COVID-19 - Cost companies have a list of priorities that are set each year, and budgets and resources are aligned to these. For most companies the priority list looks something like this:

1. New business initiatives (opening new offices/factories, product launches)
2. Expansion of existing business initiatives (hiring more staff)
3. Governance, risk & compliance (regulatory compliance, reporting & intelligent security)
4. Improvements to performance and user experience (cloud migration, optimization)

COVID-19 has slowed down 1&2 for most businesses, and while there is pressure on budgets, all of a sudden 3&4 have moved to the top of the list.  While GRC improvements are always “planned “, often having a plan is enough to meet the requirements, so in many cases this is the “can that is kicked down the road”.