The consequences of not having a compliance DMS can be worse than what a compliance team expects. These aren’t limited to time consumption and increased need for manual effort. Thus, to spread awareness regarding them, this post focuses on telling you about the outcomes of not having an effective compliance document management system in place. Please continue reading to understand the struggles that a missing compliance DMS might make you face.

What Are the Consequences of Not Having a Compliance DMS?

The consequences of not having a compliance DMS include difficulty in managing, finding, and retrieving the documents, compliance issues, non-compliance, unclear next steps, loss of documents, high costs, lack of transparency and collaboration, poor decision-making, and lack of competitiveness.

Difficulty in Managing, Finding, and Retrieving the Documents

Managing the compliance documents without using an efficient document management system can be time-consuming and tiring. Moreover, finding a particular document will surely result in you being frustrated. Imagine having piles of unorganized files, and you have to dig deep into them to find your desired document. It would definitely eat up sufficient time of your work day.

Adobe states that a DMS with the right functionality can help you go paperless, remove waste, help the environment, minimize your stress, consolidate your space, and make your workflow highly efficient.

See how ComplyNexus can help you manage, find, and retrieve multiple file formats easily.

Compliance Problems and Non-compliance

Unmanaged compliance documents can push you into a well of compliance problems and non-compliance. Think about it this way. You have several compliance documents, but you don’t know which ones you already have, and which ones you require for compliance. In that scenario, you can either rely on assumptions, and possibly head to non-compliance, or get a DMS that saves you from it.

Also, you must know that non-compliance isn’t a single consequence. It gives birth to more consequences. So, if you ask, “What are 3 consequences of non-compliance?” The answer would be “penalties and fines, reputational damage, and jail/prison time.” The other outcomes include loss of revenue, legal processes, and disturbed organizational activities.

Moreover, when it comes to the consequences of non-compliance in healthcare, the HIPAA Journal states that patients suffer the most from non-compliance in healthcare. More than 37.5 million records were exposed in the 64,180 data breaches notified in 2021, and several of these records were or will be used to commit fraud, medical identity theft, and other scams.

No Idea About the Next Steps

No DMS means unorganized documents. In that case, do you expect to have a clear or even a blurry idea about the next steps that you need to take to achieve complete compliance? You must be shaking your head, signaling a no.

So, it’s clear that without having a DMS, you won’t be certain about the necessary steps you should take and the documents that you require. It will badly affect your decision-making process, and making uninformed decisions might lead you to more problems in the future.

Related Read: Perform compliance gap analysis using ComplyNexus.

Possible Loss of Documents

If you don’t keep track of your documents by using a DMS, the probability of losing the documents becomes high. While manually managing the documents, you won’t be able to constantly keep an eye on who is accessing the documents, extracting information from them, or using them illegally.

Furthermore, sudden natural disasters, like floods, earthquakes, or fire can misplace or ruin your documents, resulting in a huge loss for your organization. Considering the safety and security of your compliance documents, you must go for a cloud-based compliance DMS that implements fine-grained identity and access management.

High Costs

Besides the penalties and fines imposed on your organization due to non-compliance, the absence of a DMS can add up the charges spent on rental storage space – Because one day, the room where you keep all of your files will be full, and you’ll have to rent more space for storage.

Here, a cloud-based DMS seems to be a great storage option. It won’t have any storage limitations – you will be able to scale your space as per your needs.

Missing Transparency

Say that your organization has multiple branches set up around the globe. However, your compliance files are stored in the main branch. The remote compliance teams will not be able to access the compliance documents. This lack of transparency and collaboration might further result in increased compliance confusion, and eventually, non-compliance and its terrible consequences.

To improve transparency between remote compliance teams, it would be best to have a compliance DMS that facilitates smooth communication and collaboration between compliance teams at multiple sites.

Lack of Competitiveness

Without a system in place, you might find it challenging to stay updated with the new standards and policies, or any updates in the existing policies, standards, and requirements. On the other hand, your competitor might be leveraging an efficient compliance DMS – fulfilling all the necessary requirements, and achieving compliance, proving your organization less competitive, and dropping your reputation in the industry.

Let ComplyNexus always keep you informed.

FAQs

What Are the Causes of Poor Record Keeping?

Not focusing on the record management protocols, and managing your records manually are some of the causes of poor record keeping. Using an advanced document management system (DMS) can help improve the record-keeping process.

What Are the 5 Compliance Elements?

Baker McKenzie has distilled the key themes of compliance program guidance issued by authorities and regulators into five important elements of corporate compliance. The five compliance elements are risk assessment, leadership, training and communication, standards and controls, and oversight.

Conclusion

We believe that you have got the answers to the queries like what are the consequences of poor record keeping in healthcare and various industries, and the consequences of non-compliance in the workplace. Now, here is a short listicle summarizing this post:

• Managing and finding the documents becomes a tough task without using a compliance DMS.
• You will likely face compliance issues, non-compliance, lack of transparency, and loss of documents if you don’t have a compliance DMS.
• High costs and lack of competitiveness are some more consequences of not setting up a compliance DMS.
• You can’t have a clear idea about the next steps in the compliance process without having a system in place.

Remember, a compliance DMS like ComplyNexus will not cost you much and will lower your worries and stress by many folds simultaneously.