The difficulties of complying with regulations aren't going away; however, there is vast opportunity for organizations to gain competitive advantage by developing the right information technology infrastructure, policies and processes.

Companies looking to stay off the compliance hot seat should develop a repeatable compliance framework, a centralized control mechanism and a top-down organizational structure to implement compliance procedures across the organization. Doing so can help organizations respond to requirements in a faster, more flexible manner.

Companies that treat compliance as a one-time project, on the other hand, may spend up to 10 times more on IT-related measures than for those who take a proactive and integrated approach, according to research firm Gartner.

As threats of accounting scandals, terrorist attacks and data breaches multiply, the importance of laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA is more apparent than ever. Accordingly, the executive suite is becoming more involved with compliance strategy and is demanding increased oversight.

Despite this increased urgency, however, many companies still tackle compliance only when they need to meet a requirement by a certain deadline or avoid lawsuits. Smart companies see an opportunity to build a service-oriented architecture (SOA) as an IT backbone to assess the effect of compliance on business processes and develop a unified approach to replace manual siloed processes.

Employing a Centralized Control Framework
Rather than addressing individual requirements, leading organizations are looking at a centralized control infrastructure based on SOA to manage critical business processes.

To build this framework, the first challenge is the collection and analysis of compliance data that is captured across different repositories within an organization in a consistent, reliable and predictable manner. This can be exacerbated by the relentless deluge of data.

Organizations then have the difficult task of managing the enormous amounts of data effectively and making sense of the information they have collected over the years. They continue to struggle with locating and governing data, determining its worth, classifying risks and identifying whether they have adequate control measures in place. Further, many companies aren't sure how to measure progress around these problems.

Not having an adequate method of governing and measuring data puts the organization at risk. For example, to achieve compliance, organizations should be cognizant of the business impact of an IT outage and have real-time data to assess the availability of mission-critical business capabilities.

Having a centralized control framework allows companies to effectively implement policies while providing a linkage to business controls, including controls over financial reporting. It helps protect sensitive information from unauthorized disclosure, safeguards the accuracy and completeness of information, ensures that information and vital IT services are available when required, and provides information and services with a high level of efficiency.