Everything You Need to Know About Compliance Management

Guidelines and rules are very important in the business sector. They are very important in the technological era. Rules will ensure that your company is following the law. Complying with laws will help you in protecting your business and consumer from the harmful use of IT. It will help you in staying competitive. You need to ensure that you are properly using your IT assets. Good security standards will help you in improving your reputation.

Procedures and policies are the backbones for operations. If you are not following best practices, then your business procedures will become chaotic with time. To solve this problem smart companies have their own set of procedures and standards. In this article, we are going to talk about everything you need to know about Compliance management. This will help you in creating strong policies for your business.

What is compliance?

Compliance simply means that you are complying with a rule, order, wish, desire, or command. You might need to adhere to requirements, regulations, and standards.

These compliance definitions are important for every business. If you want to be successful, then you should ensure that your staff members are following the internal rules and policies. You must ensure that your business is in compliance with external standards, regulations, and laws related to your industry.

There are generally two types of compliance:

• Corporate compliance: These are the programs that your organization can follow for ensuring compliance with internal policies and procedures.
• Regulatory compliance: These are the steps taken by your organization for complying with relevant external guidelines, laws, and regulations.

Both compliance policies are important for your business. They will help you in protecting your employees and organization. If you are neglecting regulatory compliance, then you might need to face legal action or federal fines. Organizations that don’t have a corporate compliance program generally have unethical and chaotic practices.

To solve this problem companies create policies and procedures for their staff members. They establish an internal compliance department. The main aim of the compliance department is to ensure that everyone is following the rules.

What is a compliance department?

Compliance can be a difficult problem for your business. Thus, organizations create a compliance committee or department for enforcing compliance at the workspace. You can have a main or chief compliance officer who will be responsible for enforcing compliance. Also, you should have a team of people who need to help them.

Your compliance department will ensure that your employees are following rules and compliance. They might need to educate your employees for ensuring that they know about policies and regulations. The compliance department can also monitor your employee’s behaviour for ensuring that they are following rules.

What is compliance management?

Compliance management refers to all the processes and tools that companies can use for ensuring adherence to regulations, standards, policies, and laws. These processes and tools will help you in finding violations. It will help you in protecting your business from compliance violations.

Why compliance management is important for your business?

The main aim of compliance management is to prevent your business from breaking any laws. It will ensure that you are not harming your customer’s rights. Compliance management will ensure that you don’t need to worry if your organization’s practices are complying with regulations and laws. The main aspects of compliance management are:

1. Effective compliance

If you don’t have a good compliance system, then your organization might violate some consumer financial laws. This will lead to huge penalties and fines. The government wants organizations to ensure that they are protecting their customers. They want organizations to have a team dedicated to compliance management. Every examination or review conducted by authorities will assess your compliance management system. A good compliance system will help you in uniform and effective compliance.

2. Internal processes

Good compliance management will help you in simplifying your compliance process. Everything will be communicated properly in your internal organization. This will help you in streamlining your compliance management.

3. Finding a capital partner

Compliance management will also help you in staying competitive. You need to provide proof of compliance with funding sources like VCs and banks. They are not going to invest in an organization that doesn’t have a good compliance system. You should ensure that your organization is keeping up with the compliance requirements. This will help you in finding a perfect capital partner for your business. It will help you in accessing the funds that you need for growing your business.

4. Dealing with a data breach

A security or data breach can damage even the biggest business in the world. Compliance management will help you in boosting your IT security infrastructure and policies. This will help you in minimizing the damage caused by data breaches. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire already understand this. They help their partners in improving their compliance first. This will ensure that your business is protected from known threats. In case of a data breach, they can help companies in minimizing the damage. Thus, compliance management is very important for your business.

How to create a compliance management program?

1. Get internal approval and alignment

You should ensure that everyone on your team is on board before you start creating your compliance management program. This involves identifying stakeholders, authorities, and subject matter experts. Make sure that your key stakeholders understand the importance of the compliance program. They should be on the same page.

If you want to create a good compliance management program, then you should ensure that everyone understands the goal of your compliance program. You should also find a person who can lead your compliance program. This will be the chief compliance officer for your organization. You should ensure that your compliance program has a clear mandate. It should have a clear authority to operate. You should set a clear goal for your program. This will help you in ensuring that your program will be effective.

2. Review the policies

You need to review your procedures and policies for ensuring that you are following the current regulations. It is important to review the already existing policies. This will help you in finding competing and duplicate procedures and policies that you should address.

Once you have identified the outdated procedures and policies you can create a plan for updating their content. You need to determine who will make these updates. Also, you need someone who will be approving these policies.

3. Communicate

Consistent and clear communication will help you in ensuring that your compliance plan succeeds. Your employees should know the benefits and importance of this program. If your employees think that these are some set of rules, then they will probably ignore them. They should understand why these compliance rules are important for your business. Your expectations should be clear. This will help you in ensuring that everyone will follow the rules.

Your compliance program will be changing with time. Thus, you need to ensure that you are also telling about these updated policies to your employees. You can use policy management software for solving this problem. Your employees can access your current policies and documents by checking these tools.

4. Risk assessment

The risk assessment will help you in identifying risks in your business. It will help you in identifying business risks that can affect your ability to conduct business. These assessments will also provide processes, controls, and measures that will help you in reducing the impact of these risks.

Companies are using Risk assessment frameworks for prioritizing these risks. The risks can range from IT to the business side. RAF will help you in identifying potential hazards. It will help you in finding business assets that are at risk. Thus, this is a very important part of your compliance program.

Companies are also using a risk assessment matrix. They give a risk score to every risk. This score is calculated according to the impact and probability of a risk. It will help you find risks that can impact your business. Thus, you can focus on solving these risks first. The goal of risk assessment will depend on your business and your industry. An IT security risk assessment will help you in finding gaps in your IT security plan.

Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in IT risk assessment. They will also review compliance with infosec-specific regulations, mandates, and laws. This will help you in finding gaps in your IT security gap. They will also provide you with recommendations that you can use for improving your IT security. This step will help you in creating an accurate inventory of data and IT assets. The ultimate goal is to evaluate risks and reduce the impact of these risks. Thus, assessment should also help you in identifying control measures that you can take for reducing the impact of risks.

5. Compliance training

Your employees should understand your new policies. They should also understand how these policies will affect their day-to-day work. Thus, compliance training is very important for your business. Your employees should know about your expectations.

The best way to achieve this is by training your employees. You can talk about specific sections and elements of your policies. Your compliance officer can talk about real-world situations where your employees might encounter your policies.

If you are working with a good MSP, then they can help you in this training. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire provide security and compliance training. They will ensure that your employees know about the best security practices. This will help you in improving your IT security strategy and infrastructure.

6. Monitoring

You should monitor how your employees are complying with the compliance program. It is important to regularly review your policies. You should update your policies according to your business needs. This will help you in preparing your system for the future.

Businesses should focus on creating a monitor and review process for their compliance program. This will help you in keeping your program relevant. You should do this review process yearly. This will help you in updating your documents and compliance according to your needs.

7. Accountability

Accountability is another very important part of your compliance program. If your employees are not following the compliance program, then they should be accountable. The best way to solve this program is by building accountability into your compliance program. Your program should include disciplinary protocols and guidelines. These guidelines should be consistently and actively enforced.

You need to get your employee’s acknowledgement on this. Also, you need to provide training to your employees regarding your compliance program. This will ensure that they will know what rules they have to comply with.

If they don’t comply, then you can prove that you have given all the required training and resources to your employees. Your employees will ensure that they are complying with your rules if they are held accountable. Thus, this is going to be a very important part of your compliance program.

Conclusion

Compliance management will help you in ensuring that your employees are following your policies. It will help you in protecting your business from reputational and financial damages. Governments are working on creating stricter policies. Thus, it is important to ensure that you can comply with these regulations. A good compliance management program will help you in solving this program. It will help you in ensuring that your business is compliant.

However, you still need to ensure that your business is secure. You need to protect your employees and customers from cyber attackers. This is still the biggest problem that SMBs are facing. The best way to solve this problem is by partnering up with a good MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire will help you in solving this problem. They will create an IT security plan for your business. Bleuwire will ensure that you are compliant with government regulations. Thus, you don’t need to worry about any financial or reputational damage. If you need more information regarding IT security services, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.