Essentials of Enterprise Compliance

Chapter 3. A Framework for Governance

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• Describe a well-articulated compliance framework.

• Articulate actions that will enable and support compliance within the enterprise.

• Understand the concept of integrating compliance into the "way we work."

• Review the guidelines for compliance models.

• Weigh the benefits of different models.

Introduction

It is difficult enough to meet local requirements, but when your workforce is scattered across the globe, the challenge can be overwhelming. As the work environment goes global, it can become a serious part of the information manager's job to ensure compliance across a global network. To minimize the impact on productivity, information-centric workers (I-workers) require compliance-related tasks built into their day-to-day business processes, allowing them to utilize the applications they already use on a daily basis to ensure that they are compliant. Working locally but thinking globally is a reality today.

Recalling our earlier discussion on the risk-compliance-mitigation relationship, the greatest and most difficult risk to mitigate is ignorance (see Exhibit 3.1)—not of the work to be accomplished but ignorance of an ever-increasing set of business rules that ensure compliance and security.

Figure 3.1. Risk-Compliance-Mitigation

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