Advantages of Compliance Consulting Services
Today’s business is faced with a slew of regulatory compliance requirements and with each of those regulations comes the potential of non-compliance — a risk management challenge that can seem overwhelming due to the sheer volume of the compliance requirements.
Regulatory compliance can impact virtually any and every aspect of a company and its operations. There’s a company’s environmental impact. Its social impact. It’s public image. Its adherence to laws and other requirements. Its policies and practices and their alignment with today’s ethical and social standards. A company’s ethical standards. These are just a few areas that are impacted by regulatory compliance.
Fortunately, this is precisely where compliance services can prove beneficial. Regulatory compliance consulting services can identify potential problem areas, and develop strategies for avoiding non-compliance and the negative consequences that result.
Compliance Consulting Services Help Companies Avoid Non-Compliance Fines and Penalties
Regulatory non-compliance can be absolutely devastating to a company and its ability to remain profitable well into the future. A single fine or penalty from a regulator can cause irreparable damage to a company’s financial situation. Take the case of JPMorgan, which saw fines totaling $200 million from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amongst others, after the company admitted to allowing its employees to use WhatsApp to communicate with clients. This usage of a messaging app violated recordkeeping requirements, leading to non-compliance and costly fines.
Another example can be found in the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR, which impacts any organization that does business with an EU citizen. A GDPR fine can total as much as €10 million or 2% of the company’s global annual revenue — whichever figure happens to be greater.
Compliance consulting service providers are adept at identifying which laws and regulations hold the potential to cause compliance issues for an organization. Then, they can work to develop strategies, deploy action plans and implement software and other tools that a company can use to achieve and maintain compliance.
Consulting on Public Relations for Regulatory Non-Compliance
In addition to fines and penalties, business leaders must now consider other adverse impacts such as public relations as they consider compliance and risk management as a whole. Regulatory non-compliance can lead to tremendous damage to the image of a company and its brand identity. Sales can plummet. Partnerships and collaborations are canceled. Current and prospective investors may be scared away. A brand may be “canceled” on social media. News headlines, negative press, and online content can damage a company’s reputation for years.
Legal or regulatory non-compliance can translate into a public relations nightmare that may spell the end for a business or brand. Compliance consulting services have the ability to help an organization avoid this fate by developing a plan that can be deployed in the event that an unexpected and potentially-damaging incidence of non-compliance arises.
The top compliance consulting firms have public relations experts on-staff who can aid in the development of a PR strategy as part of the company’s risk management plan. By implementing measures to ensure across-the-board regulatory compliance, while also developing a PR “clean up” and contingency plan, a company greatly reduces its chances of seeing an event that causes it to close its doors.
Compliance Consulting for Risk Management Strategy Development
Regulatory compliance — or lack thereof — is, at its core, a risk management issue. In fact, it could be argued that there are few risks that are more serious than those that are associated with legal and regulatory compliance. Non-compliance issues can easily cause a company to close its doors, whether it’s due to a tremendous monetary fine, highly-damaging negative press or a drop-off in investors.
The most effective regulatory compliance strategies are integrated as a key component of a company’s overarching risk management strategy. But achieving true integration can be tremendously challenging, especially when you consider how regulatory compliance impacts virtually every aspect of a company, its leadership, its employees, and its operations.
An experienced compliance and risk management consultant can work with a company to evaluate its current risk management strategy to identify areas where legal and regulatory compliance ought to be addressed. By integrating compliance-friendly elements within your company’s risk management strategy, you dramatically increase the chances of avoiding costly non-compliance issues.
Additionally, on a related note, policy and procedure evaluation is another one of the advantages of compliance consulting services. The best consultants will also evaluate a company’s policies, procedures, and other employee-facing and operationally-related documents for issues that may lead to non-compliance. If any problem areas are identified, the consultant can guide the process of making the necessary compliance-friendly modifications.
Once those policies and procedures are updated, your compliance consultant can work to develop a plan for informing everyone of the changes. After all, there is little use in taking the time to develop a new policy if nobody knows about it or how to apply it to their daily tasks. An experienced consultant will have a great strategy for spreading the word about a company’s new compliance-friendly policies and procedures.
New Technology Deployments as One of the Advantages of Compliance Consulting Services
Regulatory compliance often entails data collection and data reporting — measures that require the right technology and software in order to succeed. But the options are many and varied, resulting in a significant challenge. There are also risk management software systems that are used to achieve and maintain regulatory compliance. But again, there are many options and features to consider, leaving many business leaders overwhelmed or apt to select a platform that simply won’t meet their needs.
The best compliance consulting service providers will have the ability to help you identify the best technology for your reporting, risk management, and data management needs.
In fact, data management solutions and risk management software systems are amongst iTech’s specialties. The iTech team develops innovative enterprise risk management solutions, ranging from risk management software and data management solutions, to specialized enterprise platforms that are architected to meet a client’s exact needs. Contact iTech today to discuss your regulatory compliance and risk management plans and we’ll help identify the best technology to help your organization to achieve and maintain full regulatory compliance.