Using Tech to Streamline Compliance Efforts

Data collection and monitoring tools now make it easier to access information quickly, but only if your company has the right content management and e-communications system in place. Rather than leaving the decision as to what system would work best solely up to the IT department, compliance officers should have a say in the functionality of such systems, given the time and resources involved in following compliance protocols and e-discovery searches arising from compliance audits, internal investigations and regulatory investigations.

When the alarm goes off, your general counsel and regulatory compliance team puts the IT department on high alert: find all institutional content related to a specific issue or event, and find it fast.

Perhaps the request is in response to a claim alleging a product defect, with all documents related to product design and testing needing to be collected, including blueprints, design specs, patent applications, emails and texts between designers and outside contractors and subcontractors, as well as beta testing results. Or the request relates to alleged insider trading, employee harassment, illegal payments to a foreign partner or leaking of clinical trial results.

When these requests come to an IT department, resources must be pulled from other projects and the team has to search the company’s cloud or network of files, and in some cases, depending on where information was saved, obtain laptops from their users so individual hard drives can be reviewed. The team also might need to recall where deleted emails are stored, identify the search parameters to gather the relevant ones and determine what to do with data from users who have left the firm or work from overseas offices, which may have conflicting privacy and e-discovery rules governing the accessing and downloading of information. And perhaps more challenging is that IT staff may suddenly be exposed to sensitive, confidential information, if only to capture and manage it.

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http://www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/data-collection-fire-drill/