benefit from Aberdeen's recommendations on how to measure their risk management performance and the processes and technology enablers that should be implemented to achieve compliance with corporate policies and regulatory mandates.


To obtain a copy of this report, please http://www.aberdeen.com/link/source.asp?cid=3157&pid=PR070306


AberdeenGroup, Inc. provides fact-based research and insights focused on the global, technology-driven value chain. Aberdeen's benchmarking, market and solution assessments, sales acceleration programs, and conferences support Global 5000 value chain and technology executives and the solution providers who serve them.


For more information, visit http://www.aberdeen.com or call 617-723-7890.


Contact:


Mounil Patel, AberdeenGroup


617-854-5254, Mounil.patel@aberdeen.com