Visualizing risks and their relationships is a central function of enterprise risk management (ERM) systems. Helping to ease that task is Riskonnect, a Marietta, Ga.-based software company that has launched an ERM system, also called Riskonnect, that enables risks to be easily identified, assessed and mitigated. The product is intended to make managing enterprise risk an efficient, demonstrable and repeatable process rather than a costly, one-time engagement.

By consolidating risks into a single database, Riskonnect lets companies anticipate and manage numerous risk relationships that threaten large enterprises today. The system uses influence diagrams to view risks and allows risk owners to drill down to observe the causes of risk in any number of areas that impact an organization. It not only allows for visual root cause analysis and comprehensive risk assessment, but also allows tracking of ongoing plans for mitigating risks.

The product is specifically aimed at non-financial companies that have had difficulty implementing ERM. Southern Co., an electric power generator, uses it to track and assess risks at its four operating utilities–Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and Mississippi Power. "We have a deep ability to track activities, documents, and tasks around both risk assessment and risk mitigation," says Riskonnect CEO Bob Morrell.