Compliance Software

Guide to Compliance Management Software

Compliance management software continuously audits, tracks and monitors whether or not a business’s processes align with consumer standards, organizational policies and applicable local, state and federal laws. These programs facilitate self-monitoring and partnership responsibilities as well as legal obligations.

Programs for corporate compliance reach beyond software. In some industries, including pharmaceutical manufacturing and financial services, a partially automated or hybrid approach to compliance issues helps ensure that nothing critical is missed. Large businesses also rely on these programs to keep processes documented and organized. Some industries might not need software to do this, but with increased regulation, they might need it in the future.

A variety of software types provide this functionality. This guide delves into the options and facilitates your selection of a compliance program to suit your business model and industry of operation.

Compliance Software Categories

Many business owners which types of software are designed for compliance management. There are three types of corporate compliance and oversight tools on the market today, and they include

• Governance, Risk, and Compliance, also known as GRC software
• Compliance software built for a particular industry
• General compliance management software

Let’s take a closer look at each of these options.

GRC

GRC software includes generic compliance management tools that are packaged with a broad set of functions for managing risk and governing corporations. This software handles IT risk management, legal management and business continuity operations.

General Compliance

The all-purpose platforms for corporate compliance focus on general functions for ensuring compliance across nearly all industries.

Industry Compliance

An industry-specific tool allows heavily regulated industries to meet specific legislative requirements and commercial guidelines. Some of the types of industry-specific tools include financial services, industrial manufacturing and healthcare.

This guide focuses on GRC and general compliance platforms. If your business is in a highly regulated niche that requires an industry-specific tool, you can use the filters to find the right solution.

Compliance Software Features

A vast range of industry needs, business processes and regulations are governed by compliance software. This explains the diversity in the functionality of the platforms. Corporate ethics policies, business partner requirements and acceptable use regulations fall under the auspices of this software.

The tools also handle compliance with ISO and OSHA standards as well as general industry regulations. For example, big box retailers may have requirements that suppliers to smaller businesses don’t have to consider. Let’s hone in on the key parts of a compliance management system.

• Audit: These solutions support real-time field reporting. They also deliver systematic workflow and case management and tools for investigating, reporting and resolving compliance problems.
• Regulatory reporting: Compliance reports aggregate issues into visual representations, such as dashboards and scheduled reports. They may facilitate constant monitoring of KPIs for compliance issues on sensitive business processes. These reports make it easier to visualize violations and non-compliant facilities.
• Conflict management: Manage conflicts of interest, including trades initiated by employees and gifts given to team members.
• Controls monitoring: Verify compliance with policies and regulations through workflow engines. These controls document all processes and procedures centrally. They include a built-in escalation process.
• Compliance training: Implement customized and generic online learning modules to train employees on policy compliance.
• Fraud detection: Detect patterns that suggest fraudulent activities in payments, financial statements and other processes. Web forms for risk management controls can also be set up as a front line of defense for whistleblowers and potential fraud reports.
• Support for multiple languages: Set up Interfaces and scripts for employees who don’t speak fluent English.
• Policy management: Write policies, approve workflows and keep track of different versions of guidelines in a global registry with easy-to-track mapping that points to regulations.
• Regulatory change management: Track updates to regulatory information and alerts from government agencies and regulatory organizations. The feeds map to current policies. Track them via XML or RSS feeds.
• Survey: Send self-assessment tools to employees and partners.

GRC and all-purpose/general compliance management solutions cover basics, such as employee codes of conduct.

When your business must follow general standards, an out-of-the-box solution may satisfy your requirements. However, organizations in highly regulated industries will need to closely evaluate industry-specific solutions.

Advantages of Compliance Software

1. Make better decisions: These tools centralize and streamline decision-making processes. This safeguards your firm’s finances and legal integrity. With automatic escalation of compliance violations, the software assigns problems to the correct personnel for investigation and resolution.
2. Built client trust: Customers trust businesses that follow security regulations. They prefer companies with proper certifications and strong records of compliance. Using this software helps you maintain a positive reputation.
3. Reduce regulatory risk: All businesses must follow financial, environmental, corporate, social, legal and financial guidelines. If they don’t, they’ll face fines, lawsuits and penalties. Compliance management programs help your company abide by the regulations across all of your processes. This lowers the risk of legal violations.

What to Keep in Mind When Evaluating Compliance Software

There are three considerations to keep in mind when selecting compliance management software:

1. Satisfy compliance regulations: The regulations and standards for compliance vary across locations, markets and industries. It’s important to choose a tool that you can customize to your specific needs. Compliance software allows you to make choices based on your industry, geography and market.
2. Ongoing costs: Most tools for compliance management have expenses that go beyond the initial license. The software requires routine updates. It may need repairs for the delivery of ideal results. Consider these maintenance costs in your budget.
3. Compliance vendor reputation: Before choosing a tool, examine the provider’s certification, credentials, track record and customer reviews.