“No one is supposed to ignore the law”! This well-known legal principle guides people in society, but also companies. This already answers the question “why do we need to monitor regulations?
Indeed, the fundamental need of any company, the basis of any strategy, should be: to comply with the legal/regulatory requirements that concern my activities or the place where I operate.
In other words:
- Know the laws applicable to your business or location
- Anticipating regulatory changes
- Keep up to date with any changes in regulations or activities
- Eventually, and for more and more companies, to meet the specifications of ISO 45001, 14001, 50001, 19443, etc. standards.
Equally important are the correlated needs:
- Reducing environmental and occupational risks
- Enhancing your image
- Save time on time-consuming tasks to enhance your expertise elsewhere
- Set up a structured system to ensure compliance
Can you cope with regulations on your own?
Of course, you can decide to take care of it yourself, but you’ll need to keep an eye on the following points:
- Time: this is an extremely time-consuming task! If you drink your coffee in the morning while reading the official gazette, that’s one thing, but you also need to find out about the environmental code, the latest developments in the health and safety at work code, possibly the new requirements of the Standards if your company is in the process of ISO certification, but also the Senegalese health code if your group has a subsidiary in Dakar… in short, once you’ve listed all the requirements applicable to your company… you’re only halfway there, because now you have to think about compliance.
- The multiplication of legislative sources: as mentioned above, depending on your situation, you may need to seek information from numerous sources… information is not readily available
- Human error: unfortunately, it’s easy to forget a text or a decree in the multiplicity of information. Then, if you do achieve compliance, you’ll need a tool for tracking compliance actions to eliminate non-compliance, and finally, you’ll need to submit a report proving your compliance rate to the supervisory authorities.
The benefits of a digitized regulatory monitoring and compliance system.
In 2010, we began the adventure of creating a SaaS-based tool for regulatory intelligence. So it’s been over 14 years since we became a credible player in what is now known as “LEGAL TECH”.
In fact, this know-how has been honed year after year to become our core business today.
It rests on three pillars:
- The expertise and high added value of our engineers and lawyers in the knowledge and understanding of laws, regulations, codes, decrees, etc. Expertise first in the European corpus: French and Belgian, European Union and Swiss, then African, with a collection of texts from Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, etc. In 2025, Germany, Poland and Spain will join this fine collection.
- Efficient, intelligent structuring of text databases. An ergonomic tool begins with a structure and tree structure that meet the needs of the most demanding users. Years of experience have enabled us to refine this essential aspect, the basis on which we can then build a web application that takes into account all possible scenarios.
- Lastly, the user interface of a web application that can effectively respond to the tasks of HSE managers or site managers in charge of compliance. We’ve been managing the entire process, from specification to application development, since 2012. From the first version to the latest (NV Compliance and its NV Legal offshoot), our teams of developers ensure that we use the latest cutting-edge development technologies, while prioritizing speed and ergonomics, for an optimal user experience.
Other concrete benefits of an organized and efficient regulatory watch
- Accident reduction and safety prevention
- Preventing the risk of non-compliance: anticipating compliance deadlines and avoiding financial or administrative penalties
- Maintaining the company’s competitiveness and sustainability
- Brand image enhancement
- Data security through a complex hosting scheme
Adoption of a digitized regulatory watch system = a return on investment of less than 6 months!
For an industrial site of around 300 people, adopting a digital database system with Novallia’s expertise pays for itself in 6 months. Add to this the semi-automated follow-up of action plans, and you’ve got 2 X the time it takes to bring the site back into compliance.
Finally, HSE managers can extract all kinds of reports from the tool: the list of non-conformities at any given moment, the total percentage of compliance, future non-conformities, action plans in progress. In short, a set of consolidated reports and data to support actions and strategic decisions.
If this article has whetted your curiosity, you’ll certainly want to know more: contact us for a demonstration of our solution.