Conflict of interest software: A buyer's guide for compliance teams
Conflict of interest software has become essential infrastructure for organizations that have outgrown manual disclosure processes. When spreadsheets and email chains can no longer keep pace with disclosure volume, or when an audit finding reveals gaps in documentation, compliance teams face a critical decision about which platform will support their COI management needs.
The challenge isn't finding software that works. It's finding software that matches your organization's complexity, integrates with existing compliance workflows and provides the audit-ready documentation that regulators increasingly expect. A poor choice means wasted implementation resources, employee adoption struggles and, in the worst case, compliance gaps that surface during regulatory examinations.
This buyer's guide helps compliance leaders evaluate COI software options systematically:
- Signs your organization has outgrown manual COI processes
- Essential features every COI platform must include
- Critical questions to ask during vendor evaluation
- COI implementation planning considerations
When manual COI processes break down
Most organizations don't seek COI software proactively. They seek it after something goes wrong, like an audit finding, a missed disclosure or a conflict that wasn't properly remediated. Understanding the warning signs helps compliance leaders act before gaps become material issues.
Common triggers for COI software evaluation
Several organizational changes typically signal that manual processes have reached their limits.
- Disclosure volume has overwhelmed review capacity: When compliance officers spend more time triaging submissions than actually reviewing conflicts, benign disclosures obscure the ones requiring attention. High-priority conflicts get buried in the backlog.
Con Edison faced exactly this challenge when managing COI processes for 15,000 employees, finding that their in-house system presented challenges due to the high number of respondents to annual surveys and the need for streamlining and increased visibility of the information disclosed.
- Documentation gaps emerge during audits: Regulators and auditors expect complete trails showing how conflicts were identified, reviewed and remediated. Scattered email threads and disconnected spreadsheets rarely satisfy these requirements.
- Inconsistent processes across departments: Different business units handling disclosures differently creates both compliance risk and employee confusion. Without standardization, the same conflict might be managed four different ways depending on who receives the disclosure.
- Board or audit committee demands better oversight: "Board members frequently receive surface-level data, such as the number of whistleblowing reports, with little context," says Pav Gill, CEO of Confide. "Always dig deeper. For instance, three reports in a quarter may sound like a low figure, but if all those reports involve the same individual, that's a red flag worth investigating."
- Transaction preparation reveals governance gaps: Pre-IPO due diligence and M&A processes expose inadequate COI management quickly. Investors and acquirers expect institutional-grade conflict processes that manual approaches rarely provide.
Essential features every COI platform must include
Start by reviewing your current conflict of interest management software. Familiarizing yourself with each step in the process will reveal areas where technology can increase efficiency. A compelling conflict of interest program should identify and remediate conflicts and track their resolutions. Understanding how you’re accomplishing those tasks will make it easier to integrate a software solution.
A successful solution should support the following conflict of interest processes:
1. Disclosure Submission
Employees should be able to submit their disclosures quickly and easily. If your disclosure submission process is anything other than simple, start here to implement your software solution. Your technology should have built-in features that can make forms more accessible to all your employees.
Start by utilizing branching logic forms, which adapt based on an employee’s responses. Information can also be saved and carried over from previous forms, making it easier for employees to maintain compliance over time. You can also implement a single sign-on option so employees can access your conflict of interest software no matter where and when they encounter a conflict.
Annual disclosure campaigns move faster when previous information carries forward and employees only update what has changed. Prior to implementing new software, Con Edison's system did not allow employees to reference past responses when completing new disclosures, creating unnecessary friction during annual campaigns. Auto-save prevents lost work when interruptions occur.
2. Disclosure Review
Disclosure reviews are a critical step in any effective conflict of interest program. Yet, it’s one where compliance officers can easily become overwhelmed — disclosure submissions pile up quickly, and more benign reports can obscure actual conflicts. Technology can automate much of the review process so you can focus on the remediation steps that software can’t handle.
Start by setting thresholds that guide your system in identifying conflicts in real-time. Once you start receiving pre-categorized conflicts, you can also implement automatic reminders that can escalate conflicts to supervisors on your compliance team. You can even utilize integrations to verify disclosures, tackling every step of the disclosure review process without ever lifting a finger.
3. Case Management
Many conflicts get lost in the disclosure review process. The more disclosures a company attempts to manage manually, the more likely they won’t be thoroughly investigated. COI software can take over case creation and review, escalating every conflict appropriately.
Compliance officers can build mitigation processes into their software, so it knows where to route each case based on the conflict type. From there, COI software can enforce sign-offs from all employees, ensuring that no single case will go unremediated.
With more conflicts mitigated, software can also create a repository of all the documents and communications for each conflict, ready for review for internal learning or even regulatory audits.
Critical COI vendor questions to ask
Knowing how to choose COI software effectively means asking pointed questions that reveal genuine capabilities versus marketing claims.
1. Disclosure workflow specifics: How does your platform handle different conflict types (financial interests, family relationships, outside activities, vendor relationships)? Can we configure unique workflows for board members, employees and third parties? Show us how branching logic works in your forms and how employees reference prior year responses.
2. Conflict detection capabilities:
- Does your platform provide AI-powered conflict detection, or does it rely solely on self-reporting?
- If AI-powered, what data sources does it analyze to identify undisclosed conflicts?
- How do you handle false positives to avoid overwhelming compliance teams?
3. Related-party transaction support: For public companies preparing proxy statements, how does your platform track and report related-party transactions in formats that meet SEC requirements? Can the system generate disclosure language for proxy statements?
4. Entity and corporate structure integration: How does your platform integrate with entity management systems to identify conflicts involving subsidiary relationships, joint ventures or complex ownership structures? Can it flag when disclosed vendor relationships involve entities in our corporate family?
5. Board-level oversight: What dashboards and reporting does your platform provide for audit committees and boards? Can board members access real-time conflict status through your board portal integration, or is reporting manual?
6. Implementation and change management: What is your typical timeline for organizations managing our disclosure volume? Who from our team will be needed during implementation, and for how many hours per week? Request references from organizations at similar stages (pre-IPO, newly public, etc.) who can speak to implementation experience.
7. Integration requirements:
- What HRIS systems do you integrate with for employee data? What single sign-on providers are supported?
- If we use entity management, board portal or case management systems, what integrations exist?
- For custom integrations, what does your API support and what technical resources are required?
8. Security and data residency: What security certifications do you hold? Where is data stored geographically, and what data residency options exist for global operations? How do you handle personally identifiable information in disclosures?
9. Pricing transparency: What is your pricing model (per-user, enterprise license, transaction-based), and what typical costs beyond the base license should we expect? How do volume tiers work as our organization grows? What does renewal pricing look like historically for customers similar to us?
10. Customer success and support: Will we have a dedicated customer success manager? What are support hours, response time SLAs and escalation procedures? How do you handle product updates, and what does your roadmap include for the next 12-18 months?
Building the business case for COI software investment
The stakes for conflicts management have never been higher. According to the What Directors Think 2025 report by Diligent Institute, Corporate Board Member and FTI Consulting, 41% of directors cited ethics or culture-related scandals as holding the risk of significant impact on their companies, showing why boards keep culture and compliance risks front and center.
Frame your business case around three areas:
- Time savings: Calculate hours spent on disclosure review, report compilation, audit preparation and manual follow-up. Even modest hourly estimates multiplied across annual disclosure cycles often justify platform costs.
- Risk reduction: Quantify potential compliance failure costs — regulatory fines, remediation expenses, reputational damage and executive time diverted to crisis management. Reference industry incidents where inadequate COI management contributed to material problems.
- Compliance efficiency: Measure current performance (average review time, percentage of disclosures requiring follow-up, cases remaining open beyond target periods) and request benchmarks from vendors' existing customers.
COI implementation planning considerations
Successful COI implementations require realistic expectations and careful change management.
Timeline expectations
Enterprise COI implementations typically require several months from contract signing to full deployment. Complex integrations, extensive customization and global rollouts extend timelines further.
Plan for pilot programs with select business units before organization-wide deployment. Pilots surface issues when the stakes are lower and adjustments are easier.
Change management strategies
Technology alone doesn't solve COI management challenges. Employees must understand why the new process matters and how to use it effectively.
"Be proud of your transparency. If you don't have reporting, it'll end up on Glassdoor, it'll end up on the press, it might even end up with a human life cost," says Anastassia Lauterbach, PhD. "This all goes back to culture and HR. What is your philosophy here?"
Communicate the purpose behind new disclosure requirements, not just the mechanics. Employees who understand why conflicts matter are more likely to report proactively.
Phased rollout vs. full deployment
Phased approaches reduce risk but extend the period when multiple processes operate simultaneously. Full deployment eliminates that complexity but concentrates implementation risk.
Match the approach to organizational risk tolerance and change management capabilities.
Success metrics to track post-implementation
Define success metrics before implementation so you can demonstrate value afterward:
- Disclosure completion rates
- Average time from submission to resolution
- Audit finding remediation
- Employee satisfaction with the disclosure process
- Board reporting frequency and quality
These metrics provide the evidence you need to justify ongoing investment and demonstrate ROI to leadership.
Streamline your COI management
See how Diligent centralizes disclosure management with AI-powered detection, automated workflows and audit-ready reporting.
Try Diligent nowHow Diligent transforms conflict management
The challenges outlined in this guide, from overwhelming disclosure volume to documentation gaps and limited board visibility, point toward a clear need for integrated conflicts management.
Diligent's COI management addresses these challenges through a unified platform that connects employee-level disclosures with board-level oversight. The solution has proven particularly effective for large enterprises managing high disclosure volumes.
Con Edison, one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, chose Diligent after their in-house solution could no longer keep pace with COI processes for 15,000 employees. Their previous system required employees to navigate multiple screens, offered no way to reference past responses and lacked comprehensive reporting capabilities.
After evaluating multiple vendors, Con Edison selected Diligent for its enterprise-level capabilities and dedicated implementation support. "Diligent offered a high-quality, enterprise-level answer, combined with strong customer support and dedicated representatives," says Tricia Ryan, Project Specialist in Business Ethics & Compliance at Con Edison. "They were flexible and coordinated with us to keep things as simple as possible for our users."
The implementation delivered on Con Edison's requirements:
- Simplified filing workflow replaced the multi-screen navigation with streamlined disclosure forms featuring branching logic, so employees only see questions relevant to their situation.
- Historic response retention allows employees to reference past disclosures when completing new submissions, enabling accurate year-over-year tracking of potential conflicts.
- Single sign-on and HR data feed integration eliminated manual data management and reduced friction during annual disclosure campaigns.
- Comprehensive reporting and dashboards provide instant visibility into compliance levels, potential conflicts and case status across the organization.
- Centralized repository stores all COI mitigation plans in an easily accessible location with complete audit trails.
"With Diligent's Conflicts of Interest Management fully implemented, I am confident that our COI process adheres to the industry-leading ethics standards for which Con Edison is known," says Ryan. "We look forward to using the system in upcoming years and the value it adds to our compliance program, while mitigating risk and maximizing efficiency."
For organizations preparing for IPO, the platform helps build institutional-grade conflict processes that satisfy investor due diligence and regulatory expectations. And for public companies, it provides the audit-ready documentation and board reporting that regulators increasingly require.
Whether you're managing disclosures for 500 employees or 15,000, the right platform transforms COI management from an administrative burden into a strategic compliance function.
Ready to see how Diligent's conflict management capabilities work for organizations like yours? Schedule a demo to explore how the platform addresses your specific disclosure workflows, integration requirements and reporting needs.
Frequently asked questions about conflict of interest software
How long does it typically take to implement COI software?
Implementation timelines range from weeks to several months, depending on organizational complexity, integration requirements and customization needs. Vendors with proven methodologies and templates can accelerate deployment.
How does COI software support audits and regulatory examinations?
Effective platforms maintain centralized records with complete audit trails showing every disclosure, review action and remediation step. Timestamped documentation demonstrates that conflicts were properly identified, reviewed and resolved.
How do COI tools integrate with D&O questionnaires and board processes?
Advanced platforms provide dedicated workflows for director and officer disclosures, including related-party transactions and outside activities. Integration with board management systems connects employee-level conflict data with board-level oversight.
Take the next step toward streamlined COI management. Request a demo to see Diligent's conflict management capabilities in action.
