Our compliance programs aim to reduce risks, empower companies, and boost standards and collaborations across organizations.
Ms. Bhawna Kumari, President, The Mobile Association
It is well known that compliances reduce risks and cover loopholes and ensure that almost every aspect of the product is safe, secure, and is in line with the guidelines or acts which are enacted by the Government in the big interest of its citizens. Yet, the very reason that simply adhering to the word compliance makes many organizations nervous, it may be due to an organization’s culture, rumored misperceptions, or simply a lack of understanding of the compliance program structure.
Catch up early: When designing, and developing the product, the knowledge, and understanding of the existing and upcoming standards along with country-specific rules or acts should be integrated into the products or the process to have a compliance-ready product from birth.
Digital-enabled compliance: Digital data-driven compliance programs are becoming more and more prevalent as the cost of managing digital banks internally has significantly reduced with many off the shelf cloud solutions offering digital plug and play approach in managing the compliance programs of the product while connecting to the organization’s internal systems responsible for the lifecycle of the product. These digital data banks offer customized dashboards offering a clear line of sight into evolving products vis-à-vis current & upcoming standards, acts, and guidelines. The product designers and enablers can check and cross them and make better decisions keeping the product digitally fit for compliance documentation, testing, and registrations at the latter stage.
Audit Ready Steady & Go: Planning for regulatory shifts from the inception will increase the lines of defenses, help understand various principles and frameworks of the upcoming conformance program. Relying on lean digital fitness will navigate the product transformation into always healthy on time, within budget, and above compliance requirements.
With each new regulatory compliance put in place, many layers have to be dissected so that the one-size-fits-all approach to compliance program has a pull not a push-down approach. The technical consultants, compliance officers and regulatory administrators often have a tug of war to ensure the regulations are not infected by the loopholes. The strenuous onus of responsibilities is shared between the organization and the team of technical consultants with the final burden of proof on the product’s test lab to establish if the product meets the conformity.
The Four Digital Best Practices for a Fast and Effective Compliances
Digitally Fitness Transformation: Start the digitally fit transformation of your product. Keep all the lifecycle documents including design, technical, patents, standards and conformance documents in a digital locker bank of your organization. If you don’t have one, get one. Technology is rapidly increasing you don’t want to be left behind.
Hybrid Model – Train and Adapt: Train and Adapt to the digital fit transformation. Communicate, train, re-train and literally imbibe the digital fit thinking into your organization’s employee’s daily routines. Storing data in email is a passé. Good Digital habits take time but once developed, it heals organization’s manual wounds.Having the right people in place to manage the compliance process can make a big difference in creating a positive compliance culture as well.
Designate Compliance Ambassadors: Designate key individuals who are the ambassadors having in-depth knowledge of standards, acts, procedures and guidelines. They are the window of the organization into and out to the world of compliances and regulations. Technical consultants can guide them on the prevalent compliance laws and the upcoming conformance standards creating guidelines gist of these dynamic regulations. The Government compliance officers can also count on them to be the key personnel of authority with inroads to the management.
Monitor, Test, and Audit: Monitor, Test, and Audit the important documents, do the same for the product ensuring it meets the regulatory conformance in the space of functionality, safety, security, data, and performance. The key is to have it done by a separate neutral team or an outside autonomous laboratory that can bridge the gap between the expected and the actual behavior of the product prior to the actual scrutiny leading to compliance registration. The anomalies then can be eliminated prior to submissions.
People are intimately connected to Products; Products are strongly influenced by Technology; Technology is adapted by Standards; and lastly, Standards are mandated by Compliances. That’s the reason Compliance Programs aim for the ultimate benefits of its digital citizens.
