Presented by Laika
Compliance is the foundation that organizations need to grow organically, build trust with customers and partners and increase the bottom line. In this VB On-Demand event, you’ll learn how to get started on your compliance journey – and turn it into a competitive advantage.
“Any compliance effort, regardless of certification, isn’t a compliance department issue or an HR issue or a technical issue — it becomes a business issue,” said JP Higgins, chief of operations at Trellis, at a recent VB On-Ask webinar event.
Higgins talked to Cristina Bartolacci, strategic compliance architect at Laika, about why compliance is critical for organizations today—not just as a way to mitigate risk, but as a competitive differentiator and a foundation for growth. Compliance is about making sure a company is up to date in every certification process, improving its security posture and setting up the organization to move forward as it matures.
“Compliance is actually operational excellence,” Higgins explains. “These are not random things that the government or some departmental organizations are trying to do because they think it will make their lives harder.”
Compliance is an ongoing, living process, he also noted. When the process kicks in, it requires some heavy lifting from various stakeholders across the organization, but it’s not a one-time effort. And it’s vital that the entire organization not only understands that, but understands the objectives of a compliance effort, what the business value is, and most importantly, what is expected of them.
“It’s critical to pool resources from multiple different departments,” Higgins said. “For us as a startup, there is no one without a job, right? Getting space on the roadmap for any type of compliance-related activity means competing against multiple other priorities.”
Messages from senior leadership about how critical compliance is and committing resources to the cause is very important otherwise it becomes a very difficult, painful process, especially the first time through, he said.
“I’ve seen programs stall or lose progress or lose momentum if you don’t have the C-level buy-in or management-level buy-in,” agrees Bartolacci. It really sets the tone around such a critical part of growing and scaling a business.”
“The most successful companies are the ones that have this mindset,” Bartolacci added. “The ongoing maintenance is huge, but especially for the early builders of compliance programs or security posture. You really have to make sure it’s at the very top of the ladder, all the way to the bottom. Everyone will be involved in one way or another to make sure the program runs like a well-oiled machine, as it cannot fall on just one person to achieve the company-wide goal across the board.”
Once the mission and value of the program has been sold to the organization as a management objective, the best technical place to start is with a foundation of policy, she said. Policies cover everything from your information security policies, which govern change management processes, all the way to the organization of people, to the more technical side, such as software development lifecycles, data classification, and sensitivity. From there, procedures are how to implement these policies, and controls are the individual action items that comprise these procedures and more policies.
“If you shift your mindset from compliance as something that is added to your organization, to something that improves the operational excellence of the organization, it becomes a lot more enjoyable,” Higgins said. “All the controls and policies start to make a lot more sense because you realize it’s actually improving the business. It enables the company to grow and scale securely.”
For the full conversation, including insight into key best practices and procedures, the technology essential to a seamless compliance strategy from the start, and more, don’t miss this VB On-Demand event!
agenda
- Demystifying policies, standards and controls in a company’s compliance journey
- Things to consider when setting up a compliance program
- Overcoming the Barriers to Success in Attestation and Certification
- Filling the gaps and tackling the most difficult controls and policies to implement
- Insights gained from real-world “wish I had known this when I started” moments
presenters
- JP HigginsHead of Operations, Trellis
- Cristina BartolaccicStrategic Compliance Architect, Laika
- Chris J. PreimesbergerModerator, Venture Beat
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