You know that data is an important part of your business—and you also know that data errors can be costly. They can additionally get you in a world of trouble with the government. That’s why as a business owner, the critical role of data quality in regulatory compliance is something you simply can’t ignore.
There are numerous data regulations that can affect businesses. Whether you’re concerned about GDPR, SOX, or HIPAA, you want to ensure that your data is always up to standard. Continue reading for a look at the ways data quality can impact regulatory compliance.
Accurate Reporting
From customer information to sales to taxes, meeting the accuracy expectations of regulators is a must. If your records are riddled with errors, it could lead to hefty fines and an erosion of stakeholder trust.
Additionally, if your data quality isn’t up to regulations, you may be creating company policies based on incorrect information. This can be devastating when you report to regulatory bodies. It may even make your information vulnerable to cyber security and other types of threats.
Poor data quality can also make you miss regulators’ deadlines. Government agencies have strict cutoffs on when information needs to be submitted. If your data’s quality is poor, your company may miss deadlines and be assessed penalties.
As a result, organizations need to always keep the critical role of data quality in regulatory compliance top of mind. Maintaining data integrity guarantees that when it’s time to open your books, the information gets the seal of approval.
Similarly, if government agencies require that your information undergoes the scrutiny of an audit, strong data quality protocols will facilitate this process. Accurate and organized data helps you create an audit trail that regulators use to verify the quality of your records.
Mitigating Risk
One element of regulatory compliance pertains to a company’s ability to keep its information safe from threats. The more your company is able to mitigate risk, the more trustworthy you will appear in the eyes of regulators.
When your data is well-maintained, you’re better positioned to prevent risk because suspicious activities will be on your radar. But if compliance violations do occur, such as money laundering or fraud, you’re able to respond to them quickly.
Effective Decision Making
When it comes to your daily operations, you know how important it is to maintain your data correctly. The higher your data’s quality is, the more likely you’ll be able to make sound decisions for your business.
This also applies to the decisions you make about compliance issues. High-quality data prepares your organization to mitigate risks because you know where threat prevention resources need to go.
Likewise, high-quality data allows you to keep up with trends and make decisions about how to respond to them. You can also easily detect any problems that may arise, which goes a long way toward remaining in regulatory compliance.
Data Security
Data security is another area that exemplifies the critical role of data quality in regulatory compliance. Regulators look at how well companies keep data secure and private when evaluating compliance.
This means you have to be especially careful with how data is stored and maintained. If there’s a security breach and your customer’s information is compromised, the government is likely to punish your company with high fines.
Keep Your Data in Regulatory Compliance
The critical role of data quality in regulatory compliance cannot be overstated. The last thing you want is to find yourself in trouble because of preventable errors. And the regulatory compliance experts at Messaging Architects can help ensure that you do prevent them.
Contact us to find out how we can help you maintain the quality of your data to meet your industry’s regulations. We also have data compliance monitoring services that help you keep internal and external information up to standard.
Keep your data secure and compliant
- Archive
- eDiscovery
- Compliance
eGovernance is a Cloud based solution for preserving, discovering and accessing digital data within your email and document storage systems for compliance, audit, security, eDiscovery and warehousing of critical or older data.
