Why Businesses Should Pursue Software Integration to Strengthen Compliance
Software integration removes siloes and centralizes relevant data in a single platform.
Maintaining corporate compliance is a difficult undertaking at the best of times, but it's made exponentially harder when an organization lacks software integration. Businesses today are expected to be able to easily deploy the people, processes and technology necessary to govern the entire business. But because their processes are often siloed and their systems ad hoc, it becomes a real challenge to meet all of the various compliance demands their organization faces.
While system integration is the ideal, it's not as simple as deciding one day to destroy data silos and integrate disparate systems. A change that big requires a willingness to challenge the status quo and the ability to justify to the C-Suite why the time, effort and expense is necessary to effectively maintain compliance and thereby promote growth across the organization.
The Business Benefits That Software Integration Creates
1. A Holistic View of Risk That Fosters Collaboration
Centralizing compliance-related data in a single platform provides a single, all-encompassing view of relevant data. With data residing in a single platform, businesses improve their ability to identify and assess risk and deploy tools and tactics to mitigate its effect. A single view of compliance-related data also fosters consistency in the compliance terminology used throughout the organization. In turn, it also helps to increase collaboration between divisions and departments.
2. Reduction in Software Maintenance Costs and the Potential to Reallocate Headcount
Software integration and the consolidation of compliance-related data removes the costs incurred to maintain data in multiple platforms, as well as expenses related to user training and access administration. It may also free staff to work on higher value tasks within the compliance department.
3. Improved Responsiveness to Changes in Laws and Regulations
Regulators often change the specifics of a regulation, or how they interpret and apply the laws and regulations under their authority. Software integration provides one platform instead of many to analyze and adapt to ensure compliance.
4. Real-Time Data and Metrics
When it comes to compliance, businesses can't manage what they can't measure. Employing a single software platform supports the development of real-time analytics to help drive ongoing improvements in how a business monitors and evolves its compliance program.
5. Eradication of Gaps in Analysis and Coverage
When organizations use disparate system to manage compliance, they stymie collaboration, and that's particularly problematic when it results in gaps in how compliance professionals identify, analyze and mitigate risk. Employing a single platform enables cross-divisional communication that plays a critical role in ensuring compliance.
When compliance-related data exists in multiple software packages, silos flourish. Consequently, executives are denied a complete understanding of the full risk facing the organization — which is particularly troubling given the extent of regulatory activity in the United States and overseas. Software integration simplifies the compliance process by centralizing relevant data in a single platform, ultimately making compliance tasks easier to achieve and maintain.
