8 Common Compliance Pain Points and How To Fix Them
Compliance is an essential part of any business, but staying compliant can be a challenging task. Many companies face common challenges, including finding up-to-date and relevant guidance, expanding into new jurisdictions, expensive legal counsel or compliance subscriptions, anticipating pending regulatory changes, and incorporating them into their businesses.
Below, we’ll explore some of the top pain points as identified by our customers and provide our recommendations on how to overcome them.
Pain-Point #1: Outdated Guidance
Regulations are constantly changing, and it can be challenging to know if you're seeing the latest version. Many popular compliance products suffer from outdated guidance, or they don’t properly notify their customers of changes. How do you know if you’re seeing the most current information?
How To Fix
Integrate a compliance tool that provides up-to-date guidance regularly and provides a clear method of identifying changes that impact your business
Verify that the information you receive is reviewed by actual humans with relevant legal expertise, and not entirely by artificial intelligence
Ensure the system will proactively alert your team, offering ample lead time to incorporate changes to your procedures
Pain-Point #2: Unreliable Results
How do you know that the results you're looking at are reliable? Did they undergo a review process? Is the product being actively maintained? Some solutions may rely too heavily on artificially generated, screen-scraped guidance, resulting in questionable levels of accuracy. Or, perhaps the product suffers from neglect and isn’t being maintained anymore.
How To Fix
Choose a product with a rigorous expert review process, ideally a multi-step one that involves experienced legal experts
Verify that you’re receiving regular updates in a convenient format and that the information you’re getting is current
Confirm that any compliance systems you incorporate receive ongoing maintenance and validation, and that the company is on a solid financial foundation
Pain-Point #3: Too Much Noise
Many systems return results that aren't customized to your business and require sifting through endless pages of irrelevant legal requirements. The time and cost required to complete this effort with in-house or external counsel can be staggering. Even then, there is still additional work required on your part to verify those results and ensure they apply to your business.
How To Fix
Implement a compliance solution capable of tailoring results specifically to your licenses, locations, and business needs
Choose a tool that allows you to apply filters and additional customizations to focus on the results that apply to you
Leverage AI-powered assistants for quick, targeted answers, but make sure to verify any results before incorporating those answers into your business decisions
Pain-Point #4: Not Easy to Build or Update
A common gripe with online compliance tools is that they can have a confusing user experience, be painfully slow to use, or make it difficult to update your results. Building comprehensive compliance reports can be hard enough without the system itself getting in your way. Furthermore, once you’ve built a report, it should be easy to change your mind and make changes on the fly or regenerate it entirely.
How To Fix
Select intuitive, automated compliance solutions that quickly generate actionable reports
Ensure that your platform is built with solid best practices and won’t result in a laggy user interface or unexpected outages
Use these tools for early research and loop in legal counsel as you progress to increase turnaround time and reduce costs
Pain-Point #5: Effortless Expansion
Acquiring new licenses and expanding into new jurisdictions is a complicated, time-consuming process. It can also be very costly, as it requires due diligence to ensure compliance with the numerous laws of the new state that likely differ wildly from other states you currently operate in. It can also take too long to obtain relevant guidance on how to operate in the new area.
How To Fix
Incorporate compliance tools that easily expand to offer tailored guidance for new jurisdictions without the need for complex configuration
Aim for products that have a flexible pricing structure and don’t nickel and dime you for every new license or jurisdiction added
Once added, the system should immediately be able to return relevant compliance results pertaining to these new variables
Pain-Point #6: Overpriced, Lengthy Contracts
Many compliance offerings lock you into pricey, bloated, or long-term contracts that are impossible to cancel. If you're going the traditional legal route, you’ll face hefty retainer contracts that put a strain on your budget. You may end up paying for features or services you're not using, and canceling can prove impossible. Some products also charge per employee, which can cause hesitation in adding your whole team and create gaps in productivity.
How To Fix
Seek flexible subscription models that offer transparent, customizable options
Prioritize solutions with straightforward pricing structures based on company size rather than employee headcount
Avoid getting locked into long-term contracts that will discourage your business from adopting emerging competitive products
Pain-Point #7: Cost of Doing Business
Legal counsel, while incredibly valuable, is also incredibly expensive. It's also not always required for compliance research tasks where a reliable, automated solution exists. Furthermore, the cost of legal counsel can be hard to absorb for mid-size and smaller companies, leading them to forego this vital service and open themselves up to immense risk.
How To Fix
Offset your legal costs by incorporating automated compliance systems that cover a wide range of product types, subject matters, and expansive criteria
Prioritize products that offer a flexible subscription model suitable for companies of all sizes
Choose a solution with backing from a trusted law firm, like Winnow, for added assurance
Pain-Point #8: Keeping Up With Changes
There can easily be over 1,000 regulatory changes in an average month, making the process of tracking them incredibly burdensome. Building an action plan to implement changes and aligning your team around this goal takes time and effort, regardless of company size. Communication can be delayed or missed, and wires can get crossed, leading to confusion or audits, and fines.
How To Fix
Opt for compliance platforms with proactive notification systems that highlight upcoming changes in an easy-to-consume manner
Ensure your team receives early, actionable updates, enabling effective preparation and response, and make sure they have a plan to act on these changes
Make sure everyone who needs to be notified of these changes is included in the systems you incorporate, and ensure that the pricing structure, or some other barrier doesn’t exist to prevent your entire team from staying in the loop
Fix The Pain Points
Each pain point discussed above can create significant issues for your business and, in severe cases, lead to penalties, lawsuits, or enforcement actions. That doesn't even include the cost of outside counsel to defend your business and reputation.
Winnow addresses these common compliance problems through its automated regulatory change management platform. It allows customers to build highly targeted state and federal law surveys that apply to their specific business needs, products, licenses, and jurisdictions they operate. Results are attorney-reviewed through a multi-step inspection process and provided in a plain-speak manner. It also sends weekly notifications that include a highlighted comparison view for pending changes. Winnow is free to try and offers flexible subscriptions based on company size, not headcount.
Schedule a demo or call (888) 488-6797 to start a free trial today!