The Charges: Too Much Paperwork
Ensuring compliance at a corporate level can leave you feeling more like a paper chaser than compliance professional. The burden of the law weighs heavily on corporate legal departments - especially with the passage of more and more policies that require strict compliance and tight control of electronic communications. It's our duty to follow the letter of the law - but increasing paperwork can slow down operations, causing many corporate lawyers to hold the whole process in contempt. Facilitating communication between hundreds or even thousands of employees, contractors and vendors can be a daunting task. Add to that the increasing pressure to keep tight control of electronically stored information, hold individuals accountable for responding to requests, report compliance issues, and track communications, and it's unanimous: corporate legal departments deserve a simpler solution.
These days, it's easy enough to email or print out and distribute policies. But how do you know if employees and vendors have read and understood them? Without proper compliance and follow-up, corporations could face costly fines and sanctions. Fortunately, new technology makes it possible to streamline communications, share information, and improve compliance, through the use of a secure web portal.
Making The Case for Portal Technology
Kiersted / Systems, a leader in electronic discovery and legal technology consulting, recently announced the release of Kiersted Portal, which provides effective communication and data transfer between members of an organization or relevant outside parties. Kiersted Portalholds recipients accountable for responding to policies by prompting them to indicate whether or not they have received messages, acknowledge whether they have read and understood them, and even answer questions, or take other actions. The software can also be used to track incidents that have violated policies. Simply put, Kiersted Portal takes the guesswork (and paperwork) out of corporate legal communications.
How Portal Technology Works (and Takes the Work out of Compliance)
Administrators can intuitively and easily create and distribute policies, request information from recipients, track responses, automatically send reminder emails, monitor processes, and even escalate communication for individuals who don't respond within designated time frames. The technology is just as easy for recipients to use. They see new notifications in their email inbox, and simply click a link to log into the secure portal. The software then holds recipients accountable for responding to policies by prompting them to enter information into fields designated by the administrator. For example, they may click boxes to answer "yes" or "no" questions, or type responses in forms to ask or answer questions. Their responses are recorded and tracked in real time, and follow-up is automatic, removing the burden from administrators.
Beyond Compliance Using Portal Technology to Improve Productivity
The Kiersted Portal can also be used for a wide range of both internal and external communication solutions. External communications enable you to send contracts to independent contractors for review and approval. Certify vendor requirements in one simple step, and monitor responses. Communicate with outside counsel, allowing secure access to documents you choose. Through internal communications, you can distribute company policies, promote codes of ethics, accept and track employee grievances, and provide a convenient way for individuals to acknowledge or attest to various statements.
The Kiersted Portal's HR feed technology can easily track employee statuses and terminations and keep the compliance team informed.
No matter how you use Kiersted Portal, it can open up new possibilities to improve process management and productivity at your corporation.
A Global Solution Revolutionizing Communication Around the World
Portal technologyis a particularly important tool for global companies. Kiersted Portal is built with the flexibility to create unique templates in any language - and because of the portal's HR feed technology, you can easily track changes in your workforce, such as employee relocations. The portal can be configured to automatically trigger the distribution of new, location-specific policies and materials for relocated individuals, in the appropriate languages. It moves with you - no matter where you are.
The Verdict: It's Time for a Portal to New Possibilities How will You Use Portal Technology?
The possibilities for portal technology use in corporate legal departments are endless. Judge for yourself: Visit kiersted.com/software/#kiersted-portal to learn more - and contact Kiersted / Systems to open the door to improved communications and simplified compliance at your corporation.
Published July 1, 2011.
