Perhaps you already have a compliance solution or perhaps you still trusting on excel spreadsheet and manual process to keep your employees compliant and avoid regulations fines. For sure, if you still using manual process and fully trusting your excel spreadsheet you are in danger. You should be looking for a more modern compliance solution that can help to reduce your stress and workload.
Certainly, you are looking for ways to support and strengthen your compliance department because your company is growing and looking at new markets.
A growing firm is an amazing accomplishment. However, it brings many risks to the compliance department and challenge compliance officers. But you should take the opportunity to expand your department and secure that you and the team are prepared for the future.
We understand that even in a growing organization the budget might not grow accordingly. The compliance department can experience even more challenges when facing new markets with severe regulations, which means you need a sharp compliance team to keep up with everything.
In this scenario, you may need a compliance solution that is designed especially for your organization and its growing needs. A software that can automate the compliance process to reduce the risks of misconduct and show regulators that you have been taken all necessary measures to avoid risks.
Your software provider should be able to understand that organizations have different regulatory requirements and you just want to purchase what you need due to your actual budget.
So how do you take the next steps with a compliance software solution implementation?
You may think that investing in software requires too much time and money. However, it’s worth it though as effective compliance software when well implemented will help your organization future-proof your compliance department. Regulators change all the time so that is why is so important to buy software from a company that has years of experience and understand regulations and how compliance officers should act on it.
Therefore, you want to take your compliance solutions very seriously and get the implementation right the first time, so you don’t have to look for another provider in a year or two.
How to take the next steps on your compliance software solution journey?
Find the solution to help you – not the opposite!
Difficult implementation is a misconception – It should not be a big undertaking.
Setting up new software or replacing the existing solution in your organization requires an open mindset from the team. Implementation, no matter how big it is, requires some data work and review of the operation process in your department. So, keep it in mind and don’t panic when you hear the word “implementation”.
Implementation and replacement work better if you build a partnership with your provider. If you work with a software provider that you can trust you are halfway there.
Document the challenges your business faces
We are 100% sure that inefficiencies and failures from your current process or software provider made you look for another solution. You must have your search, challenges in your department and business documented and later share it with the provider you choose to demo.
- Share your objectives
- Flaws on the past solution and process
- What process you think works for your firm
- What you would like to be improved
What are the priorities? List them!
A compliance solution can transform your department and with that, you can give more attention to other priorities. You should be able to list what the new software should help you to do, some help from your compliance team at this stage would be useful as they might have good views on what is taking too much time to do and what could be automated to save hours of manual work.
The priorities list aims to show to you and your staff the impact that new software can have on productivity saving time for other important tasks. The list will help you to manage easily the implementation steps in the project and choose the right product for your firm.
Time to look!
At this point, you have records of the challenges and obstacles you’re facing in your department and a list of priorities.
Now is the time to start looking for your ideal solution and evaluate them according to your organization's needs.
Consider asking these questions on the process:
- Would this solution help with my existing processes?
- Would this solution help my department to be more efficient?
- Would this solution support my firm in different markets?
- Is this solution future-proof?
- If implement this solution would my department have more pain or gain?
Set up your partnership
Finally, choose a vendor with technical and industry expertise. A vendor that understands regulatory fast changes and is committed to updating their product accordingly.
Make sure the software has a simple, modern user interface to make easier for your employees to use and adapt to the software change. The new company needs to be able to provide you transparency into employees’ conduct risk profile and understand your firm approach and culture.
Are you sure your vendor understands what your priorities are? Can their solution address them?
We hope to help you on this journey!
MCO created a conduct risk compliance solution that is future-proof. We understand compliance risks and regulators' requirements. To learn how we can help your organization avoid risks and mitigate potential misconduct contact us today.
