The Network Inc. is a technology and services company that develops and delivers integrated GRC solutions designed to help organizations mitigate risk and promote organizational compliance. The Network's solutions are based on proprietary SaaS-based technology. The company uses the phrase "Protect, Detect, Correct" to describe its solutions to enable global enterprises and institutions manage risks posed by fraud and unethical conduct.
The Network current client base includes approximately 3,400 global organizations across a wide variety of industries, representing almost 27 million employees worldwide.
History
The Network was founded in 1982 by Ralph Childs, a former FBI Special Agent, who implemented the first 24/7 anonymous reporting system to allow employees to bring unethical and illegal activities to their employers’ attention without fear of reprisal. Childs, then principal of security consulting firm Childs Associates, incorporated the new venture under the name National Business Crime Information Network, Inc., which soon became known by the shortened name, The Network. Soon thereafter, the company realized the need to make all employees more aware of organizational ethics programs and initiated a series of awareness and communications products (″Prevention SystemSM″), as well as ethics training materials to meet these requirements.
NetClaim
In the mid-1990s, The Network expanded its hotline reporting system to include claims reporting for worker compensation and other similar issues. The system it developed to manage claims reporting, NetClaim, remains a viable part of the company’s market mix.
Incident management
In 2005, the company developed its Case Management system (now known as Incident Management), which streamlined the incident and issue management process for corporate investigators and case managers. In May 2010, an enhanced version of the software was released as a replacement to the legacy system.
Product development
In 2011, the company expanded its existing ethics and compliance training offerings with interactive web-based training offerings. That same year, the company introduced an enhanced version of its platform-level Reporting & Analytics engine.
In April 2012, the company released its Policy Management solution, which enables organizations to use platform-level collaboration tools to create, distribute and manage company policies, track employee attestation, and know which version of a policy was in effect at any given time. In 2013, the company introduced a companion product to the Incident Management solution, CAPA/Remediation, designed to manage investigative follow-up and remedial tasks, as well as a Compliance Management solution designed for compliance risk assessment and employee survey management.
In February 2013, a research firm (GRC 20/20 Research) awarded a Technology Innovator Award to The Network for the company's Integrated GRC Suite, a SaaS-based GRC system designed to deliver seamless native integration of enterprise-level compliance data and provide visibility between incidents, cases, policies, courses, and corrective or preventative action plans. GRC 20/20's chief analyst, Michael Rasmussen, referred to the Integrated GRC Suite as the "Apple of GRC" for its "design and end user experience."
Compliance benchmarking
Annually since 2006, the company has released an annual Corporate Governance and Compliance Hotline Benchmarking Report, which provides a statistical study of fraud reporting trends across a range of industries and corporate demographics. The 2013 report revealed that incident reporting rates continued to climb and that 72 percent of participants did not notify management of an issue prior to submitting a hotline report.
Products
The company markets proprietary solutions which include:
Integrated GRC Solutions Suite
Policy Management – collaborative policy management
Training & Communications – interactive ethics and compliance courses courseware
Compliance Management - confidential phone- and web-based incident reporting (hotline), proactive risk assessments and surveys Incident Management – centralized event and incident management CAPA/Remediation – corrective and preventative action planning, root cause analysis Reporting and Analytics – advanced analytics and data visualization engine Creative Services - awareness and communications programs Code of Conduct services – writing, design, refresh NetClaim® – claims reporting Professional Services – implementation, training and client support