The administration of business continuity and information security in times of digital transformation is mandatory for risk management and compliance. These two concerns are crucial for companies to remain modern, stable and healthy in the market, with an internal alignment adjusted to the best protection practices.
These concepts are similar and, therefore, can be confused. In this sense, the ideal is to learn what each one implies and understand how they work together. In addition, to ensure this stability and protection for all layers, the company needs to know how to get outside help and the importance of it.
If you want to know the subject in depth, follow all the topics that we will develop below.
What is risk management and compliance?
Let's start by clarifying the definitions. Risk management is a reorganization of the company to deal with uncertainties and threats to the development of internal projects and processes. That is, it is a way of allocating resources efficiently, considering the main dangers that can interrupt activities and generate losses.
Management begins with the identification of these unforeseen events, which makes the company understand what are the specific dangers for each context. They can be environmental, physical, financial, digital and even caused by people working in the environment.
Then, management proceeds to the assessment phase of these threats, with the determination of the level of impact of each one. In this way, it is possible to separate risks and classify them according to the degree of consequence they generate. After all, they are not all the same and should not be treated like this.
Based on this, the internal team is able to define contingency actions for each of the hazards, with the definition of priority for major problems. That way, everyone will be prepared for an eventuality.
Thus, this administration is a way of balancing the goals with the dangers that oppose them. With this preventive management, teams are able to maintain productivity by mitigating these external or internal factors and execute response plans when they arise.
Compliance
Compliance, in turn, is adaptation to pre-established laws and standards. The company adjusts to comply with prescriptions and manages all systems and methods to ensure this compliance. The objective is to prevent fines, indemnities and problems with the inspection agencies.
It is important to note that compliance also includes compliance with internal rules. Thus, it is a way of standardizing processes, seeking alignment with the standards. With compliance, companies are able to combat fraud, corruption, policy inconsistencies and security vulnerabilities.
The great advantage is to establish clarity and transparency for stakeholders. In this way, the organization becomes more valuable and efficient for its customers, obtains better agreements and partnerships with interested people, as well as better credibility in the market.
Compliance is structured in three main stages: prevention, detection and correction. The first phase deals with preventive actions, which seek to prepare for the risks of non-compliance.
It also defines the creation of plans and policies to facilitate the process. Detection focuses on identifying gaps and problems that still exist, while correction is the application of punishments and adjustments to combat the lack of alignment.
What are the challenges of compliance management?
When we talk about compliance, it is interesting to explore the main challenges of this practice in companies. One is the lack of visibility. Many managers fail to have a broad view and control over the use of systems, the practices of employees, as well as the security of information as a whole.
This also includes shadow IT and a lack of control over assets. This lack of clarity undermines control and affects the organization's alignment.
Another issue is the lack of data and systems integration. Some companies still work with systems in silos, with sectors that work in isolation and communicate little with each other. Thus, it is difficult to achieve agility with joint work, as well as a vision that facilitates compliance.
It is more complicated to achieve alignment when each sector works with its rules. This isolation creates a communication bottleneck, which becomes an obstacle to compliance.
The lack of cultural support is another factor that deserves mention. In other words, for a company to apply a compliance policy and achieve good results, it is necessary to reorganize the culture and the way operations are carried out, as well as everyone's mentality.
Taking information security laws as an example, we realize this. If members and teams do not work with a culture focused on data protection and privacy control, it will be even more difficult to comply with the rules that address the issue. It will be a challenge for management to ensure this necessary alignment for compliance to happen.
Likewise, the lack of training of members on the laws also undermines compliance. If the teams do not master the principles of the prescriptions and do not know how to apply them, the adaptation effort will face greater difficulties. It is necessary to deal with this challenge using communication and clear adaptation plans.
What are the differences between risk management and compliance?
To advance the understanding of the relationship between risk control and compliance, we will examine the differences between the concepts. One is that risk management is strictly preventive.
In other words, it is a set of actions that seeks to deal with threats before they happen, in order to prepare the company for contingency situations. It is different from a corrective approach, which is only concerned with dangers when they arise.
This proactivity is also different from compliance, which is a more prescriptive strategy. Thus, the focus is to obey the rules and laws already established. While risk management works directly with the prevention of threats as an end, compliance deals with this prevention as a means to achieve adaptation to the standards.
In addition, in working with the management of possible dangers, there is a clear effort to define and detail threats, with their implications and characteristics. On the other hand, in compliance management, the view on problems is more general, with a balanced attention with a focus on the prescriptions established by higher bodies.
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