Small and mid-sized business owners spend roughly 20 hours per month attempting to comply with federal, state, and local regulations, with rules and requirements changing frequently. Instead of focusing on high-level projects that drive revenue, many business leaders are instead bogged down with the juggling act of managing their compliance.
And compliance isn’t just nice to have – it’s mission-critical as cyberattacks increase and criminals become more sophisticated. Not only do businesses need to comply legally, but they must protect their customers, employees, data, infrastructure, and more with effective compliance programs.
Compliance Is Only Getting More Complex
From HIPAA for healthcare to GBLA for protecting financial information to the recently updated PCI DSS for credit card data, there are a significant number of complex regulations, especially for highly-regulated industries. And that’s without even considering state regulations. Compliance laws are becoming increasingly lengthy and complicated, leaving business owners scrambling to find the time and resources to meet minimum requirements.
But this approach is not only inefficient and time-consuming, it can potentially leave businesses with significant security gaps. Plus, cybersecurity needs to be proactive and “always on,” not a set-it-and-forget-it model. Ideally, business owners should continuously review, patch, and iterate on the latest defense requirements. But that’s not always possible.
Checking the Compliance Box? Not So Simple
Many companies think of compliance as flipping a switch – check the box and be done with it: Do the risk assessment. Write the policy. Run the training. Instead, organizations should evaluate defenses against industry standards on an ongoing basis. Checking the box is no longer enough. Scrutiny will only intensify, especially for highly-regulated industries like healthcare, financial services, government, and legal.
Along with potential consequences like fees, fines, and shutdowns for violations, consumers are also becoming highly critical of businesses that experience data breaches. 66% of US consumers said they would not trust a company with a data breach, and 94% of businesses claim customers wouldn’t buy from them if they didn’t believe their personal data was properly protected.
Even with the right internal strategic approach, compliance is an incredibly time-consuming effort and requires highly specialized expertise in both compliance frameworks and cybersecurity. A growing number of companies has turned to outsourcing to third-party managed services partners to manage compliance on an ongoing basis and scale and adapt to industry and regulatory demands efficiently.
The TPx Solution: Virtual Compliance Officer
TPx’s Virtual Compliance Officer is a specialized service that provides compliance expertise, continual monitoring, data-driven insights, and customizable and scalable solutions. Small and mid-sized business leaders with limited time and resources can focus on core business tasks and growth while still maintaining stringent security standards. Instead of scrambling to maintain defensibility to compliance standards, they can take a confident and strategic approach, turning compliance into a competitive advantage.
Our Virtual Compliance Officer begins with a gap assessment and includes quarterly compliance reviews and continuous monitoring.
Compliance: We Get It
TPx understands the complexities of compliance management for small and mid-sized businesses. With the right tools at your fingertips and experts to guide you, get back to what matters most: running and growing your business. Get in touch to get started.