Compliance 360 Incorporates “Seven Elements” Guidelines to Help Organizations Better Demonstrate Compliance Effectiveness

Automated Tool Guides Organizations to Assess and Prove Compliance Program Effectiveness in Wake of Expanding Regulations

ATLANTA – Sept. 6, 2011 – Compliance 360, bringing order and efficiency to the complexity of compliance, today announced that it has incorporated the “Seven Elements of Effective Compliance and Ethics Programs,” outlined by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, into the Compliance 360 system. With this self-assessment tool, Compliance 360 customers can automate their management, assessment and reporting processes – and in turn, better demonstrate the effectiveness of their compliance and ethics programs. Compliance 360 will host an online demonstration of this new functionality on Wednesday, Sept. 7, at 2:00 p.m. EDT.

Expanding regulations from the likes of the Healthcare Reform Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, including the new SEC Whistleblower Program and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Whistleblower Program, are forcing organizations to not only have compliance and ethics programs in place, but to also demonstrate that they are effective. Due to this change, regulatory scrutiny is shifting from policies, procedures and retrospective audits, to proactive measures of effectiveness and desired end results. The most commonly cited resource for U.S. companies seeking to assess their compliance programs is the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Seven Elements, a set of provisions that define the attributes of effective compliance and ethics programs.

Compliance 360’s system includes compliance effectiveness and best practice assessment questions covering each of the Seven Elements categories, and was developed in conjunction with a leading analyst and compliance officers from regulated industries, including financial services, insurance, retail, distribution and healthcare. With this system, online dashboards and reports show the overall state of compliance as well as details corresponding with each of the Seven Elements. Compliance officers can monitor completed and open tasks, owners and due dates, and receive alerts regarding critical items that are overdue to quickly determine their impact on a company’s overall compliance status.

“Compliance 360 has one of the most complete, end-to-end compliance management platforms available,” said Michael Rasmussen, president, Corporate Integrity, LLC. “It is not surprising that they have used this robust technology to deliver an automated self-assessment tool based on the industry’s most widely used guideline – the Seven Elements of Effective Compliance and Ethics Programs. What really stands out, is how easily self-assessments can be kept up-to-date as part of an organization’s daily compliance program activities, and how readily the results can be provided during audits, exams and reviews to demonstrate the effectiveness of a compliance program.”

WHAT: “Assess the Effectiveness of Your Compliance Program Using the ‘Seven Elements’”
WHEN: Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011, from 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. EDT
WHERE: www.compliance360.com/webdemos

“Today’s regulatory environment is becoming more complex and creating new challenges for organizations as they establish and manage their compliance programs – the stakes have never been higher,” said Steve McGraw, president and CEO, Compliance 360. “With valuable input from top compliance practitioners and other experts, we are the first in the industry to automate the Seven Elements guidelines to help our customers prove that their compliance programs are actually working. With the heightened expectations of governance and transparency pervading regulated industries, progressive organizations are tackling this head on and implementing measures for demonstrable compliance effectiveness.”

About Compliance 360
Ranked as the fastest growing GRC software vendor in Inc. Magazine’s 2010 list of America’s fastest growing private companies, Compliance 360 is the leading provider of enterprise governance, risk management, compliance and audit management solutions for companies that operate in regulated industries.  With these solutions, organizations reduce risks, improve efficiencies and protect their brands using a single platform to address their comprehensive GRC requirements.  The Compliance 360 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution suite helps organizations address policies and procedures management, regulatory compliance management, internal and external audits, third party risk and vendor management, contract management, incident management, fraud, waste & abuse, surveys, accreditation, enterprise risk management and IT governance. Compliance 360 is headquartered in Atlanta and assists more than 225,000 users every day in a variety of complex, regulated business environments, including healthcare, insurance, financial services and others.  For more information, visit www.compliance360.com .

Editor’s Note: Compliance 360 is a registered trademark of Compliance 360, Inc. Virtual Evidence Room is a registered service mark of Compliance 360, Inc. Any other trademarks are recognized as proprietary to their owners.