A new decade dedicated to unparalleled risk-mitigating opportunity has begun.
The 2020s will usher in a new era, and the possibilities are seemingly endless because of Integrated Risk Management 4.0 (IRM 4.0.), which uses the data-collecting power derived from technologies including cloud, mobile, sensors, wearables, drones, Digital Twin and more to help companies lower their risk footprint for themselves, their contractors and their communities. The ’20s will also bring with it an opportunity to capitalize on the enormous amount of data being collected for predictive and prescriptive means.
IRM 4.0, if you haven’t heard, is a concept that Paul Marushka, Sphera’s president and CEO, coined and introduced at the 2019 inspire conference in San Antonio. As the recent Spark magazine article “IRM 4.0: The Digital Transformation of Risk Mitigation” explained: “IRM 4.0 is the intersection of process, progress and performance. State-of-the-art technologies gather and analyze data from a host of sources across an organization so companies can make more-informed, strategic business decisions.”
From Oil & Gas to Manufacturing to Chemicals and more, companies can gain valuable knowledge about their risk exposure by plugging in an IRM 4.0 strategy. Of course, Integrated Risk Management could only be possible with the tech advancements that most large and medium-size companies already use related to Industry 4.0, which is still less than a decade old. While Industry 4.0 looks to boost productivity through digitalizing production and work processes, IRM 4.0 software compiles risk-related information to show where an incident could occur. After all, human behavior is not always predictable, but equipment and part failure often are.
“As a result of all this technology that’s out there in the marketplace, there’s a paradigm shift taking place,” Marushka said at the inspire user conference. There’s a shift with respect to data, integration, insights and decisions. Data is going from nondigital to digital. Integration is going from silos of information to truly connected information across an enterprise. It’s going from difficult manual information-gathering from reports from people in organizations to easy insights that are available at your fingertips when you want it and where you want it. And lastly, decisions are agile and nimble because you have all the information that you need.
If Industry 4.0 is about implementing technologies—and those are vital—Integrated Risk Management 4.0 is about integrating disparate data into comprehensive real-time visibility of the total global risk footprint. In other words, CEOs will be able to see at a glance at a high level what no other CEOs have been able to do in modern times—a real-time view anywhere in the world of Operational Risk and what to do about it.
And that goes for Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability as well.
Throughout the year, we will continue to showcase IRM 4.0 benefits and capabilities, so stay tuned for that and Sphera’s first-ever independent research survey on IRM 4.0. The Millennium of Mitigation has already gotten off to a fast start, and the pace is only going to get faster and faster as technology advancements accelerate and companies embrace the powerful risk-mitigation tools at their disposal.
This is Sphera’s 2020 vision of the future; we hope it is yours, too. Continue following Sphera for exciting updates.
