PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- In order to build viable global brands, consumer product companies (CPG), retailers, and Internet and e-commerce organizations are diversifying their product portfolio, building complex overseas supply chains, and venturing into new geographies. With a sharpened focus on building the business comes the need to proactively protect stakeholder interests and uphold corporate reputation.

Growing companies find themselves grappling with global and local regulatory requirements, and are devoting extra resources to ensure that their compliance initiatives are not compromised. Additionally, organizations today have to identify and manage a broad and diverse set of risks such as supply chain risk, IT risk, credit risk, ethics and compliance risk, product quality and safety risk, market risk, operational risk, and more. 

Meanwhile, mobility, hyper-connectivity, and rising social media usage have compounded the complexity. Quality and customer service complaints posted on personal or company social media pages can immediately reach millions of stakeholders around the world, thereby impacting brand health and reputation. As such, corporations today need to put in place a rigorous monitoring system to better understand the content and conversations taking place on these channels.  Similarly, IT-related risks are emerging as a top risk, and companies face challenges when it comes to information security and data privacy. Sophisticated cyber-attacks can compromise confidential customer information, affecting the business operations while also garnering negative publicity.

To address all of these challenges and more, companies around the world are turning to MetricStream, a market leader in Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) and quality management solutions. MetricStream solutions, built on a highly flexible and scalable platform, are widely recognized for their ability to support any company's initiatives as it relates to building global brands, cultivating loyal stakeholders, and enhancing corporate reputation by strengthening end-to-end GRC activities, including:

• Corporate Compliance (CPSC, FPLA, FLSA, FCPA, Anti-Bribery Act, EPA, etc.)
• Financial/SOX Compliance
• Brand Compliance
• Social Compliance
• Social Media Risk and Compliance Management
• Audits (internal and third-party)
• Quality and Safety
• Supply Chain Governance and Risk Management
• Inspections
• Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)

Through a unique federated approach, the solutions break down restrictive organizational silos, and enable effective collaboration on risk and compliance management processes across multiple departments, business units, vendors, and suppliers. They also automate cumbersome manual processes such as report generation, thus saving time and costs.

Through MetricStream solutions, companies can receive real-time data on their vendors and suppliers and therefore, are able to identify, evaluate, and manage risks associated with these vendors. Risk and control intelligence integrated from multiple systems aligns with business goals so that companies are in a better position to make proactive decisions that enhance brand and build corporate reputation.

Many global brands have implemented MetricStream GRC solutions, and have seen benefits such as:

A Fortune 500 fashion retailer uses MetricStream's Corporate Compliance Solution to streamline compliance across 15 different areas including social, HR, privacy, legal, and IT compliance. By enabling a robust and closed-loop compliance process, the solution helps protect the retailer from incidents ranging from information fraud, to employee discrimination, to anti-money laundering.   

A specialty retailer and distributor of construction and maintenance products with more than 50,000 suppliers uses MetricStream's Supplier Governance Solution to integrate supplier information management, on-boarding, evaluation, request for quotations, auditing, performance management, and risk management. The solution helps the organization improve the efficiency and transparency of their supply chain quality processes. It also enhances collaboration with suppliers to ensure that the required quality standards are being met.

A Fortune 500 department store chain uses MetricStream's Social Compliance Management Solution to streamline vendor information management, code of conduct conformance, audits, inspections, issue management, and Corrective Action/ Preventive Action CAPA management. Using the solution, the organization is able to strengthen its brand reputation by ensuring that ethical and socially responsible practices are followed across its enterprise.

One of the world's leading food service chains, operating hundreds of thousands of fast food restaurants, uses MetricStream's Quality Audit Solution to streamline inspection management and supplier audits. The solution helps the organization enhance customer loyalty by ensuring that the quality of food is not compromised despite sourcing from multiple suppliers.

One of the largest and most well-known CPG brands has chosen MetricStream's GRC Solution to consolidate and standardize the complete range of global GRC initiatives in a single cohesive framework. Through this integrated approach, the company is able to eliminate GRC redundancies, minimize risks, and ensure proactive and sustainable compliance with regulatory requirements.

"In light of recent incidents including factory fires, confidential data loss, financial fraud, unsafe working conditions, and product recalls, companies around the world are looking to GRC programs and processes to help them build their brand and protect their reputation," says Keri Dawson, Vice President of ComplianceOnline Advisory Services at MetricStream. "MetricStream GRC solutions support companies in their enterprise-wide GRC efforts by tracking risk and performance indicators and improving transparency and accountability. In short, the solutions provide the tools and intelligence to align GRC with business strategy, and thereby improve performance, brand value, and profitability."

About MetricStream

MetricStream is a market leader in Enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Management Solutions for global corporations. MetricStream solutions are used by leading corporations such as UBS, P&G, Constellation Energy, Pfizer, Philips, BAE Systems, Twitter, SanDisk, Cummins and Sonic Automotive in diverse industries such as Financial Services, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Energy and Utilities, Food, Retail, CPG, Government, Hi-tech and Manufacturing to manage their risk management, quality processes, regulatory and industry-mandated compliance and corporate governance initiatives, as well as several million compliance professionals worldwide via the www.ComplianceOnline.com portal. MetricStream is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and can be reached at www.metricstream.com.

Media contact:
Mr. Vinay Bapna
pr@metricstream.com
650-620-2955

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SOURCE MetricStream