In highly regulated industries, business leaders face the simultaneous pressure of operational efficiency and strict compliance with complex regulations. A KPMG study highlights that compliance officers live with “continuous and uninterrupted pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency”, while their responsibilities extend beyond mere legal compliance.
According to a Gartner survey, 39% of executives agree that it is necessary to adopt strategies that keep up with the pace of new regulatory requirements, given the constant volume of changes that impact companies.
In other words, combining operational efficiency and compliance is not trivial. On the one hand, agile and lean processes increase productivity; On the other hand, compliance protects against financial, reputational, and legal risks. Organizations that understand this synergy find competitive advantages: they avoid millionaire fines and downtime, while their efficient operations reduce waste.
For example, SaaS companies that invest in security standards (such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001) not only avoid losses but also gain customer trust. In 2023, 29% of companies lost business because they did not have security certifications, while 72% carried out audits precisely to win new customers, according to a study by the company A-LIGN.
In other words, integrated efficiency and compliance strengthen the company, mitigate risks, and pave the way for sustainable growth. But securing this union may be more difficult than it seems.
The challenges to reconciling operational efficiency and compliance
The main barriers to balancing these objectives start with the rapid pace of regulatory change. A Thomson Reuters study shows that 61% of risk and compliance professionals consider keeping up with regulatory changes to be one of their top three priorities.
At the same time, the complexity of regulations increases the risk of incidents. Compliance leaders warn that a lack of adherence can lead to large fines: Deloitte points out that in the US alone, more than 5 billion dollars in penalties were applied in 2023.
In this scenario of constant changes that offer aggressive fines in cases of non-compliance, traditional tools are often not enough. This occurs when legacy compliance systems are siloed, leaving critical information dispersed and outdated across the organization. As a result, it becomes almost impossible to make decisions based on correct data.
In addition, there are internal culture and process challenges. Many companies still treat compliance technology reactively, without efficient information flow. You need to get the information to you, in an actionable way, and not that you need to seek it. Integrated systems should anticipate changes (e.g., using AI to map new legislation) rather than relying on manual actions.
Another critical point is data fragmentation. When departments or tools don’t talk to each other, information silos arise that delay analysis and action. Moreover, this situation is often accompanied by resistance to change. Teams accustomed to manual processes tend to avoid new tools or workflows, compromising both efficiency and adherence to regulations.
Strategies to overcome these barriers
To overcome these challenges, my first recommendation is to carry out strategic planning. Before implementing complex initiatives (such as digital transformation), companies should invest time in understanding the full context of the business and regulatory environment.
In the beginning, it’s more important to understand the context than to speed up execution. Strategy before action ensures alignment between risks and corporate objectives.
An integrated organizational culture is equally key. Senior leadership must strengthen the compliance program: the success of the compliance strategy depends directly on the support of the board of directors, audit committees, and senior management working together. Next, leaders should make all processes clear and accessible to everyone involved in the initiatives, thus reducing rework.
Implementing a tool is easy, but building a culture of effectiveness and compliance is a challenge that needs to be overcome. It is necessary, for example, to have constant training and well-publicized reporting channels. This reinforces the culture of ethics and compliance.
In addition, I recommend adopting technological solutions that automate controls. Integrated GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) platforms allow you to map risks, manage controls, and perform automatic audits on critical processes.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics are also employed to track large volumes of data. For example, AI algorithms can identify outliers that indicate fraud or deviations and flag areas of attention in advance. All this effort generates a return on investment and efficiency gains.
It is essential to value the decision-making process and seek to maximize the ROI in each initiative, always linking budget to cost reduction and performance improvement goals. By following these practices, a company’s operation can reap the rewards of combining efficient management, a culture of compliance, and digital transformation, gaining both agility and resilience.
How to use technology to drive operational efficiency and compliance
Technology is the main ally to integrate efficiency and compliance. Among the resources that generate the most impact, the following stand out:
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: These technologies allow you to automate regulatory monitoring in real-time. AI-powered tools filter out regulatory changes relevant to the business, perform impact analysis, and suggest action flows. This proactive use of AI prevents surprises and frees staff from repetitive manual tasks.
- Process automation (RPA): Some software can perform routine compliance tasks (document screening, filing regulatory reports, or checking sanctions lists, for example) with speed and accuracy automatically. This increases productivity and reduces human error, accelerating compliance delivery without increasing the workload on teams.
- Empowered ERP: Compliance management systems consolidate financial, operational, and regulatory data into a single platform. This integration avoids redundancies and facilitates ongoing auditing. By integrating this type of solution with an ERP, it is possible to incorporate internal control modules, direct connection with tax rules, and real-time monitoring, aligning financial efficiency with regulatory adherence.
- Solution integration: Maintaining siloed systems compromises efficiency. As Gartner warns, legacy tools with siloed design spread critical information, making it impossible to make quick and reliable decisions. Successful companies invest in data integration: they connect compliance platforms, ERPs, and other management software so that all stakeholders have simplified access to the necessary information.
The mistakes every successful leader should avoid
Leaders must avoid classic pitfalls if they want to ensure that efficiency and compliance go together. Again, each sector and company will have its obstacles, but some tend to hinder most leaders. The main ones are:
- Lack of technical integration: Keeping multiple systems disconnected leads to rework and duplication of effort. This creates operational bottlenecks that negate efficiency gains.
- Dispersed and difficult-to-access information: If standards, contracts, and controls are stored in different places (e-mails, local spreadsheets, non-integrated systems, etc.), the risk of failures and non-conformities increases. It is common for teams to waste time searching for data or to be unaware of critical obligations.
- Resistance to change: Not training or engaging people in the new model is a serious mistake. Without the proper skills and leadership support, even the best technology may not produce results.
- Reactive view: Ignoring innovations and waiting for problems to appear first and then remediating them results in delays and losses. Many companies still do not actively use technology to get ahead of regulatory changes, which generates not only operational inefficiency, but also the risk of fines caused by non-compliance.
Addressing these mistakes ensures that compliance management doesn’t become a hindrance. Doing so is critical to preventing bottlenecks that would prevent the operation from running in an integrated and efficient manner.
How we put this approach into practice
In my history at SoftExpert, I have always sought to successfully combine efficiency and compliance. Our operating model prioritizes strategy and ROI over a simple cost view.
Here, we value the decision process and return on investment in all our actions. In this way, we create projects oriented by added value to the client. Internally, we invest in process automation and highly trained teams, so that the operation is lean and flexible.
In practice, this means that SoftExpert solutions offer customers integrated management tools that automate routine tasks. Some examples are importing transaction data, generating compliance reports, and automatically alerting to updated rules. As a result, companies use our solutions (such as BPM, GRC, ERM, and the Suite) to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and strengthen regulatory compliance.
We deliver a system that helps automate tasks, increase efficiency, reduce costs, and increase the ROI of companies. This business approach helps customers in regulated industries avoid fines and sanctions without sacrificing agility; on the contrary, it generates new market gains.
Looking ahead: trends for those looking for operational efficiency
To remain competitive, leaders must be aware of technological and cultural trends. Migrating from on-premise to the cloud should remain critical. In addition to agility and scalability, it strengthens regulatory compliance. This also provides greater security, as it offers integrated controls and automatic compliance updates.
The future also indicates that companies that break through their cultural barriers will come out ahead. Leaders must encourage change and invest in the continuous training of teams, ensuring that everyone knows how to take advantage of new technologies.
Therefore, by closely following technological developments and fostering a data- and compliance-driven corporate culture, leaders ensure that operational efficiency and compliance always go hand in hand.
Conclusion
The corporate regulatory environment requires companies to be both efficient and compliant. Market evidence shows that this integration generates concrete results: it reduces the risk of fines, increases investor and customer confidence, and even boosts revenues.
Research by A-LIGN reveals that 34% of large companies adopt compliance to increase revenue and win new customers. On the other hand, neglecting compliance has a high impact: on average, the cost of non-compliance is almost three times higher than that of investing in controls.
Therefore, combined with agility, intelligent compliance programs become true promoters of competitive advantage. By using cutting-edge technology (AI, automation, and cloud, for example), establishing integrated processes, and promoting an aligned culture, companies in regulated sectors can multiply operational gains without sacrificing compliance.
Such convergence can become a true virtuous cycle of efficiency and compliance, and reaching this stage is a strategic imperative for any organization seeking solid and sustainable growth.
Looking for more efficiency and compliance in your operations? Our experts can help identify the best strategies for your company with SoftExpert solutions. Contact us today!
