With the growing operational complexity, regulatory pressure, and the broadening gap between internal capabilities and external demands, more traditional compliance methods aren’t sufficient for today’s modern world. After all, regulations are increasingly becoming more demanding as budgets and compliance get tighter. Moreover, leaders are now expected to be more proactive in identifying new risks and supporting more sustainable growth for the business.
As compliance continues to shift from a reactive role to a strategic one, its responsibilities expand to cover various enterprise-wide and risk management services. The result is that the leaders have to begin redesigning their respective operations to future-proof their business. And the key is to enhance efficiency through solutions like PCI DSS compliance. To this end, here are a few tips to improve your compliance standards.
Ensure document management remains secure
Having a central location for storing all company-related files and documentation might be convenient. However, it also opens up the business to specific vulnerabilities. To overcome this obstacle, you must ensure that document management remains secure. For example, Dropbox and other similar services allow their users to create passwords for every file's download link. By making use of this feature, you'll give yourself a greater level of security that you otherwise wouldn't have without it.
You’ll need to make sure that only the right people will have access to sensitive information. Even emails containing the download link get compromised; they must still have the proper credentials to access the desired files. With that said, make sure the passwords are difficult.
Utilize payment and invoice solutions
An increasing number of businesses today are using invoicing software and for a good reason. Apart from saving companies time, it also makes them look more professional. By automating your department for accounts receivable, you won’t have to chase after payments, collect checks, or waste precious time at financial institutions like banks. Your ability to accept payment methods like credit cards won’t just be more convenient for all parties involved, but it’ll ensure that transactions remain compliant.
With payment processing methods, such as PayPal or Stripe, it ensures all charges — recurring or one-time — are out of the website. As a result, the need for storing the payment information of customers and worrying about compliance becomes non-existent.
Create secure online experiences through SSL
These days, websites are no longer a mere luxury for a business, but rather a necessity. And there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use SSL certificates. Inexperienced business owners make the mistake of thinking that a secure website isn’t necessary if they’re not selling products and solutions online, but the reality is that all data, including the names of addresses of customers, must be protected. With SSL, you’ll have more secure connections. Best of all, it’s a low-cost way of ensuring all data remains protected.
Conclusion
It’s never a good idea to take compliance for granted. When you get right down to it, any oversights and mistakes in this area could potentially hurt your business down the line. Running a business already comes with a lot of uncertainty and risk, so it makes sense to run compliant operations as it will improve your chances of achieving long-term success.