Speed and safety – those aren’t words we typically link together. Sports cars are fast, but are they safe? Roller coasters will hurtle you along their tracks and spin you out over their loops, but aren’t you always a little afraid of being thrown off?
In fact, speed and safety are concepts we usually consider in opposition to each other. In order to increase one, you usually have to sacrifice the other.
But that is not necessarily true when it comes to business operations. Compliance software technology allows companies to save time and money, and to operate more efficiently and more effectively. Simply put, it allows companies to be faster, all while ensuring that the company is safe from the costs and risks inherent in rules and regulations.
Below we’ve listed some of the advantages of using compliance software. So, buckle up! Things are about to take off.
Increased Company Efficiency
We all know that doing a job faster does not necessarily mean doing it better. But, usually, doing a job more efficiently does shorten the time required to do it, and more importantly, improve the quality of the result. Compliance software can help your company improve efficiency by employing four essential strategies:
1) Case Management: Compliance control investigations are often conducted by teams or committees specifically suited to gathering and reviewing the data necessary to calibrate the company’s position in regard to a set of rules or regulations. These teams can work under the burden of poor data access, antiquated file systems, or slow data and document retrieval.
Compliance software makes their job easier, bringing the data they need together into a seamless whole. This technology can ensure that team members have access to the data they need simultaneously, allowing them to initiate, escalate and communicate compliance concerns more easily, efficiently and consistently.
2) Risk Management: Risk compounds every day. Whether it comes from an unintentional mistake from inside the company or a malicious attack from outside the company, you need to be kept aware of your company’s vulnerabilities. Compliance technology helps teams identify, analyze and evaluate risk factors before they become a problem for the company. This safeguards you from the cost and the slowdown associated with fees or forced changes in operations.
3) Policy Procedure Management: Compliance software transforms spreadsheets, procedure documentation and audit results into easily manageable, data-driven documents. By centralizing the data, the technology allows businesses complete visibility, making it easier to review, develop, approve and distribute updated policies and procedures to any corner of the company.
4) Automation:Another benefit of compliance software technology is the increased efficiency brought on by automation. Compliance software can track and flag changes in internal policies and external regulations, alerting you of any business operations or processes that may need to be adjusted. In the past, these duties have fallen to employees tasked with researching and staying abreast of changes in compliance demands. But automating these tasks saves the company from the risk of human error and allows you to use your employee workforce more wisely.
Reduce Compliance Risk
The rules, standards and regulations governing the flow of business activity are increasingly complicated and constantly shifting. Any attempt at managing them must, by its nature, be understood as temporary at best. When those regulations change, your company’s policies or operations may need to change in response.
Compliance technology centralizes your risk-assessment efforts, giving you access to real-time data coupled with a company-wide perspective. Users will be able to understand how each risk factor could negatively affect each aspect of the company and where to make adjustments to mitigate that risk. This renewed security can be applied to something as common as password retrieval or to something as catastrophic as a data breach. Compliance software can also help executives and other decision-makers understand the consequences of noncompliance more fully by allowing them to see the ripple effects created by each decision. With an easily accessible picture of the risks involved, managers are more able to make confident, safe decisions about business initiatives.
Improve Overall Performance
In the past, many companies have prioritized initial processes like data collection and analytics. Compliance has been viewed as a second-tier concern, forcing employees to revisit data and reconcile it with compliance standards. Compliance technology cuts through those extra steps, integrating compliance awareness into the initial data collection operation. This should result in faster, more accurate assessments that you can trust are safe and secure.
What to Look for When Choosing Compliance Software
Like so many business software services, the many available options for compliance software are so numerous they can be daunting. It is hard to know exactly which program will be the best fit for you and your company. That being said, here are three thoughts to keep in mind as you make that decision:
1) Customization: Sadly, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to these issues. Some software packages may offer solutions to some of your problems, but not all. That is why it is important to find out if the package is customizable. You are looking for flexibility that does not compromise functionality.
2) Scale-to-Fit: Many compliance software packages offer at least two versions of their programs, a basic and a more advanced model. Depending on your organization’s size and needs, you will have to determine what is best for you. Some packages offer more elastic services, allowing you to scale-up as the need arises. Some Cloud-based programs even allow you to add functions on demand, meaning you could scale-up for an individual project or audit, and then resume regular service once that project is complete.
3) Service: Be sure to consider what services are incorporated into the price of a compliance software package. Many companies offer training or ongoing support service. Inquiring about topics such as updates and other advantages may help you distinguish one company from another.
Conclusions
Companies face more compliance demands every day. Changing rules, regulations and standards makes managing these demands a dizzying and complicated task. The organization and centralization provided by compliance management software will help your company stay abreast of these changes and allow you to make safe decisions quickly.
