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 attention every, single day.

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 a safe and healthful workplace).

Why Automate Policy and Procedure Management?

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

Business Process – Regulatory Workflow

This is a five-part series blog on the Five Steps to Manage Regulatory Compliance:

1. Regulatory Knowledge base and Taxonomy
2. Risk and Internal Controls
3. Business Process – Regulatory Workflow
4. Location Assets
5. Roles and Responsibilities of Key Management Functions

Today’s post is focusing on the third step which is Business Process – Regulatory Workflow.  Once the organization has identified their EHS internal controls and identified their risks or hazards from high to low, the management would be required to further develop and streamline compliance routines, process, and procedures into a coherent system.

• Business Process Impact, compliance process around sites, assets, events, timely decisions - The system should allow you to pull reports so that you are able to understand regulatory change management impact and make informed and timely decisions. These days, when regulators do their audit they are not necessarily only interested in knowing if you achieved compliance, but interested in knowing the compliance process around personnel, product, equipment, policies, procedures, materials, assets, sites, events, assets, and operating conditions.

• Process automation and cost – Automation is highly Cost Effective. KPMG recently did a research that most of the regulatory compliance is done in silos- various functional departments are managing compliance through multiple tools (some external and some internal) in some cases, most of these tools don’t talk to each other and each department has additional headcount to manage compliance-  if regulatory compliance across all divisions is automated through one platform then not only will it be cost effective, it will also increase the performance of the company by being able to make better and timely decisions compare to its competitors.

• Manual vs automation – Vertically integration of all the regulatory departments through one platform should lead to better reporting up the hierarchy and hence a more complete view of critical risks facing the organization. A lack of such oversight was arguably a major cause of the current financial crisis.

Processes that can be Automated:

• Automate corrective action to increase speed, eliminate waste and cut costs
• Automate scheduling, tasking, and tracking
• Embed transparency and accountability
• Automate management of change

The process that cannot be Automated:

• Determining applicability
• Subject matter expertise

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 be made.  In other words, our decisions generally follow a pattern based on our own past knowledge.  Our brain stores this information so we do not follow the same mistakes.

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 evolve. To streamline data management and curb costs as they strive for compliance, some businesses have turned to automated processes.

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 made social interaction possible to those who have the inability to verbally speak and hear. It allows us to collaborate easily and it makes our work faster and more efficient. In the recent Wall Street Journal Article, it has been reported how a utility is facing a $2.25 billion penalty for alleged Federal and state noncompliance of regulations. In today’s business environment where GRC Software has to be rooted in the organization’s DNA, how does an organization keep up with such a highly volatile and regulated market?

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

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

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 foreign financial institutions (“FFIs”).  The intention of FATCA is to identify U.S. citizens responsible for paying U.S. taxes, however, are utilizing non-U.S. financial institutions and accounts offshore in order to avoid such tax requirements.