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Corporate governance is complex and sometimes a little tricky, and as the world moves forward, changing more and more rapidly, it only grows more convoluted. That’s why, just as with any other complex data-driven system, you can use corporate governance software as a tool for managing your company’s corporate governance issues.
The software can be used for project management, for timeline management, for communications (internal and external), and even to manage compliance with regulatory issues. Below are the things you need to think about when choosing corporate governance software.
Project management software
One of the hardest things to get a handle on when looking at corporate governance is project management.
Projects get out of hand, they grow new parts, people stop talking to one another. That’s why, besides a good project manager, you should have excellent project management software.
Consider issues like following timelines of each part of each task in the project; communicating within and between teams; storing vital documents in central locations; and arranging online meetings between team members on opposite sides of the world.
Timeline management software
Timelines aren’t limited to projects. If you have well-defined goals, then you have timelines that you must follow. And if your company is at least medium sized, you have complex tasks within timelines that your employees must be able to accomplish by specific points in time in order to achieve your goals.
Good timeline management software enables you to define your timelines and break them into the component parts; divvy up the tasks relative to the timelines and distribute them to appropriate team members, and ensure you always have an updated report of where your employees are on their timelines at any given point. Instead of distributing work and praying you don’t forget anything, you have all that information at your fingertips.
Communications and information dissemination software
Email isn’t the only form of communication; companies today are largely built on communication in all its different forms. For starters, though, your email system needs to be robust, reliable, and flexible. Besides this, you need a really good internal website management system and excellent public web site.
There are several options for this. For internal sites, one of the hot technologies of today is a wiki site. Wikis are websites that post information in a public or private place.
When the information grows outdated or is shown to be incorrect, anyone with access can go into the wiki editor and change the text that needs to be corrected, as easily as one would use a word processor.
For a great example of a public wiki, check out wikipedia.org, the first major wiki.
For external websites, if you have only a little information that needs to be disseminated to the public and regulatory agencies, a simple website will do.
For more complex information, a database-driven site of some sort (ASP and PHP are the most popular current technologies) that links to your company’s public documents might be a better choice.
Regulatory management software
With the inception of such monster regulatory systems as HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley in the US, corporations really need good software to ensure that they are in compliance at all times and that all their departments and employees are also in compliance; without software to ensure this, you’re very much out to sea.
Enter great technology that can monitor compliance throughout the company, as well as educate all your employees on how to adhere to the regulations.
Regulatory management software monitors such things as risk (recommending controls for the risks) and information gaps and allows companies to monitor controls from anywhere in the world.
They enable employees to easily document their work appropriately and keep your corporation compliant with all regulatory requirements. Currently, most regulatory management software is online and subscription-based, but that will almost certainly change in the future.
Corporate governance software complexities
As you can see, there are many informational aspects to corporate governance software, and most of them require extensive information management and documentation.
Finding the right corporate governance software for your company can be challenging, but you’re sure to find the best choice if you keep your goals in mind.
