Software AG > Case Studies > Openreach Improves Business Performance with Risk and Compliance Management

Openreach Improves Business Performance with Risk and Compliance Management

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

Europe

Country

United Kingdom

Product

ARIS

Tech Stack

Microsoft Office
Microsoft SharePoint

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Customer Satisfaction

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Use Cases

Regulatory Compliance Monitoring

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Openreach is the infrastructure division of the British telecommunications company, BT Group. It was established in 2006 following an agreement between BT and Ofcom to ensure rival telecom operators have equality of access to BT’s local network. Openreach was created to own, maintain and develop the access network that links homes and businesses to the networks of Britain’s communications providers, delivering access and back-haul products to the communications and Internet industry, including local loop unbundling (both partial and full) and wholesale line rental. As one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world, Openreach has complex processes and a vast infrastructure.

The Challenge

Openreach, a division of the British telecommunications company, BT Group, was established in 2006 to ensure equality of access to BT’s local network for rival telecom operators. As one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world, Openreach has complex processes and a vast infrastructure. However, the company's systems and processes were siloed and they had issues around end-to-end systems or accountability. Openreach aimed to implement processes and systems that would increase control and also enable effective management of the business going forward. The company sought a more proactive and sustainable solution for managing risks while also working with a consultant firm to define, build and implement a Business Control Framework (BCF) with a five-step life-cycle methodology, covering: risk assessment; documentation of process control; testing; remediation; and sign-off.

The Solution

Openreach chose ARIS to support the new BCF. ARIS delivered the ability to manage all GRC requirements and the new BCF with automatically triggered audits and workflows to control the testing/deficiency management process, documentation, assessment and reporting of risks. All results of the testing process are now automatically evaluated and reported with a multi-level sign-off for full transparency. ARIS Risk & Compliance Manager’s powerful workflow engine combined with MashZone for dashboards to provide continuous monitoring and visibility across the organization and transparency with the ability to drill down to the level of a single test or control and the person who carried it out. With full executive support from CEO Liv Garfield, Openreach launched a successful pilot for the lead-cash process with a monthly steering committee that Garfield also chairs. Openreach is now able to demonstrate ownership, visibility and transparency—all aggregated by ARIS and contained in a single ARIS repository.

Operational Impact

Risk and controls culture now adopted across Openreach
Increased confidence in business processes since key controls are tested rigorously
Control gaps identified, root-cause analysis completed and remediated
More than 1,000 document changes reflect new and tested controls
Fully maintained relevant documentation available in a single repository

Quantitative Benefit