When discussing their decision, companies that have chosen IsoMetrix as their integrated risk management solution often display a recurring theme, which is the visibility provided by the platform's proprietary Golden Threads. These threads hold everything together tightly, integrating risk disciplines and processes, and giving the software a competitive edge. So, what are these Golden Threads and how do they help businesses proactively manage risk?

In IsoMetrix, the thread is used to associate and connect data across the breadth of the platform's solutions using various attributes and dimensions. The inter-related view of risk these threads offer is critical in assisting our customers to continuously improve their business processes and ultimately reduce risk to their staff and the business itself. The ability to visualize data and reporting across a range of solutions assists companies to be proactive in their decision-making process.

What are the IsoMetrix Golden Threads?

As part of our Solution Templates, IsoMetrix provides the following golden threads as standard:

1. Business Unit or Location: The ‘where'
2. Risk Type
3. Process or Activity: The ‘what' you are/were busy with
4. Unwanted Event: The ‘exposure' at the time
5. Risk Source: This is associated with categories or groupings
6. Control: The controls that are in place

These attributes form the basis of any risk register. When setting up a risk register, users can select these golden thread attributes.

Can customers define their own Golden Threads?

Due to the agility of the application, customers can define their own Golden Threads that can be incorporated into the various solutions.

Here are some practical examples where our customers have defined their own Golden Threads:

1. For a water utility, an address is defined as a Golden Thread. Users can log incidents, audits and inspections; identify new hazards; carry out observations or link an existing risk to an address. From a reporting perspective, users can get a risk profile per address.
2. A tier-one mining company is using strategic objectives as a Golden Thread for any significant risk, major incident, critical finding and key obligation. Putting mitigation measures in place ultimately assist our customers to achieve their strategic objectives.
3. An oil & gas company is using stakeholders (individuals and entities) and contractors as Golden Threads. They can track their performance on EHS-related activities, stakeholder engagements and grievances and to view occupational health and hygiene results for the same thread.

Why are Golden Threads important?

There are two main benefits to using Golden Threads to associate data:

1. From a reporting perspective, customers can make informed decisions through the data analytics the dashboards provide.

For example, following a significant ‘Derailment' incident, the reporting below can be carried out:

• Risk and control owners can view all the incidents associated with ‘Derailment'. This can be done for the entire organization or for the specific business unit. Reporting can also be performed on the severity of incidents, date range and the consequences. All these will assist the risk and control owners to make accurate assessment of the risk rating
• Reporting can also be performed on the number of Observations, Hazards and Findings associated with ‘Derailment'. This will improve the accuracy of risk rating
• All Obligations associated with ‘Rail Incidents' can also be filtered to identify if any Obligation Assessments are required

2. By linking records back to the risk register data, IsoMetrix is assisting customers achieve a ‘live risk register'. When significant incidents or findings are logged, IsoMetrix sets the individual risk status back to ‘Needs Review'. Or when a critical control has failed, the linked control can be marked as ‘Inefficient'. The risk and control owners will be notified to reassess the risk and controls. This changes the accuracy of the risk register, changing the assessment process from periodic review to an all-time risk profile.

What do IsoMetrix customers say about Golden Threads?

Customers consider the use of Golden Threads as a competitive advantage for their businesses. The ability to associate data from other modules or solutions improves accuracy of reporting. Indeed, one of our most recent customers, a rail freight company in Australia, cited that one of the three deciding factors for choosing IsoMetrix to manage risk was the platform's application of the Golden Threads.