Mastering Compliance: Own Your Data, Own Your Success - Episode 196

On this episode of "Compliance Unfiltered," The CU Guys dive into the intricacies of compliance management programs. They explore various implementation approaches, from manual spreadsheets to sophisticated systems, and discuss the importance of organizations owning their data. Adam shares insights on the potential pitfalls of relying solely on assessor systems and emphasizes the efficiencies gained by leveraging internal systems. Check out this episode to discover how to streamline your compliance processes and make your organization's compliance journey more efficient and effective.

Episode Transcript:

Well, I mean, in some cases, they're using their own compliance management solutions. And in other cases, there's many that just opt for the good old-fashioned spreadsheet and using some type of a completely manual approach with network drops or share points as a typical inclusion, et cetera.

You know, some people are kind of cobbling together their own series of internal tools and manual processes that they've kind of put together, depending on who's running the program over the years and whatnot. Well, you know, you've got other organizations that, you know, they'll simply just use their assessor-provided systems with the notion that, well, we need to get all the stuff in there anyway, so we'll just use their system, you know, type of a thing. So it's kind of a mixed bag would be a good way to go about putting it.

Sounds that way now you like to say that an organization that an organization needs to own their own data What do you mean by that? And why is it important?

Well, you know, you've got these folks that, you know, that do use their assessor systems, right? And the downside of that is that, you know, it's on the organization to make their own program efficient, effective, work for them, you know, things along those lines.

And, you know, the reality is that, you know, depending on various circumstances, things change over time, you know, you may have, you may have, you know, there was a particular firm that you were leveraging and a particular person at that firm that you used, and they moved on, they retired, they got promoted, you know, I've seen it all. They got bought out, they went out of business, you know, things along those lines, maybe the relationship with whoever is your currently assigned point person this year isn't as good as they were in years gone by. It could be the same person they've just changed. It could be that you've had some type of personnel shift, you know, things along those lines. You know, one of the things that we'll see a fair amount is, you know, organizations that are basically getting bought out, right, and organizations getting scooped up and folded into another gigantic barhemoth, you know, type of thing. And so the relationship you used to have and the pricing you used to have isn't the same as it used to be. So, you know, the reality is that things change, you know, all over the board. And so, you know, when you've got these modifications to, you know, to the players that are involved in your compliance program, you know, overall, then, you know, if your systems, quote, unquote, if your, quote, unquote, systems were dependent on, you know, this other third party and now something's happened with said third party, well, now what are you left with? You know, you're not left with anything. So, you know, it's part of the reason why, you know, I say that, you know, the organization subject to compliance at the end of the day, you know, it's on them to, you know, have the repository for their own information, for their own data, so they, you know, got it in a way that works for them. That's the most important, you know, element for, you know, for these companies. They need to be able to kind of depend on having their own way of doing things and then, you know, figuring out a way to interface with, you know, with the various third parties that they've got to go and interact with.