It stands to reason that bigger organisations have more resources than mid-market firms. They have bigger budgets for different business functions, such as marketing, IT or compliance, and can employ more people to work in those functions.
They can also afford to equip those employees with the best and most effective technologies, such as the latest GRC tools for the compliance team. It’s easy then, for mid-market firms to feel that it is hard to compete with larger organisations. They don’t have the same resources with which to approach certain business tasks, so why should they try and make it a priority?
But having bigger budgets doesn’t always mean that something is going to be done better. And there are certain business functions – compliance is a powerful example – that simply cannot be skated over. Compliance regulation applies as much to mid-sized businesses as it does larger firms, and the penalties for non-compliance are just as severe.
The importance of compliance
Addressing compliance, via a standalone compliance team or as part of an integrated GRC function is essential. The penalties for non-compliance have got greater over the past decade and there are long-terms repercussions for any company found to be non-compliant with important regulation.
Would customers really want to use the services of a firm that has been fined for non-compliance with GDPR, showing itself to be negligent with its customers data? Perhaps, but if there was a similar company that had shown itself to look after customer data, then it would be a clear and easy choice.
Would an investor be likely to invest in a company that had been ordered to temporarily stop trading, because of compliance issues? They still might, but it could also easily be a significant black mark against that company.
The point is that compliance is essential. It shows that you are a well-run company and that you care about doing business in a transparent and ethical way. This is important for mid-sized firms too, yet compliance comes in many different forms.
The main compliance requirements
To demonstrate that it is compliant, an organisation must do much more than it did 10-15 years ago. There is such a large volume of compliance legislation now, with such demanding requirements, that it can feel like a major task to address all of it.
This is why mid-sized firms can feel that the demands are more onerous on them, lacking as they do the resources to juggle all the myriad requirements. There’s broader, data-based compliance such as GDPR – these types can be local, national or even international. There’s also a whole host of industry-specific compliance, as the nature of risks varies so much from sector to sector.
There are even many different organisations responsible for setting compliance requirements. Sometimes this might be a national government, at others it might be a union of different countries, such as the EU. There are also industry bodies that set regulation – the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) develops and publishes international standards such as ISO 9000 for quality management, that are not enforced by governments.
It’s a highly complex regulatory environment, but it’s one that with the right GRC software and a modern approach to compliance, any organisation can navigate its way smoothly through.
The right (GRC) tools for the job
Compliance software comes in a wide variety of types and options. But by far the most effective is as part of an integrated governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) platform. These are highly innovative tools which allow a company to define, manage, and implement policies across business functions, and to protect itself against a range of risks and threats.
With many GRC software vendors, choosing the right GRC tool is an important decision, but the nature of modern compliance is such that it requires a modern GRC software solution to manage it effectively. Whichever GRC tool a company uses, it needs to be digital and it needs to be continuous. Compliance doesn’t begin and end at a fixed point, rather it is something that runs and runs, so a GRC solution that can do the same is essential.
That’s why Oxial’s sGRC solutions are such an attractive proposition for mid-market firms wanting to manage their compliance requirements. It is an affordable option, with flexible pricing options, but it also offers features and functionality that really set it apart in the market.
Risk is varied and plentiful in 2019 (including the risk of regulatory non-compliance), but sGRC protects an organisation against those risks, integrating technology and innovation, knowledge, governance and processes, culture and capabilities to mitigate risk effectively. It does so in a way that means mid-market companies can be 100% confident that they are compliant with a range of different regulations, and are also managing and mitigating other risks that the business is facing.
Oxial’s sGRC comes in two cutting-edge solutions, the sGRC Express and sGRC Suite, both tailored to an organisation’s specific needs. If you are interested in managing your compliance as part of a broader GRC strategy, then please get in touch with us here.
