Compliance management refers to an organization’s adherence to legal requirements, regulations, guidelines, and standards.
Regulatory compliance concerns continue to be a significant corporate challenge. As new laws and regulations are sanctioned, the need for a robust and comprehensive solution rises even more. Because of the increased accountability and potential liability, the board members must ensure that comprehensive compliance management systems are in place.
A compliance management software manages complicated rules and processes in a workflow that results in overall compliance and risk management. The system will also assist businesses in educating the staff overseeing risk management solutions, as a result of which the compliance management team’s expertise will increase, and complicated paper trails will be eliminated, allowing better audit management.
Non-compliance costs more than twice as much as maintaining compliance standards – according to a Ponemon Institute research in October 2019, the average cost for firms experiencing non-compliance issues is $14.82 million including fines, forced compliance fees, and lost business.
However, before investing in compliance management software, it’s essential to understand the capabilities of features that are significant to certain businesses. Here are a few common features included in most compliance management software.
1. Library of Regulations with Flexible Task Allocation
Determine the requirements of each regulation to maintain a library of all applicable mandates, this should allow users to extract requirements and define actions to relevant departments for completion to ensure compliance. According to a recent survey, 71% of enterprises expect the regulations to increase in the forthcoming years.
2. Risk Identification & Management
The most effective compliance management software must provide a systematic way of identifying significant and critical risks in order to perform independent risk assessment and review the compliance status of business operations in light of regulatory guidelines so that prompt actions can be taken.
3. Effective communication
To guarantee compliance, a system must be user-friendly in order to retain an electronic record and keep track of internal and external correspondences with regulators and other relevant authorities.
4. Significant Tracking and Monitoring
The users must be able to track the progress of a designated task of any findings such as violations, exceptions, breaches, risks, key indicators, and observations and assign it to a relevant stakeholder. The system must allow to track performance status, and take actions accordingly.
5. Real-time overview
Another significant aspect of compliance management software is a robust monitoring of the overall status of the compliance solution to evaluate monthly or quarterly trends via customizable dashboards and reports. This tool is of utmost importance to the senior management to make informed decisions.
Among the many solutions available in the market, RiskNucleus® Compliance Management Solutions offers most of the functionalities mentioned above and much more. Key modules include:
- Regulatory library & activities
- Compliance risk assessment
- Breaches & observations
- Self-certification questionnaires
- Regulatory correspondence
- Key compliance indicators
- Action tracking
- Workflow, alerts & notifications
- Reports & Dashboards
