Essentials of Enterprise Compliance

Part I. Introduction

After reading this book, you will be able to:

• Appreciate the value of establishing a unified and holistic governance and compliance framework.

• Better understand the relationship between governance and compliance.

• Develop a global vision of enterprise governance and compliance.

• Deepen your understanding of the major terms, concepts, and objectives of enterprise governance and compliance in the public and commercial sectors.

Governance is an expression of the stakeholder vision that serves to guide the operation of the enterprise. Governance policy can be envisioned as the core of a series of interlocking circles that form the foundation of successful enterprise. Compliance, revolving tightly around governance, is linked closely to data, security, quality, operational excellence, and financial transparency, which in turn connects to the broader issues of records and data management, accessibility, and intellectual capital security. You may immediately recognize these as the same relationships as those that are required for successful business management.

In the information-centric economy, without governance and compliance rules the enterprise would focus solely on the efficient and effective delivery of information without concern for the asset value or security of the deliverable. It is the role of governance policy to set constraints on this flow to secure not only ...