There used to be a time when compliance was treated as a secondary business function. Today, however, organisations and leadership have come to recognise that they need to keep abreast of the latest regulatory requirements in their field of operations, as the risk of non-compliance can have significant business and personal consequences. These far outweigh the cost and hassle of having a compliance culture.
While the task of keeping up with regulatory requirements across all sectors has not only evolved into a significant organisational function, it also requires an entire team of compliance and legal professionals to fulfil its workload. These teams are either based internally or outsourced to expensive regulators.
Despite support from the organisation’s leadership, the rapid evolution of regulatory compliance means that many compliance teams experience a host of challenges while trying to keep up. New areas of compliance that emerge add to the strain, often leaving compliance teams feeling overwhelmed.
The compliance function comprises several steps, which begin with identifying the relevant compliance obligations, then managing them against regulation. The next step involves updating internal policies and the last step is to ensure that the updated policies are understood and properly implanted internally. Each of these steps is time consuming and presents challenges, according to Mark Andersen, operations manager for LexisNexis Compliance. “We often chat to compliance officers about their day-to-day experiences and many of them indicate feeling overwhelmed at times,” said Andersen.
One client explained that her team’s compliance activities were operated manually. They were required to read through legislation and identify and isolate the sections with compliance obligations. They then wrote the Acts out in plain language, compiled a checklist and listed the implications of non-compliance before internal dissemination. That was until they were introduced to LexisAssure, an online automated compliance solution, which she described as “every compliance officer’s dream”.
“With such a lengthy process, undertaken by many organisations, we sought to improve the compliance process as we recognised that what companies really want is to spend the minimum amount of time, effort and budget in remaining compliant,” said Andersen. “The idea was to keep everything in one place so that it would save compliance teams time and improve their operational efficiency.”
LexisAssure makes keeping up with regulatory changes easy, as it delivers daily email alerts, meaningful analysis and compliance calendars that help users track and respond to relevant changes.
It helps compliance officers evade the pressure and overwhelming task of manually keeping up with changes. Users are kept abreast of regulations so they can determine their compliance obligations within the context of their own industry.
“A valuable feature for businesses is that the alerts contain risk ratings as well as details on the penalties for non-compliance. This enables compliance officers to prioritise operational changes with the big picture in mind,” says Andersen.
Another valuable feature is the practical advice users get from a team of experts that assist in interpreting the changes and their effect on the business. The solution’s useful Compliance Calendar ensures that users don’t forget about important effective dates of legislation, regulations and penalties affecting their regulatory universe.
LexisAssure is part of the MyLexisNexis portfolio of legal research and digital products. It also integrates with LexisNexis Practical Guidance to deliver a robust collection of case law commentaries, precedents and checklists. With a professional team of experts and its comprehensive database of subject matter, LexisAssure takes the pressure off seeking and interpreting information and helps ensure 100 percent compliance.
