GRC, Risk Management and Audit Software for Public Sector and Government Bodies - Orange Book Aligned & G-Cloud 14 Approved Supplier

The problem

Spreadsheets sit in silos: one for risks, another for actions, another for audits. Nothing is truly connected, version control is a nightmare, and you can’t easily answer simple questions like:

• “Which incidents relate to this risk?”

• “What controls mitigate this risk and when were they last tested?”

• “Which audit findings are still open and what risks do they map to?”

How Symbiant GRC, Risk Management and Audit Software helps

a) One connected data model across all assurance activities
Symbiant replaces separate spreadsheets and manual processes with a joined-up structure where key entities are linked:

• Risk Register Module – holds risks (strategic, operational, programme, project) with scoring, ownership, treatments, and actions.

• Controls & Policies Module – links controls directly to risks, incidents, questionnaires, and policies.

• Audit Working Papers Module – links each audit to the relevant risks, controls, incidents, and actions.

• Incident Reporter Module – allows users to log events and link them to existing or new risks and controls.

• Questionnaires / Surveys / Assessments & KRI Modules – link assessment questions and indicators directly to specific risks and controls.

So instead of “Risk #23” sitting alone in a sheet, you get:

Risk → linked controls → linked incidents → linked assessments → linked audit tests → linked actions.

This is exactly what Orange Book and the government risk framework call for: risk, control, and assurance viewed through multiple lenses, but coordinated in one place.

b) Import existing spreadsheets without starting from scratch
Because departments are already heavily invested in Excel, Symbiant allows you to:

• Import existing lists of risks, controls, incidents, or actions into the Risk Register, Controls & Policies, and Incident Reporter modules.

• Standardise those records into structured fields (owner, category, score, department, ALB, etc.).

• Immediately start linking them – e.g. connect a historic incident log to existing risks.

You’re not throwing spreadsheets away; you’re lifting their content into a structured, auditable environment.

c) Full audit trails and history
Every change to a risk, control, incident, or action is logged:

• Who changed what, when, and why.

• Status and reassessment history.

• Evidence files attached (audit evidence, policy docs, meeting minutes).

That gives you assurance-ready evidence in a way spreadsheets can’t – especially important for Audit & Risk Assurance Committees (ARACs) and NAO style reviews.

The problem

Accounting Officers and ARACs want answers like:

• “What are our top ten risks?”

• “Where are our biggest control weaknesses?”

• “Which audit actions are overdue?”

• “What are the emerging issues from incidents and complaints?”

In a spreadsheet world, this takes days of manual consolidation and still feels incomplete.

How Symbiant helps

a) Aggregated views aligned to the government risk framework
Symbiant’s Risk Register supports multiple scoring methods, categories, and views, so you can:

• Group and report risks by: internal / external / strategic / major project (from the Framework for Management of Risk in Government).

• Drill into specific portfolios: department, ALB, directorate, programme.

• Highlight principal risks for boards and Accounting Officers with up-to-date scores.

This means a board paper or ARAC pack can be built straight from Symbiant, not hacked together from ten different files.

b) Connected assurance picture – risk → control → audit → action
With Risk Register, Controls & Policies, Audit Working Papers, Incident Reporter, Questionnaires and KRIs working together, leadership sees:

• Which key controls map to principal risks.

• How often those controls are tested (via questionnaires / assessments).

• Which audits have reviewed them and what the findings were.

• What actions are open, who owns them, and whether deadlines are being met.

This aligns directly to the Orange Book’s emphasis on Governance & Leadership and the three lines model: management, risk/compliance, and internal audit all working off the same information.

c) One-click, board-ready reporting
Using dynamic reports and export from modules such as Audit Working Papers, Risk Register, and Controls & Policies:

• Generate summary dashboards of risk exposure, trends, and actions.

• Export tailored reports for ARAC meetings (e.g. list of top risks with incident history and outstanding actions).

• Pull in evidence logs and working papers into a single report bundle.

So instead of “we’ll need a week to pull that together”, it becomes “we’ll run that from Symbiant”.

The problem

Different departments, agencies and ALBs:

• Use different templates and spreadsheets.

• Have different maturity levels.

• Report risk and incidents in inconsistent ways.

That makes it hard to spot cross-cutting risks, compare exposure, or offer central guidance – exactly the challenges highlighted in the government risk framework.

How Symbiant helps

a) Shared platform, custom layouts per department / ALB
Symbiant allows the same agile, connected platform to be used across:

• Central department.

• Individual business units.

• Arm’s-length bodies.

But with flexibility to:

• Tailor forms and layouts per user group or division.

• Use consistent core fields (risk category, impact, owner, objective) for central aggregation.

This gives you standardised data structure, without forcing everyone into a single rigid template.

b) Multistage, collaborative risk workshops
The Risk Workshops Module is built specifically to engage people beyond the central risk team:

• Multi-stage workflow: Identify → Measure → Treat → Monitor.

• Capture scoring rationale from different stakeholders.

• Create or update risks directly into the Risk Register from workshop outputs.

• Align workshops with ISO 31000 / ISO 27001 and Orange Book expectations for collaboration and best information.

So a cross-department session on, say, cyber risk can feed directly into shared risks, actions, and controls, not just notes on a whiteboard or lost in a slide deck.

c) Linking incidents and complaints across organisational boundaries
With Incident Reporter and Complaints:

• Front-line teams can log events through simplified forms, tailored to their role and department.

• Central risk teams can link those incidents to common risks and controls across multiple entities.

• Themes and emerging issues (e.g. repeat complaints, recurring IT failures) can be viewed across the whole organisation.

This is exactly what the Framework for Risk in Government pushes for: understanding cross-cutting risks, not just isolated departmental ones.

d) Consistent questionnaires and KRIs across entities
Using Questionnaires, Surveys and Assessments plus the KRI Module:

• Issue standardised control self-assessments, compliance checks, or supplier reviews across departments/ALBs.

• Use dynamic rules and conditional logic to ensure relevant follow-up questions.

• Feed indicator data back into the Risk Register as early-warning signals.

That gives central teams a comparable view of control effectiveness and risk appetite across the whole group.

The problem

Risk and audit teams spend more time:

• Chasing updates by e-mail,

• Reconciling spreadsheets,

• Copy-pasting into slide decks,

…than actually analysing risk. Reports are out of date the moment they’re published.

How Symbiant helps

a) Automated workflows and reminders
Across Symbiant modules, workflows and notifications:

• Remind risk owners to update their risks or actions.

• Notify control owners to complete scheduled reviews or questionnaires.

• Alert managers when incidents or complaints require review or escalation.

• Escalate overdue items automatically.

That means less chasing and more doing.

b) Built-in dashboards, filters, and charts
Modules such as Risk Register, Incident Reporter, Controls & Policies and KRIs provide:

• Dynamic filtering (by department, owner, category, risk type).

• Cumulative charts and trend views (e.g. incident frequency, control failures, risk score movement).

• Saved views for regular reports (e.g. “Top 20 risks for ARAC”).

Instead of manually pulling this into Excel each month, you:

• Use the live view in Symbiant for meetings; or

• Export directly to PDF/Excel if needed.

c) One-click report generation from audits
The Audit Working Papers Module acts as a complete electronic file:

• Scope, objectives, risks, and controls being tested.

• Test results, work performed, evidence attachments.

• Conclusions, ratings, and recommendations.

Everything in that file can be exported into a structured report in one click.
This dramatically reduces:

• Time spent drafting, formatting, and compiling.

• Risk of missing evidence or inconsistencies between working papers and the final report.

d) Scheduled assessments and automated evaluations
With Questionnaires / Assessments and KRIs:

• You can schedule recurring assessments (quarterly control self-assessments, annual policy attestations, supplier checks, etc.).

• Use rules to automatically flag failures, trigger follow-up questions or create actions.

This means ongoing compliance and control monitoring are built into the system, not manually recreated every year.

The problem

Public bodies:

• Can’t justify huge per-user GRC licences.

• Are under constant scrutiny to demonstrate value for money.

• Need tools that work for many users (including non-risk staff) without exploding costs.

How Symbiant helps

a) Transparent, modular pricing built for the public sector
Symbiant’s licensing model is simple:

• £100 per module, per month, with unlimited access for all active users per licensed seat.

• No per-user licence inflation as adoption grows.

• No “enterprise-only” features locked behind extra tiers.

This is ideal for:

• Distributed teams.

• Large numbers of occasional users (e.g., managers updating risks or reporting incidents).

• Gradual expansion of your programme without exponential cost.

b) Start small, scale as maturity grows
Because each module is standalone but connected, you can:

1. Begin with core modules like Risk Register, Controls & Policies, and Audit Working Papers.

2. Add Incident Reporter, Complaints, or DPIA as needs emerge.

3. Introduce Risk Workshops, Questionnaires, KRIs as your risk framework matures.

This aligns perfectly with the “building risk maturity” concept in the government framework: you don’t need to buy everything at once; you grow in line with your capabilities and budget.

c) No heavy reliance on external consultants
Symbiant is designed to be:

• Configurable by internal teams.

• Flexible with layouts, scoring methods, and workflows.

• Supportive of data import from spreadsheets.

• Easy to use, with user friendly interface.

So instead of a 12–18 month consultant-led implementation, public-sector teams can configure and iterate themselves, with support from Symbiant where needed, not a dependency on a massive consultancy budget.

d) Demonstrable value and assurance
Because Symbiant:

• Strengthens governance and assurance around public money,

• Improves quality and completeness of risk information,

• Reduces time spent on manual report building,

…it becomes far easier to evidence value for money and support scrutiny from NAO, internal audit, and parliamentary committees.

You’re not just buying software; you’re improving the quality of public-sector governance and control, in direct alignment with HM Treasury’s Orange Book and the Framework for Management of Risk in Government.