Few years back, many times, compliance managers used to create compliance checklist to achieve weekly/monthly/quarterly goals filling out spreadsheet after spreadsheet and digging deeper into a limbo of traditional compliance governance issues (This is still the way to compliance in many offshore operators). I call this a disaster of epic proportions, as this simply covers immediate training needs leaving companies in a state of vulnerability, for the critical aspect of Risk Management and Assessment.
Then came the GRC approach and things started to change, and companies taking initiatives towards better compliance management and having the capability of predictability to some extent. There are three major elements to have a concrete regulatory compliance software:
- Intelligent Regulations Data-Dictionary: Intelligent because standards and regulations keep changing according to industries and any company’s specific culture. It should be able to index information (regulation) as it changes and alert you to the new one while keeping a track (version control) of the old ones.
- Policy and Procedures and Evidence Archive module: Enables you to create PnP based on the regulations for your specific business domain and implement existing polices. Also lets you tie up policies to the case management and allow you to do CAPA and eventually compliance stakeholders to perform.
- Risk Assessment functionality: Pull up reports to see how you have been doing in mitigating risks and foreseeing; and what actions (CAPA) were taken to encounter such risks (evidence archive). A very handy feature/capability to have during sudden inspections.
With a Regulatory Compliance Software system that does all of the above or more, you will always be “Audit Ready” with the ability to access all current regulations and laws related to your policies, procedures and quality objectives.
“85% of organizations chose ensuring compliance with current and future *EHS regulations as a top market pressure.” Aberdeen Group 2011
Return on Investment
Organizations use automation to help manage their regulatory compliance processes, improve reporting, better manage and mitigate their risks, reduce operational costs, and streamline business processes.
A good regulatory compliance software provides a reckonable return on investment for its users. By empowering companies to determine which regulations and rules apply and then enable the full life-cycle management of controls and evidences associated with those rules. Additionally, it identifies only the requirements that impact a specific site allowing facility managers to know whether or not they are complying with all the applicable requirements, regulations and permits. It also provides an audit management module that allows for a comprehensive audit to evaluate compliance gaps for which safety and environmental performance needs to be improved.
The Age of Automation and ROI on Regulatory Compliance Software
A Necessary Cliché
“Talk the talk but don’t walk the walk legislation does not make it any safer alone” well, that was a comment on my last blog about PSM and evolution of safety. How do I address this? Time and time and over the course of last 14 years, our corporate approach has been to create awareness and we have evolved as a company since 2000 when our CEO leveraged his experience to develop and implement adult learning theories, risk and compliance technologies in real estate education along with other industries such as Insurance & financial services, hospitality education, technical skills and healthcare education. That being a power intro to how we’ve come into being, we are running under the flagship of GRC Software Automation and it doesn’t come easy!
“Align your goals against your resources/investment” and this equation if done right will give you the ROI intended, something I learned reading great many articles and attending thought leaders sessions.
*The author’s views and opinions are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views and opinions of 360factors.
*All images are property of their respective owners.
*EHS here encompasses OSHA, SEMs, PSM, ISO BSEE, EPA, DOT etc.
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