Using Controls Technology to Improve Compliance: The Power of Automation

Businesses are constantly challenged to maintain compliance with a growing number of laws, regulations, and industry standards. Non-compliance can bring severe consequences – financial penalties, reputational damage, and even legal ramifications to the company or individuals charged with maintaining compliance, including CISOs and Board Members. For organizations to maintain a strong compliance posture, it’s more critical than ever to move beyond outdated manual processes and embrace advanced controls technology solutions.

The Limitations of Manual Compliance

Historically, compliance management relied heavily on manual activities such as spreadsheets, checklists, and email exchanges. These are inherently slow, error-prone, and unscalable processes:

• Inefficient Data Gathering: Manual control verification typically involves gathering data from disparate systems, databases, and even paper files. This is time-consuming and potentially incomplete.
• Prone to Error: Spreadsheets and paper-based processes increase the risk of human error, whether in data entry, analysis, or the misinterpretation of regulations.
• Limited Visibility: Without centralized controls management, organizations lack comprehensive, real-time visibility into their compliance posture, jeopardizing timely responses to issues.
• Poor Audit Trails: Maintaining detailed historical records of compliance activities through manual methods is laborious and susceptible to gaps, limiting the ability to demonstrate compliance history.

Controls Technology: Transforming Compliance with Automation

Modern controls technology provides organizations with a robust, integrated platform that addresses the shortcomings of manual compliance management. Key ways automation elevates compliance efforts include:

Data Gathering and Consolidation

• Integration with Systems: Advanced technology solutions offer seamless integrations with financial systems, operational platforms, and third-party data providers. This automates data collection from various sources, streamlining the process compared to manual efforts.
• Centralized Data: Automating data collection consolidates it into a single source of truth, eliminating siloes and inconsistencies prevalent in manual methods. This central repository ensures that relevant compliance data is easily accessible and ready for analysis.

Streamlined Control Review

• Automated Testing: Rules-based controls technology enables automated testing at defined frequencies (e.g., daily, weekly). This replaces slow, periodic manual checks, increasing testing efficiency and the probability of detecting risks timely.
• Real-Time Alerts: Deviations from established controls automatically trigger alerts. This eliminates reliance on manual monitoring for issue detection, empowering organizations to respond to issues in real time and mitigating potential risks.

Faster and More Effective Remediation

• Workflow Management: Remediation processes are often hampered by disorganized paper trails or email chains. Controls technology offers clear workflow definitions, roles, and assignments, making remediation more structured and less likely to experience bottlenecks.
• Prioritization and Collaboration: The ability to assign risk severity and deadlines within an automated system streamlines remediation efforts, focusing action on areas requiring urgent attention.

Comprehensive Audit Trail

• Automatic Documentation: Controls technology systems document each step of the process, creating a tamper-proof audit trail that demonstrates compliance and pinpoints areas for improvement.
• Regulatory Mapping: Advanced solutions map data back to specific controls and regulatory requirements. This helps auditors clearly understand the organization’s compliance process and saves time during audit preparation.

Pathlock – The Future of Compliance

Modern controls technologies like Continuous Controls Monitoring from Pathlock, powered by automation and analytics, play an increasingly essential role in improving compliance for organizations of every size. Beyond efficiency, they improve effectiveness. Real-time risk insights make businesses more resilient, adaptable to changing regulations, and better positioned to manage their risk footprint in a complex world.

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