Streamlining the Regulatory Change Management Process

Implementing the updates required when regulations change is often an inefficient process for organizations. The nature of the process tends to create a lot of redundancies and inefficiencies. However, the entire process can be streamlined more quickly and accurately with greater efficiencies if the change management plan is assisted by automated governance solutions. Such solutions can eliminate the chaos inherent to enterprise-wide projects and bring order to the way different teams and departments collaborate.

The Complications of Implementing Changes

Regulatory change management is difficult for businesses to accomplish efficiently because it involves multiple departments collaborating with each other through inefficient communication mediums. Major regulatory changes often occur when there is a major change in the shape of the economy. Most of the major regulatory changes have been made when the economy was vulnerable due to different problems – ranging from accounting scandals in major firms to global events and disasters.

That is why businesses are so focused on regulatory change management right now; the pandemic in 2020 has changed the way the economy operates. The federal and local governments may introduce new legislation to ensure the economy runs smoothly and quickly recovers from the financial shocks it has underwent over the past year.

Whenever major regulatory updates occur, risk and compliance team must work with the rest of the organization, implementing changes in policies and processes to ensure that everything is compliant with the upcoming regulations and all new risks related to them have been managed. This means that the change management plan must account for all the changes required across the enterprise. It is easy for things to get chaotic when there are hundreds of different changes being implemented, trainings being given, and processes being reworked with new requirement across the organization. It becomes difficult to get a sense of the overall progress being made in managing the changes. The lack of visibility into the work being done across the organization also increases chances of mistakes being made.

Simplifying Management and Enabling Visibility

Regulatory change management software make it easier for businesses to implement change management plans by automating the governance of the overall project. Many of the activities in the process depend on other activities. Teams must continuously stay in touch through email threads, sending and requesting updates, and then collecting information about what has been done and what remains to be done. Regulatory Change Management (RCM) solutions eliminate these efficiencies by providing a platform where all parties can collaborate.

Instead of delivering the requirements through email, the management assigns tasks through the RCM platform. Each department gets its own tasks that need to be completed, ranging from risk and control assessments to changing processes and policies. The risk and compliance teams can access all such tasks throughout the organization, providing details and guidance wherever needed. Executive management receives a bird’s eye view of progress, providing the visibility required to ensure that the process is running efficiently.

Instead of relying on email communication, the RCM platform automatically sends notifications about updates and task progression to all stakeholders, making it easier for everyone to understand what others are doing. This has a profound effect on collaboration across the enterprise; everyone understands what is expected from them and whom to contact if they need any help or information. Instead of having to request information, the information is automatically pushed to where it is needed when it is uploaded to the platform.

The Advantages of Automation in Governance

RCM platforms can deliver such significant improvements in the regulatory change management process because they offload tasks onto technology. RCM solutions are designed with a simple objective: automate everything that computers can do, so the experts in the organization have more time to spend benefiting the organization through their expertise. Regulatory experts do not have to spend most of their time managing multiple email threads and spreadsheets to track how everything is going – the system does that. The regulatory experts can instead spend most of their time helping the rest of the organization understand the upcoming changes and what will need to be different from now on.

This is also why regulatory tech is often a more viable option for increasing risk and compliance process than increasing the size of risk and compliance teams. The technology automates some of the most time-intensive administrative processes, giving risk and compliance teams free time to focus on strategic risk management and improved compliance levels. Regtech solutions are rapidly evolving as well; adding new features and reporting functionality to help businesses manage regulatory changes better.

Interested in seeing how Regtech can help your organization improve the way it manages regulatory changes in 2021 and beyond? Sign up for our webinar: Regulatory Change Management: What Lies Ahead in 2021 on January 28, 20121 to discover what changes experts expect in 2021 and how businesses can manage them more effectively.