Compliance refers to an organization's adherence to laws, regulations, guidelines, and specifications relevant to its business. Effective compliance is critical for several reasons. Remaining compliant avoids fines, lawsuits, and penalties for noncompliance that can damage a company's finances and reputation. It also builds trust with regulators, customers, and stakeholders, as well as promoting ethical business practices and responsible corporate citizenship. And finally, compliance minimizes business risks while enhancing efficiency, quality, and competitiveness.
However, in a highly regulated business environment, compliance costs can quickly spiral out of control. Fortunately, by leveraging intelligent automation, companies can significantly reduce compliance spending without sacrificing regulatory obligations. This article provides practical recommendations on how to cut compliance costs through automation.
Conduct Process Discovery to Identify Automation Opportunities
The first step is process discovery - analyzing current compliance procedures to pinpoint where intelligent automation can drive efficiency. Focus on high-volume, repetitive tasks with clear rules that are prone to human error. Common areas include client onboarding, transaction monitoring, and report generation. Workshops, process maps, and employee interviews often provide visibility into automation potential. Maintain an inventory of compliance workflows and prioritize by cost-saving opportunity.
Implement Robotic Process Automation for Repetitive Compliance Tasks
One of the biggest automation opportunities lies in robotic process automation (RPA). Software bots can be easily configured to carry out repetitive, manual compliance activities according to predefined rules. RPA is ideal for high-volume tasks like customer screening, transaction verification, and filing regulatory reports. Start with a pilot project in one compliance area before expanding RPA across multiple processes. Appoint bot managers to monitor performance and results.
Utilize AI for More Complex Compliance Activities
While RPA handles structured data tasks, artificial intelligence excels at unstructured data like emails, texts, and voice. Natural language processing and machine learning can review contracts for prohibited terms or analyze employee communications for policy violations. Compliance automation powered by AI can also identify patterns and anomalies to detect potential fraud and misconduct. Evaluate AI solutions specializing in communication monitoring, document review, and data analysis.
Integrate Automation into Existing Compliance Systems
To maximize efficiency, integrate automation directly into existing compliance systems like infosec, case management platforms and reporting tools. RPA software with built-in integration capabilities makes it easier to embed bots that trigger processes directly in target applications. APIs also allow AI systems to feed outputs directly into compliance databases and intelligence engines. With tight integration, compliance insights and alerts can automatically trigger smart bots to initiate necessary actions.
Implement Centralized Governance and Change Management
Intelligent automation represents a major change to compliance operations. Strong change management and governance ensures smooth implementation while maximizing ROI. Appoint automation leaders to oversee strategy, governance, and skills development. Centralized bot management technology provides control over automation deployments from a single dashboard. Ongoing performance tracking gives visibility into cost savings, productivity, and accuracy. Finally, upskill staff via training in automation design, bot management, analytics, and AI.
In some industries, compliance isn’t a choice, but compliance automation solutions like Thoropass make it easier.
By approaching intelligent automation strategically, businesses can transform compliance from a cost center to an engine for business value. Automating repetitive, manual processes reduces costs while increasing quality and speed. The result is lower compliance risk and improved competitive advantage.
With the proper strategy and governance, intelligent automation delivers rapid compliance optimization and cost reduction.