Ignorantia juris non excusat – ignorance of the law excuses not. This ancient legal concept is more true today than ever. Compliance with laws, regulations, and standards is a precondition to be allowed to operate in many fields – the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ISO/IEC 27001, are only some examples.
Moreover, non-compliance can lead to fines, costly lawsuits, and the loss of reputation. As cyberattacks continue to grow dramatically in number and cost, every business with cyber assets must comply with more and more laws, regulations, and standards.
When appropriately managed, compliance prevents reputational and financial damage and can also contribute to business success by enhancing your organization’s efficiency and robustness. With new solutions come new problems, and a growing need for compliance management.
In this post, we will discuss the following:
- What is a compliance management system?
- Types of compliance management solutions
- The benefits of compliance management solutions
- What to look for in a compliance management system
- Top 8 compliance system management solutions for 2023
What is a compliance management system?
Compliance management refers to ensuring that all your assets and activities, such as – systems, workflow, policies, procedures, etc., are entirely aligned with relevant industry laws, regulations and standards. A compliance management system (CMS) is the system in which an organization:
- Learns about its compliance responsibilities
- Ensures that all employees and partners understand these responsibilities
- Ensures all the relevant requirements are integrated into the organization’s workflow and entire business processes
- Audits, reviews, and monitors operations to guarantee responsibilities and requirements are met
- Immediately conducts relevant corrective actions as required
- Updates relevant materials as necessary
Types of Compliance Management Solutions
Broadly speaking, compliance management solutions can be divided into three main categories –
All-purpose platforms
Generic solutions that give the user an array of tools and features for compliance management in any field and industry.
Industry-specific platforms
Platforms that are adapted to facilitate the needs of compliance management in a specific field/ industry and sector, according to specific laws, regulations, and standards such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO.
Governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) platforms
Solutions offering both generic compliance management tools and other management features such as legal governance and risk management.
6 benefits of Compliance Management Solutions
Using an effective compliance management solution has many benefits, such as:
- Enhance efficiency – using a single source of data, centralizing tasks management, and documentation can significantly increase the whole process’s efficiency.
- Improve collaboration – a good platform used by all parties and stakeholders makes communication easy and smooth and enhances collaboration.
- Increase visibility and transparency – when everything is managed in one place and can be seen in real-time, all relevant parties can constantly see the whole picture.
- Allow flexibility and quick troubleshooting – a robust central platform allows users from across the organization to immediately detect problems and thus lead to their swift resolution.
- Improve performance – efficiency, collaboration, transparency, and flexibility are translated to improved performance resulting in constant compliance.
- Reduce costs – A compliance management solution should bring automation to many processes thus, reducing working hours and costs. It also reduces the risk of human error and, therefore, the chance of financial damage from fines.
5 key features to look for in a Compliance Management System
1. Policy management
The compliance management software is the central hub where all compliance-related information and data are stored and managed. A strong solution allows easy management and updating of such information and access to all employees, ensuring they are always up-to-date on the latest compliance policies and procedures.
2. Easy to use
Like any other tool, compliance management software should be easy to install, maintain, manage, and use. It should be intuitive and give a good user experience.
3. Customizability
No two companies are the same, and compliance ranges from sector to sector and region to region. Users should be able to easily customize the tool according to the organization’s structure and compliance requirements.
4. Intuitive reporting
Constant auditing and reporting are key features in the compliance world. To achieve the best results possible intuitive reporting should be a high priority.
5. Integration and compatibility
In a world where every organization deploys countless tools from many fields, compatibility is crucial for the smooth integration of compliance management platforms with all other tools the organization uses.
Top 8 Compliance System Management Solutions for 2023
1. Qualtrax
Price
Not disclosed by the vendor.
What is Qualtrax?
Qualtrax is a quality and compliance system designed to manage and control documentation, automate business processes, workflows, training management, and internal and external audits.
Who are Qualtrax’s target customers?
It is suited for sectors that are heavily regulated by standards such as ISO 17025, 17020, 13485, and 9001, TNI, GFSI, FDA, and FQS.
Pros
- Complete control over documents, processes, workflows, testing, and training
Cons
- Lacks video tutorials/ vlogs.
- Data mining capabilities are limited.
Where is it used?
Qualtrax can be deployed on-premise or cloud-based.
“Working with Qualtrax has improved the laboratory’s ability to get documents through the system, track tasks through workflows, and improve quality. Pros: Since the implementation of Qualtrax software, my workload has decreased as well as mistakes. Cons: We have used most of the features and have not found anything I don’t like. Some of the items require some learning before use.
2. Powerdms
Price
Not disclosed by the vendor.
What is Powerdms?
PowerDMS is a compliance management solution for organizations. It is used to create, update, distribute, and track the organization’s policies, allowing you to ensure essential policies are constantly accessible by employees anytime, anywhere.
Who are Powerdms’s target customers?
It focuses on promoting safety in different industries and fields, such as healthcare, the public sector, fire safety, and law enforcement.
Pros
- It is very user-friendly.
- The user interface is well designed.
Cons
- Initial configuration can take some time.
- There is an inability to add tabs for personalization purposes.
Where is it used?
PowerDMS is cloud-based.
Customer review
“My overall experience has been really positive and I will continue to use PowerDMS for as much as I can in my role. Pros: PowerDMS makes housing documents and records really really simple and I no longer have to worry about losing a record or messing up a revision to a document, since it’s all tracked in the system. Cons: Sometimes I will create a user profile, but then not be able to find them when I search for them afterwards. It normally fixes itself in a few hours or a day, but I dont always have time to wait. Its just a glitch I believe.”
3. CybeReady
Price
Not disclosed by the vendor.
What is CybeReady?
CybeReady is a smart automatic security awareness training platform that is focused on strengthening the weakest link in your security – your employees. The platform is used to create and conduct effective security training in an engaging way. CybeReady’s platform is data-driven and has advanced automation. The platform works autonomously and measures progress with KPIs, thus improving your employee’s cyber security and compliance skills while requiring minimum effort from your cyber security and compliance teams.
Who are CybeReady’s target customers?
Enterprises of all sizes from all sectors.
Pros
- CybeReady is easy to use and highly automated, allowing employees to train with minimum effort.
- The quality of the phishing simulations is excellent; many mimic real-world attacks.
- The platform is industry agnostic and highly customized.
Where is it used?
Cybeready is cloud-based.
Customer review
“Cybeready is exactly what we needed! The whole experience has been positive from the initial sales demo through to purchase and deployment, but more importantly they have continued to be supportive and responsive to our needs and challenges. Great technology and a strong team behind the product. Given that phishing and Business Email Compromise is a threat to all businesses, Cybeready has been a great investment and I would recommend it to any business, regardless of size. I’ve used other phishing simulation and security training platforms for a number of years. They have one thing in common: they all take too much time to manage. CybeReady is just the opposite. It was so easy to configure with the help of their support engineer and we only need to log in weekly to review the stats. It truly is autonomous. The quality of the phishing simulations is excellent. Lots of variety and many of them replicate real-world attacks. The platform is very easy to use and support has been great.
4. iGrafx
Price
Not disclosed by the vendor.
What is iGrafx?
iGrafx platform is used to manage business processes, customer satisfaction, and compliance, both in terms of international healthcare and environmental standards, and the organization’s internal standards and local legal risk management guidelines.
Who are iGrafx’s target customers?
iGrafx can help assure compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley act (SOX), HIPAA, PCI DSS, ISO, and GDPR.
Pros
- The software is very intuitive to use.
- There is flexibility with how to document your processes.
Cons
- Need more customized features and process modules
- The symbol library is pretty limited.
Where is it used?
It can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud.
Customer review
“I mostly use igrafx for business process modelling. For that it’s very good and it’s quick to develop a workflow chart. Pros: I like the functionality, good graphics and easy to develop relatively simple diagrams – especially for business process modelling. Cons: The symbol library is pretty limited, e.g. hard to find right symbols for electrical diagrams. Process modeling is fairly complex and the help features are a bit limited.”
5. Polar Security
Price
Not disclosed by the vendor.
What is Polar?
Polar Security’s platform is an automatic cloud storage security and compliance management system. It automatically conducts data discovery and continuously follows, classifies, labels, and maps all of your data, including data shadows. Polar’s advanced automatic mapping allows you to detect known and unknown sensitive data vulnerabilities and use this information to optimize security resource deployment and enable real-time data security and compliance.
Who are Polar’s target customers?
Organizations of all sizes from all sectors.
Pros
- Automatic mapping detects all data, including data shadows.
Where is it used?
Polar’s platform is cloud-based.
6. Apptega
Price
Not disclosed by the vendor.
What is Apptega?
Apptega is a compliance software aimed to help businesses of all sizes in cybersecurity and compliance management. It can automate compliance, help in project management, monitor program performance, assist in audits, and strengthen cybersecurity.
Who are Apptega’s target customers?
It can help assure compliance with laws, rules & standards such as ISO, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Systems and Organizations Controls 2 (SOC 2), PCI DSS, and GDPR.
Pros
- The risk rating system allows taking a risk-based approach to compliance.
- The reporting is very robust.
Cons
- There isn’t automation or API to pull in findings from other vendors (e.g. firewall logs, Nessus, SIEM, etc.).
- Can be a little confusing at first during the setup.
Where is it used?
Apptega’s platform is cloud-based.
Customer review
“Good. We have not had any problems. Reminders come through and we take care of them. It works nice. Pros: It has assisted us in reminding us about our scheduled tasks for our ISO 27001 responsibilities. It sends an email to our ticket system which puts it on our radar. Cons: A little confusing at first during the set up. Clunky and not knowing where to go. It all worked out though and everything seems to be going great”
7. Skillcast
Price
Skillcast has three yearly price plans: Library £ 80.30 per user; Value Package £ 91.30 per user; Enterprise Only 500+ users – customize.
What is Skillcast?
Skillcast is a cloud-based platform for learning management systems and online compliance courses. It offers compliance e-learning content development, a compliance training-oriented learning management system, and a library of tailor-made courses for the organization’s learning initiatives.
Who are Skillcast’s target customers?
Enterprises of all sizes.
Pros
- Extensive range of packages.
Cons
- The reporting features are bulky.
Where is it used?
Skillcast is cloud-based and offers readymade e-learning courses to companies in the UK and across the EU.
Customer review
“My overall experience with the software is fine. I would be interested in using it more if a company required me to do compliance training. Pros: The software is easy to use and has many features including allowing companies to manage risk and compliance courses and training. Cons: The reports could be less bulky and designed in a simpler way for better viewing, but there are many functions to use.”
8. anecdotes
Price
Not disclosed by the vendor.
What is anecdotes?
Anecdotes is a compliance OS that automatically and continuously collects and maps data from multiple systems and tools. The data is then used by several applications for compliance needs such as audit management, risk analysis, policies, customer evidence, etc.
Who are anecdotes’ target customers?
Enterprises of all sizes.
Pros
- A very clean and navigable UI.
- Integrations with many popular SaaS apps.
Cons
- Does not have security awareness training built into its platform.
- Some features like the risk manager can’t be designed manually.
Where is it used?
It can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud.
Customer review
“Using the connectors according to the customer’s usage helps a lot to automatically collect SOC2 evidence…Some features like the risk manager can’t be designed manually and I can’t use risk score methodology other than the basic…When I tag evidence, Anecdotes automatically refer to all the related controls.”
Keep your company compliant with CybeReady
There are three guiding principles to keep your compliance management system up to scratch:
- Learning about compliance requirements and responsibilities, and constantly following updates
- Ensuring that all employees understand and integrate these updates into the organization’s workflow
- Conducting regular audits, reviews, monitoring, and corrective actions when needed
In other words, continuous, regular, and effective compliance training of your employees, is essential to compliance management success. Contact CybeReady today to improve your compliance, using our employee training program.
