Compliance
Are New Regulatory, Legal or Operational Demands Keeping You Awake Nights in Search of Solutions?
“The watershed case of Zubulake vs. UBS Warburg, LLC concluded with a federal jury mandate that UBS pay $29.2 million in damages to Laura Zubulake… this ruling put the burden of producing electronic evidence squarely on the shoulders of the companies issued with discovery and created the precedent of penalties for failure to adequately do so.
“The wake-up call has been issued: Companies must proactively prepare for electronic discovery and create policies and procedures around email usage and archiving or pay the price.”
— The Price of Flawed Electronic Discovery, Forrester Research
Reduce risk while enhancing your regulatory compliance and corporate accountability
SOX Compliance – and More: While Financial Institutions are under increasing scrutiny, the fall-out from Enron, Sarbanes-Oxley and new Federal evidentiarRedy rules make every publicly traded company in America – as well as many prominent non-profits and charities which must account to the public – at an ever-greater risk from data and records non-compliance. Business-process efficiency in records management has become a make-or-break crisis-level situation for many under-fire corporations.
That’s where Data Empowerment Group comes in …
Financial services companies – and virtually all C-level business executives – now operate in one of the most competitive and highly regulated business environments of any industry ever seen in America. Not only are publicly-traded organizations – including, but not limited to those within the financial industry – subject to intense global competition, but also they are always vying to carve out impenetrable niches of business and consumer products and services. Regulations such as SEC 17a–4 govern electronic communication storage requirements for many public corporations, including financial services firms, while privacy act provisions and court guidelines for discovery responses collide with corporate needs to reduce operating costs and improve margins.
Dodging The Bullet: As major public companies and financial services firms actively seek to avoid court sanctions, litigation settlements, along with the often harshly-negative press that can result in a loss of client confidence – and revenue – these companies have come to see that regulatory compliance requirements and business–process efficiency go hand in hand.
For public companies in all fields, and for organizations looking to thrive in the dynamic and volatile financial services market, a sound approach to content management is no longer optional or even desirable – it is essential.
Any risk to the accessibility of records, accuracy of data, credibility of information, and completeness of records and information poses a viable threat to the effective completion of business transactions, not to mention the fulfillment of organizational objectives or opportunities. This risk – if it attracts the attention of the SEC or the Department of Justice – can even threaten your organization’s ability to conduct business. Your company may risk extensive penalties for non–compliance with recordkeeping regulations, a tarnished reputation, and possible legal liability. That makes records management one of the most powerful tools in the compliance and risk management arsenal – and one of the most cost-effective tools, as well.
A sound approach to records, content and data management is essential for public companies and especially those organizations looking to thrive in the dynamic and volatile financial services market.
Legal Landmines: When it comes to the legislated, regulatory and litigation risks that go hand-in-hand with insufficient records management control, there is not one problem – there are many risks. These include:
- Federal Rules of Civil ProcedureS
- SEC 17a
- NASD 3010/3110
- USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 Privacy information
- Safe Harbor Act
- Gramm–Leach–Bliley
- Global Privacy Acts
- Legal discovery
- Regulatory inspections
- Industry investigations
- SEC compliance
- Privacy rule violations
Facilitating Solutions: Data Empowerment’s Records Management software and services – headed up by our “flagship” RecordsEdge™ records management software system – helps facilitate legally-effective – as well as operationally-effective – records and data management by applying effective and legally-acceptable procedures to the management of large volumes of information.
Through the innovative RecordsEdge system, which enables existing ECM systems to interface with one another and work together – despite seeming incompatibility between those systems – all retention controls are applied through central records management application, allowing for compliance with statutes, regulations and best practices for good governance. In this way, Data Empowerment helps your firm or organization manage the risk of non–compliance – and control the cost and risk of both litigation and normal business operations.
- RecordsEdge™ — A family of tools designed to apply records management controls from an ECM system to multiple vendor enterprise content repositories
- TagMaster™ – Information classifications plug–ins for Microsoft Office applications ,Outlook and Lotus Notes
- LoadStream™ – Data flow control software for automating the process of content extraction and loading
- Data Rescue - Application and recovery service for lost data from enterprise systems and media
- Records Management Readiness Workshops – low-cost, high-intensity programs to identify your specific records management needs, and the solutions best suited to your enterprise