Opal Modules
Opal Modules
Business Continuity
These features are essential for ensuring that organizations can effectively plan for, respond to, and recover from disruptions while maintaining business operations, improving resilience, and managing third-party dependencies.
Policy Management
Policy Management helps organizations create, update, and manage policies related to their business continuity plans. It provides a centralized repository for all business continuity policies, ensuring that employees and stakeholders have access to the most current guidelines for maintaining operations during disruptions. The software tracks policy approvals, and helps align business continuity strategies with overall risk management objectives.
Risk Management
Business continuity risk management allows organizations to identify, assess, and mitigate risks that could impact their ability to maintain operations during crises or disruptions. This feature helps track potential risks such as natural disasters, cybersecurity threats, supply chain interruptions, or IT system failures. Opal provides real-time monitoring and reporting of these risks, allowing organizations to proactively prepare and implement risk mitigation strategies that support business continuity.
Audit Project Management
This feature manages the audit processes related to business continuity plans. It helps schedule and track internal or external audits that assess the effectiveness of an organization’s continuity strategies. Opal automates the audit process, ensuring that findings are documented, responsibilities are assigned, and corrective actions are tracked. This feature ensures that business continuity plans are continually improved and remain compliant with industry standards or regulations.
Observation/Action Management
This feature helps track observations and findings related to business continuity audits, tests, or events/incidents. It assigns corrective actions to responsible parties, monitors their progress, and ensures timely resolution. The software provides visibility into the status of all open actions, helping organizations address weaknesses in their business continuity plans and improve their ability to respond to disruptions.
3rd Party Controls Assessments
This feature allows organizations to assess the business continuity controlss. It facilitates the evaluation of the robustness of third-party continuity plans and helps ensure that external dependencies won’t compromise the organization’s ability to recover from disruptions. Opal automates assessments, ensuring that third parties adhere to contract requirements and maintain adequate continuity controls.
3rd Party Risk Management
Third-party risk management focuses on assessing the risks posed by external vendors and partners in relation to the organization’s business continuity. Opal tracks and monitors third-party risks, such as vendor operational failures, supply chain disruptions, or IT outages, that could affect the organization’s ability to maintain services. It helps mitigate third-party risks by monitoring vendor compliance with business continuity requirements.
Internal and External Surveys & Requests
This feature facilitates the distribution and analysis of surveys and information requests related to business continuity. These surveys can assess the preparedness of internal teams or gather information on the continuity plans of third-party vendors. Opal automates the collection of survey responses, providing insights into the readiness of both internal and external parties to respond to disruptions and ensure business continuity.
PCI
These features help organizations effectively manage their PCI DSS compliance requirements, providing oversight of internal controls, third-party risks, audits, and policy management, while ensuring continuous alignment with regulatory standards for handling payment card data securely.
Policy Management
This feature helps organizations manage and maintain policies related to PCI DSS compliance. It centralizes all PCI-related policies to ensure that employees, vendors, and third-party partners are aware of and follow the correct procedures for handling cardholder data securely. The software tracks acknowledgments and ensures that policies are regularly reviewed and updated in line with the latest PCI DSS requirements.
Controls Management
This feature enables organizations to define, manage, and monitor controls required by PCI DSS. It helps ensure that all the technical and operational controls are in place to protect cardholder data, such as encryption, network security, and access controls. Opal allows for real-time tracking of control effectiveness and helps in identifying gaps in compliance that need remediation.
Audit Management
PCI audit management simplifies the process of preparing for and undergoing PCI DSS audits. It provides tools to document and track compliance with PCI standards, enabling organizations to efficiently prepare for both internal and external PCI audits. Opal helps manage audit findings, assign corrective actions, and ensures that organizations maintain an up-to-date audit trail for each PCI compliance cycle.
Observation/Action Management
This feature tracks audit findings, non-compliance observations, or security incidents related to PCI DSS. It helps assign tasks and corrective actions to responsible teams, ensuring that all compliance issues are addressed promptly and in compliance with PCI requirements. Opal automates workflows to ensure timely completion and closure of identified gaps.
3rd Party Risk and Controls Assessments
This feature allows organizations to assess the PCI compliance requirements of third-party vendors and service providers. It helps evaluate whether third-party partners have adequate controls in place to protect cardholder data. Automated assessments ensure that third parties comply with key PCI controls, such as data encryption and network security, reducing the risk of non-compliance.
Internal and External Surveys & Requests
This feature enables organizations to conduct surveys and information requests related to PCI DSS compliance, gathering insights from internal departments or external vendors. These surveys assess compliance levels, employee awareness, and third-party adherence to PCI standards. Opal automates the process of distributing and collecting survey data, ensuring that organizations can quickly analyze and address areas of concern.
Cyber Security & Data Privacy
These features help organizations proactively manage cybersecurity and data privacy risks, ensure compliance with regulatory frameworks, and maintain strong oversight of internal practices and third-party partnerships.
Policy Management
This feature helps organizations create, manage, update, and distribute policies related to cybersecurity and data privacy. It centralizes relevant policies, helping to improve the visibility of the latest policies and guidelines regarding data protection, network security, and privacy laws. Opal tracks policy acknowledgments and facilitates updates when regulations change.
Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Reporting
This feature enables organizations to generate reports on cybersecurity and data privacy risk and control metrics, helping track compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements. These reports provide insights into security posture, compliance status, and areas for improvement.
Observation/Action Management
This feature helps track and manage security issues or data privacy issues. When a vulnerability is identified, or a privacy breach occurs, corrective actions can be assigned to responsible parties, and the progress of remediation can be tracked, helping to ensure that actions are completed on time. The system enables thorough documentation ensuring that actions taken are available for future reference.
3rd Party Controls Assessments
This feature allows organizations to assess the cybersecurity controls and data privacy practices of third-party vendors or partners. It helps identify whether external entities comply with the organization's security standards. Automated assessments track third-party risks and controls, providing a clear understanding of vendors' compliance with regulations such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, or NIST
3rd Party Risk Management
Third-party risk management focuses on assessing and managing the cybersecurity and data privacy risks of external vendors, suppliers, or partners. Opal facilitates tracking of third-party access risks and compliance with security frameworks and contractual requirements.
Internal and External Surveys & Requests
This feature facilitates the creation and distribution of cybersecurity and data privacy surveys to internal employees or external vendors. These surveys assess compliance with security policies, gather feedback on data protection practices, or identify potential vulnerabilities. Opal automates the survey process and compiles responses for analysis, helping to provide insight into cyber risk and policy/regulatory compliance.
Vendor Management
3rd Party Controls Assessments
This feature allows organizations to evaluate and monitor the controls implemented by third-party vendors. It helps assess whether vendors are complying with contractual obligations and industry regulations. Opal automates the control assessment process, and helps provide transparency between the organization and its partners.
3rd Party Risk Management
3rd Party Risk Management tools focus on assessing, mitigating, and monitoring risks associated with vendors, contractors, or partners. Opal automates vendor risk assessments, tracks compliance with security and regulatory standards, and manages the onboarding process. It ensures that organizations maintain visibility into third-party risks throughout the vendor lifecycle.
Internal and External Surveys & Requests
Opal allows organizations to create and distribute surveys to gather feedback, opinions, or data from both internal and external stakeholders. These surveys can be used for audit project feedback, risk assessments, compliance checks, or gathering insights to support audit or regulatory reporting. Automated survey collection and analysis help ensure efficient gathering and handling of responses.
ESG
These features help organizations streamline their ESG initiatives, ensuring that policies, third-party risks, and reporting align with evolving ESG standards and stakeholder expectations. They provide real-time insights and automate critical processes to support the organization’s environmental, social, and governance goals.
ESG Policy Management
This feature helps organizations create, manage, update, and distribute ESG-related policies across the organization. It provides a centralized platform to ensure that all stakeholders have access to the latest ESG guidelines, including environmental sustainability policies, social responsibility practices, and governance frameworks. The software tracks policy acknowledgments and ensures that any regulatory or strategic changes are reflected in updated policies.
ESG Reporting
Opal ESG reporting tools help organizations compile and present data on their environmental, social, and governance activities in a format that meets regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations. The feature automates the collection of ESG data and ensures that reports align with frameworks like GRI, SASB, TCFD, or UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It allows organizations to track progress toward ESG goals and provide transparent disclosures to investors, customers, and regulators.
Observation/Action Management
This feature helps organizations manage and track observations or findings related to ESG initiatives. Whether an audit reveals gaps in environmental practices or a social compliance issue arises, Opal can assign actions to responsible parties, track their progress, and ensure the timely resolution of issues. This promotes continuous improvement in ESG practices and ensures that corrective actions are properly documented.
3rd Party Controls Assessments (for ESG)
This feature allows organizations to assess the ESG controls and practices of third-party vendors, suppliers, or partners. It ensures that these third parties adhere to the organization’s ESG standards and comply with relevant regulations. Opal automates the control assessment process, providing risk ratings and recommending improvements to align vendors with the company’s ESG objectives.
3rd Party Risk Management(for ESG)
ESG third-party risk management tools help assess and monitor the environmental, social, and governance risks associated with external partners. Opal allows for regular risk assessments of vendors and facilitates tracking their compliance with sustainability, labor rights, and ethical sourcing standards. This helps mitigate risks arising from third-party practices, ensuring alignment with the organization’s ESG commitments.
Internal and External Surveys & Requests
This feature facilitates the creation and distribution of ESG-related surveys and requests to internal teams or external stakeholders. These surveys help gather insights on ESG performance, identify risks, and collect feedback on social and environmental initiatives. Opal automates the survey process, ensuring timely responses and efficient analysis, which can then be used to drive improvements in ESG performance and reporting.
Compliance
These features help organizations strengthen policy enforcement, manage ethics reporting and investigations, and ensure third-party compliance and risk management, all while providing clear visibility and accountability across processes.
Controls Certifications
Helps ensure that internal controls meet established regulatory standards and best practices. It helps organizations validate that their control frameworks are functioning as intended and aligned with external certifications (such as ISO 27001, SOX, or PCI-DSS). Opal automates the documentation and reporting required to demonstrate compliance, simplifying the certification process.
Controls Testing
Opal allows organizations to validate the effectiveness of their internal controls. It helps schedule and execute testing procedures, validating that controls are operating as expected. It automates testing workflows, captures results, and manages areas that require remediation, allowing for continuous monitoring and improvement of control effectiveness.
Controls Operation
This feature is not commonly available across GRC tools. Opal provides real-time visibility into the day-to-day operation of internal controls across various business processes. It ensures that critical controls are functioning properly in real time and facilitates issue management for any control failures. Organizations can better monitor, report, and maintain a clear audit trail of control activities through automation, improving confidence and assurance that controls are operating effectively.
User Access Reviews
User access reviews ensure that employees have the correct level of access to systems and data based on their roles and responsibilities. This feature helps automate periodic reviews of access rights, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and non-compliance with SOX, GDPR, and other regulations.
Controls Framework Review
This feature is also not a commonly available feature across GRC tools. A controls framework review helps assess the overall structure and effectiveness of an organization’s internal controls and improves the responsibility and accountability of effective control design on process owners. This feature allows companies to evaluate their controls against established frameworks to identify gaps or weaknesses. Opal simplifies the review process and enhances overall governance and compliance.
Risk
These features help enable a proactive, structured approach to risk management, enabling organizations to holistically and effectively assess and manage risk.
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)
Opal provides comprehensive functionality for managing an organization’s risks, from strategic and operational to financial and compliance risks. It enables organizations to identify, assess, mitigate, and monitor risks across the enterprise. By centralizing risk data, Opal helps improve risk-informed decision-making and aligns risk management efforts across the organization.
Risk Assessments & Surveys
This feature allows organizations to conduct risk assessments by gathering information from relevant stakeholders through customizable surveys. These surveys help assess potential risks across various areas of the organization. The software automates risk data collection, enabling a consistent and structured approach to understanding risk.
Risk Management
The risk management feature helps organizations track and manage risks throughout their lifecycle. It supports the identification of new risks, assessing their likelihood and impact, assigning ownership, and developing mitigation plans. Opal enables continuous risk monitoring and integrates reporting tools to keep decision-makers informed of emerging risks and changes in risk status.
3rd Party Risk Management
This feature helps organizations manage risks associated with third-party vendors and partners. It facilitates risk assessments, controls assessments, and other reviews, helping to ensure that third-party risks are appropriately mitigated and well-managed
Internal and External Surveys
Internal and external surveys allow organizations to gather input from employees, partners, or clients to assess compliance, risk, and performance. Opal enables the creation, distribution, and analysis of surveys, ensuring that feedback is systematically collected and analyzed. This feature is useful for gathering diverse perspectives on risk exposure, control effectiveness, etc.
Controls
Each of these features helps ensure that companies maintain effective controls and compliance with regulatory requirements, and proactively addresses risks.
Controls Certifications
Helps ensure that internal controls meet established regulatory standards and best practices. It helps organizations validate that their control frameworks are functioning as intended and aligned with external certifications (such as ISO 27001, SOX, or PCI-DSS). Opal automates the documentation and reporting required to demonstrate compliance, simplifying the certification process.
Controls Testing
Opal allows organizations to validate the effectiveness of their internal controls. It helps schedule and execute testing procedures, validating that controls are operating as expected. It automates testing workflows, captures results, and manages areas that require remediation, allowing for continuous monitoring and improvement of control effectiveness.
Controls Operation
This feature is not commonly available across GRC tools. Opal provides real-time visibility into the day-to-day operation of internal controls across various business processes. It ensures that critical controls are functioning properly in real time and facilitates issue management for any control failures. Organizations can better monitor, report, and maintain a clear audit trail of control activities through automation, improving confidence and assurance that controls are operating effectively.
User Access Reviews
User access reviews ensure that employees have the correct level of access to systems and data based on their roles and responsibilities. This feature helps automate periodic reviews of access rights, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and non-compliance with SOX, GDPR, and other regulations.
Controls Framework Review
This feature is also not a commonly available feature across GRC tools. A controls framework review helps assess the overall structure and effectiveness of an organization’s internal controls and improves the responsibility and accountability of effective control design on process owners. This feature allows companies to evaluate their controls against established frameworks to identify gaps or weaknesses. Opal simplifies the review process and enhances overall governance and compliance.
Audit
These features enable teams to enhance their efficiency, collaborate more effectively, and improve transparency in managing audit processes and associated tasks.
Audit Project Management
This feature streamlines the end-to-end management of audit projects, from planning and execution to reporting and follow-up. It allows audit teams to define audit scope, allocate resources, track progress, and document findings. By automating these processes, Opal helps you manage multiple audit projects simultaneously, improving timeliness and ability to meet objectives.
Internal and External Audit Requests
This feature facilitates the handling of audit requests from both internal departments and external stakeholders. It provides a centralized platform where users can submit, track, and manage requests related to audit projects. By automating the process, Opal reduces delays and helps ensure timely responses to audit-related inquiries.
Time Management
Time management tools within Opal allow auditors and compliance teams to allocate time effectively across various audit activities. It helps track time spent on specific projects/tasks, helping projects stay within budget and finish on time. Time reports are also available to assist with team management and audit planning.
IT Dependency Management
Opal helps track and manage the testing of key business process and key control IT Dependencies. This results in improved SOX compliance, audit readiness and assurance of key reports, spreadsheets, and interfaces.
Observation/Action Management
This feature helps audit teams manage the remediation of findings and observations identified during audits and testing. It provides workflows for assigning responsibility, setting deadlines, and tracking the progress to ensure that remediation actions are effectively implemented and closed in a timely manner.
Internal and External Surveys
Opal allows organizations to create and distribute surveys to gather feedback, opinions, or data from both internal and external stakeholders. These surveys can be used for audit project feedback, risk assessments, compliance checks, or gathering insights to support audit or regulatory reporting. Automated survey collection and analysis help ensure efficient gathering and handling of responses.