Risk Plan - FAQs & Best Practice

FAQ

Answer

ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

Is Softools RiskPlan available for Teams / Multiple Users?

Softools is always willing to provide the enhanced RiskPlan Enterprise, or any other custom solution to you and your business on a greater scale. For any enquiries or discussions of this nature please send an email to: sales@softools.net  

I am not receiving the verification email?

It may be that your verification email from ‘no-reply@softool.net’ has simply ended up in your Junk Inbox as opposed to your main one so please don’t forget to check this.

Alternatively, in rare instances your organisation's email server may be blocking emails from the above Softools email address. In these cases, you will need to contact your system administrator. Our help article on Account Verification and first Log In can be found here.

If you are still having difficulties please send an email to: support@softools.net

My sign up link doesn't work.

You must ensure that the same email is used throughout the entire sign up process. If you give one email when setting up the subscription to RiskPlan in Shopify and then try to use another when verifying your Softools account you will not be able to successfully sign in.

What Browsers are compatible with Softools?

Please refer to our article here to see what browsers and their respective versions are supported by the Softools platform.

Where can I see my invoice history?

See your invoice history and more in the Shopify site here.

How do I manage my subscription?

Manage your subscription and more in the Shopify site here.

PLATFORM SPECIFIC

I have a request for an additional feature.

We are constantly striving to innovate and meet ever-changing business needs, with RiskPlan representing a small segment of our platform's capabilities. If you wish to discuss the need for additional features or even a custom end to end business solution that you can manage yourself, then please get in touch at: sales@softools.net

How do I create a Risk?

Creating Risks is designed to be an intuitive process with Softools RiskPlan. A comprehensive guide on how to do this can be found here.

How do I delete a Risk Record?

Deleting a Risk Record is a two step process - first you have to Archive, then you will have the option to delete it permanently. Please refer to these links for Record Archiving and Deletion instructions.

I can’t see all / any of my Risks in the Risk Register.

If this is the case it may be that you have a Filter or Quick Search still applied to the Report - this is indicated next to the funnel in the top right. It will state the name of the Filter or search criteria if one is applied and say ‘No Filter’ or 'Search' when one isn’t currently selected.

I can’t find / download my Export.

If you have accidentally selected an incompatible Export Template or method for the Export you are trying to make, this will cause the Export to fail; indicated by a Red strip next to the Export attempt under the Bell Icon. 

Alternatively if the Export isn’t appearing under the Bell Icon or is in a constant blue ‘Initialising’, or 'In Progress'  state, waiting 10seconds and refreshing the web page will see it change to a completed and downloadable state, indicated by a green strip next to it. For the complete guide on how to Export your Risks and Reports please see here.   

I can’t Log Out.

Normally Logging Out is achieved via clicking ‘Log Out’ under the General Feature Menu. If after this you are faced with, ‘Syncing changes before logging out’ then please see here for the appropriate next steps.

Can I search for specific Risks?

Absolutely! Along with Filters, Softools’ Search function aids in the efficient sorting of your Risk Data. Simply use the Search Bar in the top right (next to the Filter options) in order to search for Risks containing keywords, terms etc...

Where is the History of a Record?

The History of a Risk Record and its edits can be found by clicking ‘History’ under the Actions Menu. Please find the Article explaining this here.

How do I change my profile information?

This is done by accessing the ‘My Profile’ section from within the Actions Menu. Please find the Article explaining this here.

I want to report a bug.

If you think you have spotted a bug then please get in touch with us at: support@softools.net

RISK MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICE

How do we take opportunities from Risks?

Risk can have both an upside as well as a downside. This upside risk is the same as any opportunity - the outcome could be better as well as worse than assumed. Opportunities should be prioritised in a similar way to risks to make sure that the big opportunities are seized.

How do we minimise risk administration?

Administration is a necessary evil for all forms of management but it has to be kept to a reasonable level or the perception may be that the effort is not matched by the benefits.

A modern software tool like RiskPlan is a perfect way to reduce these overheads, and stimulate the management of risks in ways that aren’t necessarily immediately intuitive.

What is strategic risk management?

The strategic risk management that Softools RiskPlan brings, allows you to assess and manage the risk to your business objectives/strategy.

This requires a top-down view of risk, something that RiskPlan enables, looking at both internal and external constraints, including escalated risks from projects and operations that may have an impact on the overall strategy.

How can we measure risk management effectiveness?

The escalated risks should be managed in priority order to have the greatest impact on the overall risk profile. This is often best done using a visual representation like the Heat Map, where the trend shown by taking a snapshot of the bubble diagram each month (for instance) will quickly show if the risk profile is improving or deteriorating.

Why do we need to prioritise projects/operations?

For strategic or programme risk assessments, the first stage is to prioritise the projects and/or operations either via Escalation or a higher ‘Priority’ score.

This will ensure that resources are focused appropriately and projects/operations only raise risks to an appropriate level (e.g. minor projects should not be able to flag critical risks to the programme). One of the key measures for project/process prioritisation is business criticality (i.e. assessing by how much the business will be impacted if the project/operations fail).

What is the difference between risk management and issue management?

Issues are problems that have already occurred. Risks are problems that have a potential to occur but may not. Issue management is important but is effectively 'fire fighting'. Issue management is minimised by effective risk management.

What is risk governance?

Risk governance is the process by which risk management is made to work in a practical sense. It includes the use of effective risk registers, risk review boards (RRBs) and the procedures (rules) that define how the risk process will operate. Softools RiskPlan proves itself as a substantial step in this exemplary direction. 

How do you keep risk plans effective and efficient?

Risk plans tend to be unstructured and ineffective if not set up and managed rigorously. They can easily be too high-level and generic and therefore lead to inactivity. By focusing on managing the specific underlying assumption(s) the plans can be focused and easily actionable.

How do we prioritise risks?

Risks should be prioritised against the overall objectives (i.e. strategy, programme, project or operations). The key measures are priority (i.e. the overall impact level, financial and other), probability (i.e. the likelihood that a risk will become an issue) and urgency (i.e. how soon you need to act). Graphical representations such as bar charts and heat maps will help you to see priorities clearly.