Compliance is a little like the big, scary kid at the playground. No one wants to make direct eye contact, no one wants to get too close, and no one thinks any good can come of the situation. Unfortunately, no one considers what that big kid can do for them. Oh, poor, lonely, ostracized compliance… sigh…
It’s true that you don’t want to mess around with compliance. But that doesn’t mean you can’t roll with it. After all, it’s key to any enterprise: an organization cannot operate if it does not adhere to the laws, regulations, guidelines, and standards relevant to its business.
So, how can you play nice with this big, scary kid?
1. Step back and take a good look.
What do you need to be aware of? Content and process are at the heart of Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC), and there are many different regulations and standards around the world. Which ones affect you?
Take a look at this Regulatory Compliance & EIM Matrix. It’s a convenient, at-a-glance table of key regulations and standards from across the globe, and it also lists the associated EIM requirements. Download it to keep for quick reference!
2. Listen to what the other kids are saying.
What should you pay close attention to and what do you feel confident about? According to a recent white paper from AIIM® and OpenText, Managing GRC with ECM and BPM, the top driver of Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) for organizations is avoiding reputational risk. In fact, we found that protecting the reputation was twice as big of a driver as avoiding fines and penalties. (It always comes back to the playground.)
Other highlights from the survey include the following:
- The most common GRC complaints:
- Multiple, disparate systems to manage compliance documentation
- Manual, inefficient GRC processes
- Homegrown systems and tools
- 40% surveyed say policy management is their biggest challenge with regulatory compliance, and only 9% are confident their policies are up-to-date.
- 85% believe ECM would help them meet their compliance requirements.
- The top 5 ECM functionalities deemed most important for GRC: RM, DM, Email Management, Audit Trails, and BPM/Workflow.
Get the highlights of the survey in this infographic.
For those of you particularly interested in data privacy cloud compliance, another new paper, Data Privacy in the Cloud – Guidance for the IT Professional, from 451 Research®, delves into today’s five biggest issues:
- The Microsoft Dublin Warrant controversy
- International eDiscovery and eDisclosure
- The US-EU Safe Harbor framework
- The EU General Data Protection regulation
- Expansion of data privacy laws around the world
3. And play fair.
As Former Deputy US Attorney General Paul McNulty said, “If you think compliance is expensive, try non-compliance.” Plus, once you are compliant, you’ll have a big advantage over your competitors—it’s not just a necessary evil. And, of course, you can’t be messed with. Not with Compliance behind you.
