Indepth guide to Compliance Management System

Introduction

Compliance management is implementing processes, assessing, and monitoring that the organization complies with industry and security standards and corporate and regulatory policies and requirements guidelines.

A compliance management system/technology helps companies comply with policies, regulatory changes, and applicable laws. An efficient compliance management system helps the company to understand its different compliance responsibilities, prompts the company to take measures when corrective action is required, ensures that the company adheres to all the compliance guidelines, and monitors all the operations carried out, keeping the compliance requirement in mind.

Why does a business need a compliance management system?

A good compliance management system can help your business in many ways.

1. Save from legal issues: Each industry has its compliance guidelines to follow apart from federal and state-imposed compliance rules. Failing to adhere can bring legal complications for your business, like a heavy penalty, putting reputation at stake, and even cancelation of business license. Having a strong complaint management system can save you from such legal complications.
2. Build company reputation: A company that complies with all the compliance guidelines is a step ahead of its competition in earning the trust of its stakeholders. And it’s a no-brainer that a reputed brand has many advantages, like generating leads, getting clearance in external audits, securing investors, and gaining customers’ trust.
3. Help mitigate risks: A good compliance management system can help you mitigate risks associated with a change in the compliance guideline or change in the product and service offerings.
4. Reduce costs and penalties: A strong compliance management system also helps you to check costs apart from keeping you legally abiding by the guidelines. Although an initial investment is associated with introducing compliance management software, it will help you save operational costs by reducing human error and attain compliance standards easily in the long run.
5. Build trust with customers and investors: Your capital partners are constantly watchful of your actions. They must ensure that you abide by all the rules and regulations, address customer issues, and run the compliance management program smoothly. Failing to do so may call for losing access to the capital funds for running your business. Similarly, your customers are watchful of your actions. They are likely to trust an organization more that is known for being compliant than a brand that fails to comply with guidelines and regularly faces legal complications. A tool like VComply can help you manage your compliance workflows effectively within the platform.

Additional Read:

• The role of compliance manager
• Add compliance controls to your business

How to choose a compliance management system?

Finding the right compliance management system that serves your purpose may be daunting with so many compliance management systems around. To help you save time, we have curated all the key elements you should look for while choosing your compliance management system.

Compatible with your needs

Different organizations have different compliance needs. So choose a compliance management software that aligns with your needs. For example, it should be capable to support various compliance frameworks, programs, audits, and risk management and offer various policy compliance management capabilities. Check if your shortlisted software is flexible enough to be customized according to your requirements.

Technology compatibility

Technology is an ever-evolving field, with cloud architecture presently being the most preferred technology architecture. So choose a compliance management system that is futureproofed regarding technology. It should be cloud-based, have a strong security system, support lower cost, and have easy maintenance. You should also look for a compliance management system with API enabled for easy integration with third-party applications.

Vast reporting options

For management software, reporting is important, as many critical business decisions are based on it. But how you want to read and assess the report may vary from department to department or even person to person. So look for a compliance management system that has a comprehensive reporting option. Your compliance management system should support different reporting formats, from a high-level, customized reporting dashboard with key indicators to extracting the data on a simple excel sheet.

Reduce routine administrative work

A compliance management software should be able to take up all the routine administrative work your compliance team spends time upon and free up their bandwidth to spend time on other critical compliance issues. For example, if your compliance team spends too much time monitoring excel sheets, select software that can minimize the load. Similarly, if your team spends too much time tracking and managing regulatory changes, your compliance software should be able to lessen the burden.

Easy to implement

Compliance management software is useless unless you install and use it. To reap the complete benefits of having compliance management software, you need to implement and start using it from day 1. So pick a tool that is easy to implement, has an intuitive interface, doesn’t need too much training for your employees to use, and has a good customer support system. Remember, simplicity is the key when picking your first compliance management software.

Great customer care support

Once you invest in compliance management software, you will probably use it for a long time. There will be instances when you will need support to drive operations smoothly. So pick a tool that doesn’t function great, but has an awesome customer care support team who are responsive, know how to solve issues in the real world, and can help you customize for a specific use case.

Pricing model

A SaaS-based compliance management software doesn’t come with a hefty fee like a legacy system where you must purchase the full license. In a SaaS model, you can choose a subscription plan that suits your requirements and upgrade or downgrade the subscription as needed.

Information security

Data privacy has been a growing concern among organizations due to the constant threat of cyberattacks. So check for a software supplier who is accredited with an information security system or data privacy system. Also, look for usernames and password control systems for different software module access. Check the level of confidentiality the vendor complies with if they are preserving the data integrity, etc.

Supports multi-level workflow

Many processes within a function need multi-level approvals. For example, suppose you are raising a purchase order for your team. Once you raise the purchase order, a team will check if all the order details are filled in correctly. Then another team will check the vendor details. Then another team will check if the order limit is within the company’s permissible spending budget, and so on. Compliance management software can automate the entire princess. So the software will alert the respective member when an action is needed/completed, and the final transaction won’t take place until all the compliance levels are met. This helps increase the team’s productivity ( no manual intervention) and helps you stay compliant ( no compliance checks are missed.)

Learning Resource:

• The 7 elements of effective compliance program

How VComply can help you in compliance management

Doing business is way more risky, complicated, and costly in 2022. To ensure businesses operate in an ethical manner and deliver services and products of the best quality, governments, and industry standards have implemented several stringent compliance regulations. Businesses need to have utmost priority and systems in place to adhere to these compliance guidelines to save them from severe penalties.

A 360-degree compliance management system is a must-have for organizations today. It can help them:

1. Save millions by reducing non-compliance penalties and improving business continuity.
2. Putting adequate authorization control systems in place to reduce security breaches.
3. Manage your compliance application programs across locations and functions.
4. Create intuitive reports that can help leaders make critical business decisions in real-time.
5. Make necessary internal changes and update policies based on changes in the legislation and regulatory norms.

But, with so many compliance management tools available, how do you know which one is the right fit for your business? That’s why you need an all-in-one compliance management tool like VComply. With this tool, you can evaluate security risks beforehand, conduct a compliance policy audit, track compliance standards regularly, and do much more!

4 Ways VComply Makes Compliance Management Easy For Businesses

Compliance management is a complex, expensive, and time consuming process. Businesses are spending more money than ever on legal fees and penalties for non compliance. VComply can help companies manage their compliance regulations and management in a very easy manner.

Uniformity in Compliance Management

An all-encompassing approach is a prerequisite to ensure optimal compliance management. VComply helps you onboard every employee and stakeholder from every department and every region to track and comply with compliance activities. See what a happy customer has to say:
“VComply has proven to be a very effective tool to track compliance activities. It provides a way to automate your compliance program and assign tasks to individuals, along with reminders and the ability to upload supporting documentation. The customer service is the best I’ve experienced from a software company. They continue to evolve the software and regularly roll out updates and new features.”
—– Tanya P., Director of Compliance, Security and Strategic Projects

Drive Massive Cost-Savings

The cost of non-compliance has spiked by 45% in the last decade. Non-compliance can result in heavy penalties, fraud cases, and cybersecurity breaches that may cost you millions. With vComply, you don’t need to rely on traditionally used manual, costly, and siloed compliance management methods. Also, the cost of hiring a team of compliance and legal experts is eliminated when you employ a compliance management tool. Organizations can become agile and resilient business houses that identify and prevent policy violations on time by employing a fully automated compliance management tool.

Automation for efficiency

Automation is the present and future of compliance management. VComply’s automated compliance management tool divides complex tasks into small modules to improve workflow and efficiency. Moreover, its integrated nature lets you map every minor risk in real-time and escalate instant alerts to the stakeholders. In addition, the compliance management system automates the risk assessment and reporting process to save time and money.

Simple and customizable

You may invest in several tools, but your team will not use them if it’s not simple to use and align with the business needs! VComply is loved by teams because of its intuitive interface, easy-to-navigate feature, strong customer support team, and the ability to customize the tool as per your requirement. The testament of this happy customer says it all.
“I consider the vendor support, both pre-and post-sales, to be very strong. Our account manager was very patient during the engagement process and helped us align our needs with the GRC platform of VComply. The transfer of existing data was easy, because some kind of integrated Excel data were integrated and within minutes, our entire controlling program could be imported.”

Review from G2

Integrated approach

VComply has an integrated approach to risk assessment and management, audit, and policy assurance. This means you can manage all your compliance programs and assess them from a single centralized platform, build and manage your policies, manage and mitigate risks, and schedule audits from time to time. VComply is a one-stop solution for all your GRC requirements.

Simple UI and Quick onboarding

VComply has a simple UI that anyone can use. VComply has a quick onboarding. It takes just 5 days to completely onboard with VComply. The setup process is easy too. The implementation team will handhold you and guide you throughout the process, from kick-off to configuration. The team also helps you streamline your audit cycles and eliminate the cost of noncompliance by automating workflows and processes. Are you still using spreadsheets for compliance management? It’s time to introduce a strong compliance management system that streamlines your compliance system with your business processes, generates standardized reports for data-driven decisions, and provides scannable dashboards for efficient governance. VComply aids you in establishing highly transparent and fast-paced teams. Whether it’s third-party risks, cybersecurity threats, or contract compliance in procurement teams, our compliance management tool is here to make compliance more accessible, cheaper, and quick for you.

Choosing the best tool to manage your compliance regulations

VComply is one of the best-integrated compliance management tools to help solve all your compliance management needs. The tool lets you centralize and automate all your compliance processes across functions and locations. The tool is simple to use, makes collaboration seamlessly easy, and can help you save up to 10+ hours per week. The tool is completely customizable so that you can tailor it to your needs. VComply helps you generate actionable reports that can be a game changer for your business. Here’s what a happy customer says:

“It allows our organization to establish standardized systems across a very complex set of compliance obligations.” —- Nicole Glenda, Director of Compliance

Ready to explore what VComply can do for your business? Book a live demo.