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Effective Risk Management
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"Recent research indicates over 70% of programmes are late, over budget or ineffective. Organisations employing effective risk management have reduced this failure rate significantly and gained a significant competitive advantage"

Colin Wheeler, Istria Technical Director and PMI Risk Liaison

"IRIS risk mangement software helped us to derive major financial and performance improvements. The combination of quantitative and qualitative functionality provides robust decision support and the ability to navigate through complex scenarios"

Mehender Rawat, Programme Manager, London Underground

"WFI searched for a risk management support tool for many years. With IRIS, we have finally found a product we can introduce to our clients and ensure they manage their risks effectively"

Michel Sabatier, Head of Consulting, WFI

"In developing the IRIS software product, Istria have successfully managed to integrate our leading-edge quantitative techniques within an extremely intuitive and user friendly application. With IRIS’s qualitative risk matrices, customers now get the best of both worlds"

Chris Marlow, European Sales Director, Palisade Europe

"The IRIS software tool provides us with a rigorous methodology and our clients are able to generate a competitive advantage through risk management"

Mark Cook, Managing Director, Persides Ltd

Consultancy - Typical Engagements

Example Of Work by Istria

Istria has been asked to assist a vast array of organisations over the last 20 years. We’ve helped manage risks in public and private sector organisations, from large multinationals on the FTSE 100 through to locally based SMEs.

Our assignments are, of course, always tailored to specific client needs. However, we set out below some of the assignments we find clients regularly need help with:

Organisational Risk Assessment (ORA)

Companies and public sector organisations ask Istria to carry out an ORA to assess the overall risks impacting the organisation. We assess factors such as the nature of the industry, the company’s own competitive position, management strengths and weaknesses, emerging trends and the effectiveness of the project portfolio (see below) in order to determine the overall risk exposure of the organisation.

Risk Maturity Analysis (RMA)

Simply put, an RMA assesses the possibility that the organisation’s risk management itself is poor. We assess the current state of the organisation’s risk management capability in terms of its core processes, organisational and decision-making structures, people, tools and overall culture. These are then assessed in the light of the organisation’s target maturity model and specific actions are drawn up and implemented to address the gaps.

Programme / Portfolio Analysis

Under this type of engagement, Istria will assess the key risks facing a Programme, using similar techniques to those outlined in an ORA. We also assess the appropriateness of key Programme assumptions and the extent to which the Programme fulfils the key strategic objectives of the organisation.

Under a portfolio analysis, Istria consultants will look at the risks to the project portfolio as a whole, including poor alignment, duplication, omission or conflict of the projects. Again, once gaps are identified, a structured set of actions are developed to address them

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Using our software product, IRIS, we are able to rapidly understand and quantify the financial benefits of implementing risk mitigating actions in terms of the reduction in risk exposure that they will deliver. Running the Monte Carlo simulation embedded within the tool, IRIS immediately generates 1000+ iterations of the scenario and calculates risk exposure.

Organisations determine the level of statistical confidence they require and the overall risk exposure for the organisation, programme, department or project can be determined. Using results before and after mitigation activity, we can instantly determine whether the costs of implementing risk mitigation are justified by the reduction in risk exposure

This Monte Carlo Simulation enables organisations to develop more of an understanding of their risk exposure in a variety of ways, including:

Budget Analysis: Organisations can prioritise their risk management activity according to the Risk Reduction Ratio (RRR) to ensure that they get the most “bang for their buck” based on a limited budget. Alternatively, mitigating actions can be prioritised according to Absolute Risk Exposure Reduction (ARER)

Scenario Analysis: Organisations can flex the Monte Carlo model to allow for various scenarios, such as mutually exclusive risks, mutually dependent risks etc.

Critical Path Analysis: Using the simulation in conjunction with the project plan, organisations can understand which areas of the project or programme are most critical in terms of the critical path and focus attention accordingly

Read More : Click here to view some of our previous engagements»