Case study Enterprise Risk Case Study with David Shipp from Network Rail

David talks about how SharpCloud is helping to improve the visualization and communication of risk management across Network Rail.

Watch the recorded webinar "Risk Management and Beyond" where David Shipp discusses how he is using SharpCloud to help breathe a new lease of life into strategic risk management within Network Rail.

What was the business problem that needed to be solved?

Our strategic risk information was held only in disparate Excel spreadsheets so it was very difficult to identify and draw relationships between causes, consequences and their controls, and improvement actions in a quick and easy to understand manner.

It was also very difficult to map and interpret where there were interdependencies and commonalities, and any effort to create a departmental or Executive Committee-level risk map was entirely manual and prone to human error.

Communication of all this information was difficult and time consuming, especially when executives and key decision makers across the business only require the crucial messages and high-level insight.

It was also hard to identify any gaps in our information or share and communicate this information with key stakeholders in a collaborative way.

Why have other tools not solved this problem?

Other tools in the market for our use case specialize very well in the quantitative side of risk management and risk modelling. Some also enable risks to be visualized very well using bowtie methodology but none of these tools enable clear and easy sharing and communication. Other tools also demanded formal training to all users, whether on the design side like me or a casual browser. 

How is SharpCloud solving the problem?

"SharpCloud helps us break the silo mentality and is customizable to different levels in the organization. It’s versatility and broad appeal as a data visualization platform opens more doors to improvement than risk management specialist tools do."

We are currently using SharpCloud as a common platform to store and visualize all our strategic risk information. We can clearly identify and emphasize key dependencies, drawing attention to the key discussion points. We are developing our maturity further by providing a means to visualize our key controls that appear in multiple risks and to provide vital assurance to those control owners around whole organization deployment.

SharpCloud’s main strength for me is that it is NOT a risk management tool. It’s versatility and broad appeal as a data visualization platform opens more doors to improvement than risk management specialist tools do. We have the ability to integrate;

• assurance activities to inform control effectiveness,
• change initiatives to the risks they are helping to mitigate
• bespoke data from other processes within our large organization, including outputs from cost and schedule risk models.

"I have been able to create several value-adding views to help prioritize improvement based on the data collected, whether it is control effectiveness, severity of impact or volume of dependency on multiple-risks."

We swim in a sea of information daily and the key here is navigating through all the noise and distraction to what matters the most. 

Award winning Network Rail 

• CIR 'Risk Management Innovation of the Year' Award, 2015
• IRM Global Risk Awards for 'Innovation through Technology', 2016
• ALARM Risk Award for ‘Best Use of Technology in Risk Management’, 2019
• CIR Risk Awards, for the ‘Best Use of Technology in Risk Management’, 2019
• Light Rail Award, for 'Project of the Year (Under  €50m)', 2021

"SharpCloud has enabled us to revolutionize risk conversations in Network Rail by simplifying a complex and interrelated dataset and providing various lenses of key risk information. Its visual nature and appeal have helped bring the business together through collaboration of linked risk information. This has resulted in wider industry recognition including winning awards at the ALARM Risk Conference and CIR Risk Awards, both for Best Use of Technology in Risk Management."

David Shipp, Network Rail

Key differentiators of SharpCloud

It’s simplicity, versatility, integration with our current processes so it wasn’t disruptive, and easy to implement as an ‘add-on’. I am also able to use the underlying data to automate our reporting processes, saving time and improving process efficiency.

What are the benefits of using SharpCloud, to you personally, and to your organization?

The ability to simplify complex messages and understand where complexity exists, enabling a holistic approach to risk management. It helps us break the silo mentality and is customizable to different levels in the organization where appropriate.

In addition to our organizational use case, I also use SharpCloud for my own stakeholder management, to plan key events and to present strategies.