ZenGRC Team

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a financial adviser, the CEO of a healthcare organization, or manager of multi-level IT projects: to develop a successful business, you must stay in compliance with regulatory obligations at all times.

That isn’t easy, because compliance requirements, rules, and regulations change constantly. Global businesses can face real headaches on this point, since they face so many jurisdictions updating regulations, and in multiple languages. 

Risking non-compliance, even for a brief period, can harm your company. Recurrent compliance issues result in fines and penalties from regulators, you run the risk of missing out on lucrative contracts, or you may not be able to retain your clients. Also remember that some regulatory changes are aimed at protecting your business; non-compliance can get very expensive. 

The drawbacks of manual compliance 

Compliance management is probably already part of your risk assessment process, but it can be difficult to stay current on everything in a rapidly changing business environment. Manually maintained compliance management tools, kept in databases or spreadsheets, are prone to human error and may ignore new vulnerabilities. They also fail to suggest which corrective action should be taken. Auditing compliance management tools built in-house or establishing your own compliance program from scratch can become a time-consuming and frustrating experience.

Automation creates a competitive edge 

A compliance management software system that uses automation can take most of the worries out of compliance management. Powered by artificial intelligence and using the most up to date automation, this software can streamline your compliance processes, and make compliance activities happen when they are supposed to: as soon as regulatory requirements change. 

High functionality gives you peace of mind and frees your compliance team to take any urgent, hands-on corrective action that may be needed. 

Fully automated compliance management software works by scouring regulating authorities and their publications, searching for new regulatory requirements, and then alerting you to the changes. 

It works on holidays, weekends, and workdays, no matter what time of the day it is, anywhere on the globe. Automated compliance management software will alert you to potential vulnerabilities in real time, and point you toward the corrective action you need to take. It makes your risk management process more robust and alleviates burden from your team. 

If you answer yes to any of the following scenarios, the time is right for automated compliance management solution:

• You are expanding your business, conquering new territories like the European Union, which is a completely different regulatory environment.
• Your business is moving into new areas of tightly regulated compliance, such as U.S. Defense Department contracts.
• Your internal workflows changed because of COVID, and won’t return to pre-COVID structures any time soon (for instance: your remote employees will stay remote).
• The amount of penalties and fines you are accruing is going up, not down. 
• Your staff struggles with dedicating sufficient human resources to risk management and compliance activities. 

Cybersecurity and compliance management tools

No matter what business you’re in, we are here to help make the transition to automated compliance management software smooth. Let us show you how to keep your competitive edge while keeping cybersecurity and compliance top priorities. 

ZenGRC’s compliance, risk, and workflow management software is an intuitive, easy-to-understand platform that identifies areas of high risk before those risks manifest as real threats. 

Worry-free compliance management is the ZenGRC way. For more information on how ZenGRC can enable your CMS, contact us for a demo.

Calculating the return on investment (ROI) for a corporate compliance program isn’t easy. Clearly the potential damage from a cybersecurity threat can be severe:  disrupted operations, tarnished reputation, customers who flee to the competition, monetary penalties from regulators. 

But those are potential costs that can be severe. Compliance program investments, meanwhile, are actual costs that many times are severe, at least to the senior executives approving the budget. 

So how does a compliance officer identify the ROI of compliance? How does one quantify an argument that says, essentially, “Look at all the costs we avoided from a hypothetical disaster that never happened!” 

If your organization is struggling to determine compliance ROI, here are three strategies to get you started.

Involve Key Business Leaders

First, when evaluating businesses risks and compliance investments to address them, involve the right leaders in your organization. 

Some of those leaders will be from risk oversight functions in the so-called “Second Line of Defense.” Those executives include the chief financial officer (who knows how much money the organization has) and the general counsel (who knows the legal obligations the company has), and possibly others: perhaps a chief technology officer or a head of internal control, if your business has those roles. 

You also need to include leaders from the “First Line of Defense,” otherwise known as the business operating units. These leaders would include the heads of sales, manufacturing, customer service, or research & development — that is, people who know how the business operates. They have a much better sense of which risks are most likely to strike your company, and which compliance counter-measures are most likely to be accepted, ignored, or misunderstood by employees. 

Bring those leaders together, and solicit their opinions about probable compliance risks and feasible compliance solutions.

Evaluate Costs and Threats

Work with those business leaders to understand the most significant compliance risks that your organization faces from its routine operations. 

For example, all publicly traded companies must comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits companies from bribing officials of foreign governments to win business. Part of FCPA compliance is to perform due diligence on any overseas agents or resellers who might work on your firm’s behalf, since those agents are a common conduit for bribes. If your business performs no due diligence on its agents at all, or only performs minimal due diligence with methods that might be unreliable, you’re at high risk for FCPA violations — and all the monetary fines, profit disgorgement, and legal costs that come with it.

In that case, determining the ROI of a compliance program becomes a cost versus benefit analysis: How much does the company want to spend on technology to automate due diligence activities, versus the potentially high risk of FCPA enforcement and its attendant costs? 

Compliance officers should analyze those costs and benefits carefully. For example, if each sales rep spends four hours per week performing manual due diligence procedures, that’s 10 percent of each employee’s salary and overhead costs, devoted to something that isn’t about sales. You can calculate that number from data provided by the HR department, and include it as part of your cost-benefit analysis. 

Moreover, remember that once you invest in automated compliance solutions, those sales execs can then devote more time to sales — which means the company’s revenues can increase more quickly. When you consider the total costs and benefits of compliance, the ROI quickly starts to tilt in favor of effective, automated compliance programs. 

We used FCPA compliance as one example, but you can find many more. Data security, accurate financial reporting, supply chain risk management, environmental safety, and many more — you should calculate the costs and benefits of compliance for all those risks. They all factor into the ROI of your compliance program. 

Automated Software Is Your Solution

As you can see, measuring the ROI of compliance is difficult. The more a company can rely on automation software to perform compliance tasks, the better insights you have into whether your investments are achieving their full potential — or if not, how to wring maximum efficiency out of those investments before asking the board for another spending approval.

GRC compliance software is the easiest way to guarantee your return on investment through reliable compliance automation software.

With ZenGRC, stakeholders, employees, and your compliance team have access to a single source of truth that covers all of your current and future risk areas. The ability to gather documents rapidly and to monitor compliance saves man-hours and reduces the possibility for human error. 

Additionally, ZenGRC’s user-friendly dashboards show you at a glance which risks need mitigation; track workflows; collect and store the documents you’ll need at audit time; and more.

Set up a demo today and start making your compliance plan and increase your return on investment.

Making the business case for compliance is never an easy task. That challenge is all the more true during difficult economic times, when businesses might cut their spending across numerous departments or projects to assure long-term sustainability. Compliance programs aren’t exempt from that pressure. 

To make that business case for compliance, it’s important that all an organization’s stakeholders understand both the risks associated with a poor compliance program as well as the benefits of a strong one. 
In this post, we’ll cover the considerations that compliance officers need to prepare a solid business case for the compliance program. 

What is compliance in business?

We could define compliance  as the act of following with a command, or being in accordance with laws, regulations, or standards. 

The business world has a host of rules that regulate how businesses operate and how they interact with customers and customer data. Some are federal or state laws; some are executive branch regulations to implement those laws. Others are industry standards that help a business to protect itself against threats both internal and external. 

Compliance with all of these rules is necessary, to assure that businesses operate lawfully and ethically. 

An effective compliance program is an evolving, ongoing initiative. Laws and regulations change frequently, and so does the threat landscape of cybercriminals hoping to gain access to sensitive data by exploiting the loopholes of a weak compliance program. All of this means that organizations should revisit their compliance programs regularly, to assure that the program can still meet all the obligations it has. 

What types of compliance obligations are there?

Some laws and regulations tend to be more prevalent in certain industries or certain types of businesses. For example, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits bribery of foreign government officials, so it’s mostly applicable to companies that conduct significant business overseas. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires effective internal control over financial reporting, but for publicly traded companies only. FedRAMP is a security standard that applies only to government contractors providing cloud-based services to federal agencies.

Other rules and standards, however, are applicable more widely. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) establishes privacy standards for personal health information; that can sweep up any business that stores healthcare data about its employees. Any business that processes credit card transactions is expected to adhere to the rules set forth in PCI DSS which dictate how companies use, store, and share a customer’s financial data. 

What is the difference between compliance and compliance management?

While compliance is the act of adhering to regulatory and industry-specific standards, compliance management refers to the ongoing management of those compliance efforts. 

Achieving compliance in the first place requires both time and resources — but that effort can easily be undone, if there are no methods in place to assure that you maintain compliance on a daily basis.

For example, when you begin the risk assessment process, you may find that one compliance issue is that personal data is held in an unsecured repository that multiple unnecessary team members can access. 

So you take the necessary mitigation steps: removing access for unnecessary team members, implementing compliance training for necessary team members on password strength and accessing information over unsecured networks, and so forth. You achieve compliance at that specific moment.

But how will you stay in compliance over time, as new team members come and go? How do you assure that the steps you took to get into compliance remain in effect over the long term? That’s compliance management.

What are the benefits of compliance?

Now let’s take a closer look at the benefits of compliance that the chief compliance officer should state when making the business case for a compliance program.

Reduce Legal Liability

A great starting point for the conversation, and probably the most relevant benefit of a compliance program, is its ability to shield your company from legal liability. The penalties for non-compliance can include hefty sanctions, lawsuits, and more.

Even if the board only has the bottom line in mind, compliance helps to assure that revenue isn’t blocked or degraded by legal action taken against the company. For example, federal guidelines dictate that a single HIPAA violation can cost upwards of $1.5 million or more in fines and legal settlements. 

Improve Efficiency and Security

In addition to avoiding legal ramifications, many compliance standards provide guidance on operational frameworks that can boost corporate efficiency and productivity.

 
Risk assessments and compliance audits can also reveal previously unknown threats or risks in your IT environment. You can then mitigate those issues and better protect the company from compliance risks like data breaches or ransomware.  

Reputation Gains

Another benefit of a strong compliance program is its ability to foster trust with customers. When prospective clients see that your organization has done its due diligence to protect them and their data from harm, they’re more likely to engage in (or remain in) a business relationship with you.

For example, U.S. agencies such as the Defense Department now expect businesses to comply with the security standards in FedRAMP or CMMC. You won’t be able to win government contracts without a compliance program to achieve those standards. 

What is the cost of non-compliance?

Yes, creating a comprehensive compliance program is an investment. Considerations include building a qualified compliance team, adopting a governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) tool, and the time investment of preparing, implementing, and managing an ongoing program.
While the costs of a compliance program may seem high, risking non-compliance can cost much more.

Regulatory fines are steep. In 2018, non-compliance drove nearly $4 billion in penalties plus an additional $794 million in judgments, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Aside from legal penalties, there is also the cost of business disruption, lost productivity, lost revenue, and any remediation expenses to get the organization operational again.

How can a company improve compliance?

To improve corporate compliance, a company must understand where its compliance stance is today and how that stance can be improved. Companies must also have a way to track changes in compliance legislation, and monitoring to ensure compliance is maintained within the organization. This is almost impossible to do manually, particularly in larger organizations.

That’s where ZenGRC can help. ZenGRC is a cloud-based tool that allows customers to track their compliance functions across a number of frameworks at any time. Our central dashboard provides easy-to-understand metrics and guidance to enable proper benchmarking and improvement in your corporate compliance stance.

ZenGRC’s compliance templates can help you to understand what data you have, what you need, and how to fill those gaps while our automated system handles the tracking and alerting for necessary compliance maintenance functions.
ZenGRC not only takes the burden out of achieving compliance at the start, but also of maintaining compliance over time as your organization grows and legislation changes.

Stress-free compliance is the Zen way! To learn more, book a free demo of our platform today.

Social media compliance is the work of assuring that your company’s social media accounts and the accounts of your employees meet both your own brand standards and the protocols for your industry. This process will look different for each company, depending on your industry and the degree to which you use social media platforms. Keep reading to learn more about the importance of social media compliance and how you can create a strong social media program at your organization.

Why is social media compliance important? 

Social media compliance is incredibly beneficial to any organization. It can aid in reputation management and help protect your company from negative mentions. It can also help you find and shut down any spoof accounts or deliberate misinformation that is being spread in your company’s name. 

Social media compliance also assures that your social media presence will not trigger compliance violations for any industry-based standards, and this is often the most critical benefit of a social media compliance program. Heavily regulated industries such as healthcare or financial services come under strict scrutiny in all areas, including social media use. 

Violations of regulatory compliance standards can result in hefty fines or prevent you from doing business altogether. The world of social media shifts so frequently that it can be difficult to stay on top of what is expected of you. A strong social media compliance program will help you stay abreast of these changes and ensure that your online footprint is within bounds. 

How does a social media compliance program work?

An effective social media compliance program will examine the laws and regulations in your industry and assure that the social media use connected to your company is not causing any violations. 

Your program should look carefully at several key areas:

• How does your social media presence affect privacy? Create policies and controls that will prevent the loss of your customers’ personal information. 
• Are your accounts (and those of your employees) representing the company accurately? It is important that the messaging from your accounts and those of your staff are appropriate to your overall branding. If you’re working with influencers, make sure their contracts specify the terms of their agreements and the requirements for their posts. 
• How does your company protect user confidentiality? Casually sharing other user’s mentions of your brand can potentially be a violation, so make sure to have policies about confidentiality in place. 
• Is your company subject to any requirements for archives or access? For example, a government agency isn’t permitted to block other users and is typically required to keep an archive of any posts your organization makes. 
• What are your acceptable use policies for your employees? Sites like LinkedIn make it easy to trace your employees back to you. While your staff may not speak for the company officially, their social media presence can have an effect on the way your company is perceived online. It’s a good idea to have a structured acceptable use policy and guidelines for employees on their personal accounts. 

What’s the difference between social media guidelines and social media policy?

Guidelines are only suggestions; policies are meant to be enforced. 

Does your company need a social media policy? The answer is yes. Regardless of how your company uses social media, virtually every organization needs to establish an online presence. With that presence comes the need for detailed policies that outline how your company will use its own accounts and what’s expected from your staff on their own personal pages. 

Depending on your industry, you may have an official framework to help you structure your compliance efforts. Medical and financial institutions will be subject to more strict rules than say, a small online retailer. While these additional layers of requirements may seem complicated, the expectations from regulators such as the Federal Trade Commission or FINRA (the regulator of broker-dealer firms) can shape your thinking about what is or isn’t appropriate for your company’s social presence. 

It’s also important to understand that your policy might change over time. The internet moves quickly, and the social networks you use can change their own policies and platforms often — sometimes with little to no warning. You can assure that your company’s social media policy is both up-to-date and understood by your staff with regular compliance training and seminars. 

What Do You Need for a Social Media Compliance Audit?

Your risk management program should include a social media compliance audit to determine what risks you might be facing. Consider asking these questions before beginning your audit:

• What social media channels are you using, and what are the account names and passwords?
• Which employees have access to which of your social media accounts? Or to the data generated by those accounts?
• What compliance requirements apply to your industry? What are the ways that social media can cause violations of those regulations? Make sure that your compliance team is aware of these potential risks, and that they’re able to work in tandem with your social media team. 
• What is your social media marketing strategy? What risks might arise from the pursuit of your overall goals for your accounts? 
• How are you archiving your posts? 
• What metrics will you use to determine the success of your compliance program? 

Creating a social media compliance program may seem overwhelming, but ZenGRC can help.

ZenGRC’s easy-to-navigate platform allows you to streamline your workflow and track risk across departments, which frees up more time to concentrate on your company’s goals. Schedule a demo today and learn how ZenGRC can take you out of your spreadsheets and into the 21st century.