Client success story
Over 15 Years of Collaboration Turned Into a Defining Moment of Support — How Symbiant’s Complimentary Licensing Helped Concern Worldwide Continue Its Audit Mission, Protect Oversight, and Inspire Team Morale During Challenging Budget Times
Built on Trust. Proven in Action.
In a Year of Tight Budgets and Tough Decisions, Symbiant Stood by Concern Worldwide
At Symbiant, we’ve always believed that being a great software company isn’t about size, it’s about values. We’re a family owned, independent team that puts clients above profit and purpose above sales. When our clients face challenges, we don’t disappear behind support tickets, we stand beside them.
As budgets tighten and resources stretch across every sector, Symbiant remains committed to offering one of the most affordable yet capable GRC, Risk Management, and Audit solutions with optional AI Assistance on the market. Our modular, fully customisable, and agile platform means every organisation, from global enterprises to small charities, can build a system that fits their exact needs without overspending.
In 2025, the humanitarian and nonprofit sector faced one of its toughest financial years. Many organisations were forced to scale back, and vital governance systems were often viewed as expendable. So when a long-standing partner, Concern Worldwide, with whom we’ve shared a 15-year journey, faced funding constraints, we didn’t step back, we stepped up. Symbiant provided complimentary annual licensing to ensure their audit assurance work could continue without interruption, supporting both their mission and their team’s morale.
Gratitude That Speaks Louder Than Words
What Partnering with Symbiant Means — In the Words of Concern Worldwide
— Catherine Gleeson,
Head of Internal Audit & Investigations,
Concern Worldwide
”At Concern, we work with people living in extreme poverty to achieve major improvements in their lives which last and spread without ongoing support from Concern. Informed by the priorities of affected communities, we go where the needs are greatest, and work to save lives, protect and develop livelihoods, support recovery and build long-term resilience.”
— Catherine Gleeson, Head of Internal Audit & Investigations, Concern Worldwide
About Concern Worldwide
Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organisation working towards a world free from poverty, fear, and oppression. They deliver life-saving and life-changing interventions to some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, ensuring that even in the hardest-to-reach places, no one is left behind.
From rapid emergency response to innovative development programming, Concern’s teams work directly with affected communities to save lives, protect livelihoods, support recovery, and build long-term resilience.
Concern’s approach is rooted in accountability, collaboration, and respect, ensuring that every resource and every action creates lasting, measurable impact for the people who need it most.
Industry:
Humanitarian Aid
& Development
Headquarters:
Dublin, Ireland
Established:
1968
Symbiant - One Connected Platform
When Precision, Accountability, and Global Reach Were Essential, Concern Worldwide Turned to Symbiant — a Partner That Delivers Clarity and Confidence Without Complexity
Operating across more than 20 countries, Concern Worldwide manages complex programmes that demand precision, accountability, and real-time oversight. For an organisation delivering humanitarian aid in some of the world’s most challenging environments, audit assurance isn’t just a compliance exercise, it’s a cornerstone of trust.
Concern needed a platform as agile and dependable as their mission, one that could connect teams across continents, track every open finding, and give leadership clear, instant visibility into progress.
That’s why, in 2010, Concern Worldwide chose Symbiant.
They recognised in Symbiant a partner that shared their values of efficiency, integrity, and transparency — and a system purpose-built to deliver powerful results without complexity. Symbiant web-based, globally accessible platform gave Concern the ability to manage audit follow-up with confidence, consistency, and clarity, wherever their teams are working in the world.
”We adopted Symbiant in approximately 2010. The driver behind our adoption of Symbiant was to facilitate follow-up of open audit findings. Given the broad geographic spread of our country programme offices, a web-based solution was an ideal fit for our needs.”
— Catherine Gleeson, Head of Internal Audit & Investigations, Concern Worldwide
Symbiant Brings People, Processes, & Progress Together
Empowering a Worldwide Audit Function With Seamless Accessibility and User Friendly Interface
For a global organisation like Concern Worldwide, accessibility and simplicity were essential. With country programmes operating across multiple regions, the Internal Audit team needed a platform that could unify their processes without adding complexity.
Symbiant’s secure, web-based system provided exactly that. Accessible anywhere in the world, it gave every user the ability to log in, collaborate, and update progress in real time. Its intuitive design meant new users could “hit the ground running”, ensuring audit findings were progressed and closed without delay.
What began as a solution for audit follow-up quickly became a trusted foundation for visibility and accountability, helping Concern maintain momentum, even across continents and time zones.
“Given the broad geographic spread of our country programme offices, Symbiant as a web-based solution was an ideal fit for our needs. It has allowed for easy access by users around the world and is a very user-friendly platform that has allowed onboarding staff to hit the ground running and maintain the momentum in closing audit findings”
— Catherine Gleeson, Head of Internal Audit & Investigations, Concern Worldwide
Where Partnership Is a Principle, Not a Promise
The True Cost of Losing a System That Holds Everything Together
In 2025, the non-profit sector faced severe funding cuts, forcing many organisations to make difficult decisions. For Concern Worldwide, this included the cancellation of their Symbiant licence.
Without an automated, globally accessible system, the implications would have been immediate. The Internal Audit team would face a significant increase in manual workload, following up on individual audit reports, consolidating updates, and chasing actions across more than 20 countries. This would have placed additional pressure on country management teams and diverted time away from essential programme delivery.
For an organisation operating on the front lines of humanitarian response, time isn’t just valuable, it’s mission-critical. Losing Symbiant would have meant losing efficiency, oversight, and the ability to focus resources where they’re needed most.
”This decision [to cancel Symbiant License] was part of a broader programme of cost cutting measures by our organisation in response to the wider funding cuts in the non-profit sector in 2025. The absence of an automated, globally accessible tool like Symbiant would lead to a number of challenges for my team and for the wider organisation. For example, there would be a significant time commitment involved in manually following up on each individual audit report. Further, this would add a time burden on our country management teams, taking away from more critical programme work”
— Catherine Gleeson, Head of Internal Audit & Investigations, Concern Worldwide
Partnership That Reflects Who We Are
A Small Business with a Big Commitment to Its Clients
As a small, independent company, Symbiant has always believed that business should be driven by values, not by scale. So when Concern Worldwide, a partner of over 15 years, faced severe funding cuts in 2025, we didn’t treat it as a contract to be lost, we treated it as a relationship to protect. We extended a complimentary annual licence to ensure their audit and assurance work could continue uninterrupted.
For a global humanitarian organisation, that continuity meant everything. It preserved their ability to track and close audit findings efficiently, maintain control assurance, and keep transparent reporting flowing to management and the Audit Committee.
But most importantly, it reflected what matters most to us as a business, doing the right thing. Because at Symbiant, partnership isn’t a transaction. It’s a promise. And when our clients need us most, we show up, with empathy, commitment, and pride in the impact our support enables.
— Catherine Gleeson,
Head of Internal Audit & Investigations,
Concern Worldwide
Trusted Partnership and Ongoing Support
Trusted for 15 Years & Recommended Without Hesitation
After more than 15 years of partnership, Concern Worldwide continues to highlight three things that make Symbiant stand out — ease of use, global accessibility, and exceptional value.
Our fully web-based platform allows users around the world to log in securely, collaborate effortlessly, and stay connected without the need for complex installations or technical maintenance. Its intuitive design makes onboarding simple, helping teams “hit the ground running” and maintain momentum from day one.
And as one of the most cost-effective GRC, Risk, and Audit solutions on the market, Symbiant delivers enterprise-level capability without enterprise-level cost, making powerful governance technology accessible to organisations of every size and sector.
“The ease of use, the global access facilitated by the web-based nature of the platform, and the cost have all been key positive aspects of our experience with Symbiant that I would highlight to other users looking for a similar solution.”
— Catherine Gleeson, Head of Internal Audit & Investigations, Concern Worldwide
Download the Full Concern Worldwide Case Study
Trusted Across Industries
Real Results with Symbiant: GRC Success Stories from Our Clients
Symbiant powers governance, risk, compliance, and audit functions across a wide range of sectors—from financial services and logistics to local authorities and regulators. Explore our case studies to see how our modular GRC, Risk and Audit Management software helps teams effectively achieve business objectives, work smarter, reduce costs, and stay ahead of emerging risks.
See how organisations like SRBS, Whistl, Marsh Finance & more, use Symbiant to improve compliance, manage risk more effectively, and simplify audit processes—on one agile platform built around their unique needs.
” We have had nothing but good experiences and we have a very strong relationship with the team at Symbiant. We continue to use Symbiant for a few reasons. 1. Cost – I don’t know of a GRC solution as broad as ours for a similar price. 2. Customisation – we are able to make changes to have the system look, feel, and run to our requirements with ease. 3. Support – the team at Symbiant Support are friendly, knowledgeable, understanding, and quick to respond.”
— Ben Moulds, Risk, Assurance and Compliance Manager, Whist
” Our previous risk system had very limited functionality, was very difficult to use and was expensive. […] Reporting was manual, inefficient and error prone.With Symbiant, we now have a system which is simple, easy to use, cost effective, and connects risks, controls, incidents and action tracking in one tool. […] Reporting is quick and easy, and the system is very well designed and user friendly. The Symbiant team were very helpful and collaborative when adapting the system to meet our specific needs.”
— Camilla Owen, Head of Non-Financial Risk (1st Line of Defence)
— Megan Macpherson, Risk Analyst, SRBS”Before we moved to Symbiant, we were spreadsheet-based, which was a very manual and time-consuming process […]. We also had a bespoke ‘waterfall report’ made to show changes in risk scores month by month — it makes it very clear to see any changes over the last six months.”
”We sought a Risk and Compliance software solution due to the cumbersome and manual process of managing everything through spreadsheets and folders. […] Our account manager at Symbiant actively listens to our requirements and proposes enhancements to improve functionality. Symbiant has revolutionised our R&C department’s operations, easing our workload and enhancing compliance levels.”
— Dan Simpson, Risk & Compliance Director
Award winning grc & Audit management software
25 Years. Thousands of Users. One Trusted Platform.
With over two decades of continuous innovation in Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC), and Audit Management, Symbiant has become a trusted partner to businesses, charities, and government bodies worldwide. Built on more than 23 years of client-driven development, our award-winning, fully customisable platform is designed to simplify complexity, strengthen compliance, and enable smarter decision-making. By combining powerful functionality with a modular, low-cost model, Symbiant delivers enterprise-grade capability without the overheads, making robust risk management accessible and agile for every organisation.
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The Symbiant Risk Management Software module enables organisations to identify, understand, and manage risks with ease and efficiency. It provides a streamlined approach to monitoring, assessing, and mitigating risks, ensuring informed decisions and compliance.
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Symbiant AI connects data across your organisation, delivering actionable insights and seamless workflows. From logical, data-driven risk scoring to uncovering root causes and predicting the domino effect of control failures, Symbiant AI empowers smarter, faster decisions. Eliminate duplicate risks in seconds, refine controls, identify emerging risks, and so much more—all tailored to your business.
Audit Management Software
The Symbiant Audit Management Software module streamlines audit planning, action tracking, and time management. It automatically pulls relevant data, allows easy report customisation, and generates professional audit reports.
Risk Management Software
The Symbiant Risk Management Software module enables organisations to identify, understand, and manage risks with ease and efficiency. It provides a streamlined approach to monitoring, assessing, and mitigating risks, ensuring informed decisions and compliance.
AI-Powered Assistant
Symbiant AI connects data across your organisation, delivering actionable insights and seamless workflows. From logical, data-driven risk scoring to uncovering root causes and predicting the domino effect of control failures, Symbiant AI empowers smarter, faster decisions. Eliminate duplicate risks in seconds, refine controls, identify emerging risks, and so much more—all tailored to your business.
Audit Management Software
The Symbiant Audit Management Software module streamlines audit planning, action tracking, and time management. It automatically pulls relevant data, allows easy report customisation, and generates professional audit reports.
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