What is compliance management software
Compliance has become a hot topic in today’s world. When organizations hear the word “compliance” they tend to think of ways to shortcut this process. Compliance software is the answer to that shortcut and can be essential for organizations looking for more effective and efficient ways to comply with the various compliance frameworks. Most organizations that take compliance seriously, will understand what a behemoth effort it can be to become compliant with a relevant standard and more importantly to stay compliant.
Main benefits of using compliance monitoring software
There are many advantages to using compliance software for your company’s compliance objectives. Here are some of the key advantages:
- It will save you time. Compliance can be a very complicated process and some compliance frameworks can be quite vague, which leaves a lot of gray areas for management. Compliance software will have built-in framework templates and will give you guidance on how to comply with a particular framework. With compliance software, it becomes more like a “checking the box” exercise and will save you an ample amount of time.
- It makes compliance easy. Compliance software that can automate the collection of evidence will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of collecting audit evidence for the relevant compliance framework. This will decrease business disruptions for management that don’t have to take time out in their day in order to collect the necessary evidence manually. With no knowledge of compliance of any kind, the right compliance software can help organizations achieve their compliance goals easily.
- It helps you stay compliant. Most compliance standards require organizations to renew their compliance every year. This means that every year the organization needs to do some work in order to maintain compliance. Compliance software assists organizations in that regard, by monitoring the control environment and creating tasks for the relevant control owners. In this way, management won’t have to run around and get everything a couple of days before the audit, but now will be able to ensure compliance all year round.
- Avoid unnecessary penalties and save costs. Most organizations think they are compliant but in reality, there are many gaps. Compliance software will help fill those gaps and save organizations the reputational damage and penalty fees that accompany that.
- Risk management and mitigation. When organizations do risk assessments and the subject of compliance risk comes up, compliance software should be standing at the forefront. One cannot omit the risk of social/reputation loss due to non-compliance, which may result in customers losing faith in your organization.
What features your compliance software must have
The right compliance software provides real-time status, a risk assessment module, and an efficient workflow, consisting of notifications and alerts, indicating the non-compliant controls/areas and reminders for completing certain tasks. This helps better manage the compliance requirements and thus reduce the risk.
Conclusion
It is a no-brainer that organizations cannot manage their compliance program without using compliance software. It’s like comparing pen and paper to digital, a bicycle to a car. If organization’s want to save time and money, be more effective and stay compliant, then compliance software is a must-have.
