5 Steps to develop a risk management plan for your small business

Risks are common in business. You can’t always remove all the financial, material or physical risks you might face in your business, but you can minimize the risk to a great extent through proper planning and managemen...

Benefits of an Automated Vendor Risk Management System

Vendors are an integral part of supply chain management. By fulfilling the demand of businesses, vendors keep the chain of supply going. A few common examples of vendors are listed belo...

Automated and Integrated Safety Management System

Are You Still Relying on Spreadsheets for Safety Management? Or do you have an automated and integrated safety management system at your workplac...

Six Key Elements of Corporate Compliance

In working with the 60 Bank and Credit Union customers currently using our Predict360 Compliance Platform, I have come across trends that are common with all good run Compliance Departments. The key factor which differentiates...

Why Automate and Integrate Enterprise Risk and Compliance Management?

When it comes to Enterprise Risk and Compliance Management software, there are multiple tasks and systems to manage that lend themselves to human error if not handled with immaculate care and immeasurable...

Steps to Pass Regulatory Compliance Audit and Inspections

None of us must fear coming to work and getting hurt. OSHA enforces compliance through inspections to ensure workplace safety (OSHA law, known as Section 5(a)1 “General Duty Clause,” which requires that all employees have...

Why Automate Policy and Procedure Management?

Management of policies and procedures is increasingly becoming a pain point within organizations. Some of the pain points includ...

Business Process – Regulatory Workflow

This is a five-part series blog on the Five Steps to Manage Regulatory Compliance: Regulatory Knowledge base and Taxonomy Risk and Internal Controls Business Process – Regulatory Workflow Location Assets Roles and...

Predictive Patterns with an Incident Management Plan

Patterns can be found in everything we do.  A person is who they are based on the decisions they make.  While we do not always make the right decisions, we use our past choices to determine what decision should...

Dealing with Compliance Mandates

Increasingly complicated compliance mandates have led some businesses to implement automated processes to save resources. Regulatory compliance software can be a huge burden on company resources as mandates and IT threats...

Is GRC or Regulatory Change Management Automation Cost-Effective?

Technology has been developed to lessen the barriers to rigorous human life. It makes people and businesses grow and it can be used as an extension to basic human capacity and to invalidate delimitation ex. technology has...

Process Safety Management (PSM) and Evolution of Safety Regulations Application

Process Safety Management is a regulation (29 CFR 1910.119) publicized by OSHA, intended ...

Managing FATCA Compliance Processes Through Software Automation

As many Bank Compliance Officers know, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”), which went into effect on July 1, 2014, and was intended to reduce levels of tax avoidance by citizens of the U.S. and entities via...

360factors at the 2013 Oil & Gas Environmental Conference in Dallas

The University of Texas at Arlington has invited 360factors, Inc. to provide a poster presentation on ‘Regulatory Change Management Process’ at the Oil & Gas Environmental Conference, Dec. 3-4 in Dallas, Texas. The...

How to Ensure Successful Risk Management?

In order to survive in today’s raging economic times, it is imperative that companies manage risk well. Effective risk management ensures value, agility, and efficiency for the organizatio...

Laws, Regulations and Standards – What is the difference?

This question came up the other day; a question that I’ve answered on many occasions over the years.  Admittedly, the differences between how the terms are used can be quite confusing.  The question is usually...

The Fourth of the Five C’s of Compliance: Competency

This may be a bold statement, but I believe one of the greatest creations of mankind is team sports. Not only does team involvement add value to a person, it also can be related to almost any aspect of life. In the game...

Will the Excel Spreadsheet Ever Die In The Audit World?

My thought or question can be a dragnet type of question, although I look at all the automated software that are out there and I wonder, will “spreads” stop being the bread that supplies the butter (software)?  When...

How to Efficiently Manage Vendors?

Managing vendors is never easy. Expectations on both sides are almost always never the same, and over a period, the chasm is so wide and deep that it becomes difficult to move on. The changes in personnel and the regulatory...

Competency and Compliance Learning Management System

I love this saying because it is relevant across an array of topics and is so simple in its meaning that it can be interpreted in many ways with a fairly general understanding for all: people are stupid.  No matter...

Effective Compliance Management Through Automation

Crying wolf or raising false alarms was the demise of the sheep herder in Aesop’s Fables. Over-reacting to every compliance issue turns people into the Wolf Crier. An...

Traditional VS Breakthrough – Reduce Risk and Drive Operational Excellence

Running an organization based on quarterly goals and measuring quarterly performance have forced business leaders to scramble for short-term profit gains instead of having a long-term plan for performance and margins...

Five Steps for Successful Document Management

Documents carry critical information that helps run your business and serve your customers. Try applying the following five steps for successful document management at your organizatio...

Develop a Culture of Compliance and Risk Management

The risk is part of our daily life, not only in business or at work but also at home; in our personal life and even in our relationships. When we make decisions, not only the life-changing ones but also the mundane decisions...

Plan and Prepare with Risk Management

Growing up in Maryland, during the long, summer nights, severe thunderstorms frequently rolled in and did some damage. During the short, cold winter nights, an array of snow and ice storms rolled in and did some damage....

How to Stay Current with Regulatory Change

   Working in a heavily regulated industry, only one thing remains constant – Change.   With the dawn of Dodd-Frank, regulatory reform has brought in a new wave of change in the financial industry. ...

Training and the FDA – What do they want?

The FDA requires medical device and drug manufacturers to train their employees. Training must occur for all types of regulated activities from internal quality management software procedures/policies to CFR requirements. The...

Regulatory Change Management Starts From Top Management

If you observe the results of various regulatory compliance surveys across multiple industries, the results of most of the surveys are pretty similar, however some of the results were quite disturbing. When asked about...

Five Steps to Select a Safety Management System

Every company has a different way of going about selecting solutions that will work best for the organization, but there are five useful steps for all companies to abide by, at least as a starting place, to effectively...

NPDES Electronic Reporting Rule

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed the final electronic reporting rule which requires NPDES regulated entities to file certain reports and permit related data electronically instead of filing paper reports by...

Why Automation Means Fewer Control Violations Involving Audits

In today’s complex and regulated environment for financial institutions, there has never been more pressure on finance leaders to ensure integrity in internal auditing and controls. Boards of directors want...

Avoid Risks Through KYV or Know Your Vendors Phenomenon

I believe I have made up a new Acronym for Compliance, KYV – Know Your Vendors. The reason why knowing your vendors is important is the associated Risks that they bring to your Financial Organization. From the Vendor...

Cutting Compliance Costs and Making Regulatory Management More Efficient Amidst Rising Regulatory Scrutiny

As compliance professionals, we are constantly trying to balance compliance and risk headcount needs with available resources ($) due to the constant and significant increases in the regulatory environment. More often than...

Competency and Compliance Learning Management System

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How are you Managing and Assessing Performance?

Companies are looking for ways to improve performance while simultaneously reducing cost and risk, and ensuring compliance.   Through strategic planning, and in alignment with human resource management processes,...

Cyber Security is Always a Journey

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How can an Integrated Risk and Compliance Management system help you avoid the same fate as Noble Energy?

It isn’t exactly news that the EPA is ramping up its NEI programs, with one of the core focuses being the Energy Extraction Enforcement Initiative and “Next Generation Compliance”.  Over just a few years it more...

Integrated Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC)

Is integrated GRC an all-or-nothing proposition? The challenge of integration often relates to cultural boundaries within an organization rather than conceptual or technical issues. GRC processes are unique in relation...

Revolutionizing the Simplicity of Regulatory Change Management

Imagine that you are about to take a drive to a place you have dreamed of going your entire life. Your suitcases are packed in the car, and all you have to do is put your key in, turn the car on, keep an eye on the dashboard...

Why Reducing Your Cost of Compliance can Save you Money

Everyone knows staying compliant saves money. It prevents hundreds of thousands of dollars in regulatory fines. Beyond that, it seems that compliance only costs money. Time, effort and dollars go into keeping...

What Would Set you Apart from Other Oil Producers?

I had a conversation with a friend of mine who lives in Midland, Texas. She’s married to an Executive in the Oil and Gas Industry and lives on property that is being drilled by a different oil company.  She expressed...

Training and the FDA – What do They Require?

The FDA requires medical device and drug manufacturers to train their employees. Training must occur for all types of regulated activities from internal quality management software/policies to CFR requirements. The agency...

Think Ahead of the Curve – Regulatory Compliance Software Choice

Emergency medical technicians and medical trainers are on call at an array of sporting events, from Little League tee ball to the Superbowl. The event organizers do not anticipate participants to pull an ACL or spectators...

The ACA & Healthcare Outpatient Services Impact Perspective

“Risk Shifting” With the adoption of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and shift from quantity to quality-based reimbursement models, the healthcare landscape is shifting dramatically as to how providers are paid...

Report: US Power Sector CO2 Levels Down to 1990 Levels

A new NRDC report shares a positive picture about “reduced emissions” of major air pollutants like carbon dioxide, mercury, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by nation’s 100 electric power producers,...

Essential Elements of an Effective Whistleblower Hotline and Reporting Program

The Whistleblower Programs, established by regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) in accordance with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 that provides monetary...

Information Cyber Security Compliance: How Safe is Your Information?

How detrimental would an information security breach be on your organization? Lets go back in time! In July 2013, a data breach at the Department of Energy leaked information affected about 150,000 employees....

Key Elements of an Effective Regulatory Change Management Program

Due to the increasing number of regulations and the constant changes to those regulations, the cost and complexity of doing business is increasing. In order to stay ahead with changing regulations, organizations require...

Is Your Document Management System Effective?

One of the biggest challenges for organizations today is the ever-increasing number of rules and regulations, and the pressure to conduct business ethically. With the increasing number of policies, procedures and documents...

Proactive Enterprise Risk Management Approach

The U.S. Corporations risk management processes are under increasing regulatory and private scrutiny. The complexity, number, and velocity of risks are increasing and managing the myriad of changes in risk are becoming...

SEMS Element #2- Safety and Environmental Information

360factors announces the acquisition of Rosengarten, Smith & Associates, Inc. (RSA) environmental compliance services, environmental remediation and compliance services with offices in Austin, Corpus Christi...

Simplicity At Its Best, Using An Integrated GRC Software Solution

When it comes to performing the same types of tasks day after day, week after week, year after year, it is easy to see how easily someone can begin to overlook or skip certain procedural steps.  There are many reasons...

Think Ahead of the Curve – Regulatory Compliance Software Choice

http://www.360factors.com/regulatory-compliance-software/ Emergency medical technicians and medical trainers are on call at an array of sporting events, from Little League tee ball to the Superbowl. The event organizers...

How using Key Risk Indicators improves your Risk Management Process

Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) are critical predictors of negative events that can adversely impact your business. They monitor changes in the levels of risk exposure and contribute to the early warning signs that enable...

An Integrated Approach to Banking/Credit Union Regulatory Compliance Management

Risk management software, audit management software, regulatory management software, policy and procedure software, learning management software and case management system software – these are the tools that find their...

Vapor Screening Considerations

In the fall of 2013, regulations governing Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Services (ESA) were amended to include a requirement to conduct a vapor screen. This significant regulatory development...

So you think Safety and Compliance Don’t Matter?

So you really think not having a rigorous safety and compliance management software system doesn’t matter? Just ask Don Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy, who was sentenced Wednesday, April 6th, 2016 to...

Quality Safety Culture: The Roles and Responsibilities of the Key Players

The Safety Coordinator’s role in implementing a quality safety culture Most important – care about the  employees and build relationships (talk to people, show interest, be genuine) Put the employees’ health and safety...

Why Is It So Hard To Comply With My Air Permit?

Complying with your air permit seems like an obvious need for any industrial facility. But depending on your facility’s operations, the State in which your facility is located, and, believe it or not, the State employee...

The Importance of Usability in GRC Software

When it comes to governance, risk, and compliance, simplicity is not the first thing that comes to mind. Working in regulatory compliance can seem like an over-complicated maze of run-on sentences and unclear...

Oil & Gas Industry Regulatory Compliance Automation

What is it going to take for the oil and gas industry to step into the 21st century and automate regulatory compliance?  How will regulatory change management software affect the industry?...

RSA and 360factors FREE Dredge Best Practices Seminar on 23 April

The La Quinta Channel Dredging Project celebrated it first year anniversary of completion this February. A dredging project of this magnitude involved extending the channel approximately 1.4 miles (with a depth of 39...

Benefits of a Successful Safety Management System

Taking a systematic approach to safety management makes managing your business both easier and more effective. It allows you to work out the best way to handle each aspect of your organization’s safety program...

Why Hotline Reporting Matters

Attention to ethics in the workplace and the demand for ethics and compliance regulations gained momentum as a result of several highly publicized corporate accounting scandals that occurred in the early 2000s, most notably...

Weather the Storm of Policy and Procedure Management

Storm of Content The Affordable Care Act. HIPAA. OSHA. If there is one thing hospitals aren’t short of these days, it’s new rules and regulations. And for every fresh law or regulation that gets passed, new or updated...