What is a Compliance Management Dashboard?

A compliance management dashboard is a tool that offers organizations an overview of their organizational and regulatory compliance issues and initiatives in a display format for ease of use by compliance managers.

Compliance management covers internal policies and procedures and federal and state regulatory requirements, including the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Enforcing compliance helps an organization detect if it’s violating rules, protecting it from massive fines or lawsuits.

Compliance management, also called compliance risk management, refers to managing and complying with the laws, standards, policies, and codes of conduct that apply to a company.

As organizations respond to regulatory standards, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), they need more accessible, more efficient technologies to track better and manage the compliance process and changing compliance requirements.

Compliance management utilizes risk management methodologies like risk assessments, audits, and control testing. One such technology is the compliance dashboard. A compliance dashboard is software that gives a company a total overview of its compliance initiatives in an interactive display that’s easy to use.

What is a compliance dashboard?

A compliance dashboard is a software solution that enables compliance management by providing real-time visibility into critical metrics, risks, and issues. Leading compliance dashboards consolidate data from sources like Human Resources (HR) systems, provisioning tools, and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) into interactive visualizations that track metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to compliance initiatives.

Core functionality includes pre-built templates for regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and CIS benchmarks. Dashboards enable permissions-based access, allowing stakeholders like the board of directors and compliance officers to monitor adherence. Real-time notifications and troubleshooting compliance issues are facilitated through live feeds from data sources.

Workflows can be established to automate provisioning, alerting, and remediation when non-compliance is detected. Top solutions integrate with Azure, Application Programming Interfaces (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to pull compliance data and docs from the cloud. APIs enable connectivity with existing systems to feed into visualizations.

By centralizing compliance data into an interactive dashboard with metrics, trends, and risk outlooks, organizations proactively gain real-time visibility to manage regulatory requirements and compliance risk. 

Compliance Management vs. Risk Management

Compliance management ensures your organization complies with relevant frameworks, industry standards, and regulations.

Risk management begins with a risk assessment, exploring your organization’s weaknesses or vulnerabilities to threats and ranking them according to the likelihood of occurrence and severity of impact.

You can manage risks without compliance, but you can’t without knowing your risks and what’s required under different frameworks to address or mitigate them.

What Do Compliance Management Dashboards Do?

Compliance dashboards, often found in compliance management solutions, help with decision-making by combining different data sources to describe a compliance program or identify a potential problem with overall compliance. Organizations can use compliance dashboards to gather and interpret data, flag anything out of the ordinary, and react to areas of non-compliance.

Compliance management dashboards must offer real-time compliance monitoring so a company doesn’t become non-compliant over time. The longer the time between the monitoring, the more likely the compliance violations will occur and not be detected.

In a large enterprise, a compliance management department sets internal policies that keep the organization in line with the rules and guidelines set by outside regulations, laws, or industry standards.

A compliance officer who is developing a new compliance management dashboard has to make several decisions, including:

• Which metrics should they consist of on the compliance management dashboard;
• How to group the metrics on the compliance management dashboard;
• How frequently to update the compliance management dashboard;
• It’s better to create more than one compliance management dashboard, each centered on a more specific purpose.

All compliance management dashboards differ according to the needs and demands of each company and its industry. Therefore, when a company selects a compliance management dashboard, it should look for one that is flexible and can be customized.

A compliance officer uses a compliance management dashboard to explain the state of compliance throughout the business to board members and other company decision-makers. A compliance management dashboard provides real-time information to help business leaders identify trends throughout the company and spot compliance problems before they become threats.

In addition, companies can use compliance management dashboards to develop metrics to determine how effective their compliance programs are and monitor and react to production events in real-time. 

That’s because compliance management dashboards often connect directly to information sources rather than offline data warehouses so that users can react to issues from the screens of their compliance management dashboards in real-time. For example, users could stop production or send out alerts based on the data from the compliance management dashboard.

What are the benefits of a compliance dashboard?

Implementing a dedicated compliance dashboard delivers impactful advantages that elevate governance strategies. When well-designed, dashboards become central hubs that break down data silos and enable transparency.

1. Unified Data Access: A dashboard consolidates scattered compliance data into a single pane of glass. Instead of piecing together disjointed spreadsheets and reports, all metrics can be viewed in one place.
2. Holistic Visibility: At-a-glance visualizations provide intuitive insights into overall compliance health. Executives gain a high-level picture while safety officers drill into risks.
3. Informed Decisions: With interactive charts and trends, dashboards make patterns clear. Stakeholders can make data-backed choices to optimize compliance.
4. Measurable Objectives: Solid metrics transform compliance from a cost center into an initiative with definable goals and ROI. Progress is demonstrated through KPIs.
5. Streamlined Reporting: Interactive dashboards make reporting efficient. Management receives digestible visuals rather than static reports.
6. Rapid Response: Real-time data feeds mean instant visibility into developing risks. Teams can respond dynamically to compliance shifts.
7. Cost Optimization: By enabling proactive governance, dashboards reduce the overhead of manual compliance processes. Automation saves money.

What should be in a compliance dashboard?

An effective compliance dashboard contains various features to enable robust monitoring and reporting.

Customizable visualizations like charts, graphs, and gauges allow interactive data analysis. Filters enable users to drill down into specifics like regulations, risks, and metrics. Tracking KPIs makes progress tangible. Alerts inform users of issues in real time. Workflow automation increases efficiency through provisioning, attestations, and remediation.

Integration with existing tools via APIs avoids duplication and unites data. Configurable user roles and permissions prevent unauthorized access. Pre-built executive reports communicate status through visual storytelling.

Leading compliance dashboards consolidate data into intuitive, interactive visualizations. They provide real-time accuracy, automated workflows, role-based access, and customizable reporting. The right solution empowers users through comprehensive visibility. When designed effectively, dashboards become central. 

How often should a compliance dashboard be updated?

Determining the ideal compliance dashboard update frequency involves balancing organizational needs with technical capabilities. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

For real-time monitoring, dashboards can ingest live feeds to enable continuous visibility. This is optimal for high-risk areas where rapid response is required.

The optimal frequency ultimately depends on organizational needs. That’s why flexibility and customization are crucial when selecting a dashboard solution. Dashboards should allow configuring update frequency on a risk-by-risk basis.

Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, compliance leaders should analyze each risk area and determine the monitoring needs. Real-time, daily, or monthly – the dashboard update frequency can align with the risk profile and compliance story you want the data to tell.

Different types of compliance dashboards

Common dashboard types include:

• Executive view: High-level overview of compliance program health
• Risk-based: Focused on specific risk areas like conflicts of interest
• Audit: Tracks control testing and deficiencies
• Policy: Monitors policy adherence across the organization
• Training: Displays completion rates and upcoming deadlines
• Vendor: Tracks third-party compliance and risks
• Project: Oversees compliance initiatives and milestones

The optimal dashboard aligns with the organization’s top compliance priorities and requirements. Leading solutions allow consolidating multiple dashboard views into a centralized compliance hub.

ZenGRC Can Help Your Business with Compliance Management

Using quality Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) software can help you manage your organizational risks and comply with applicable regulations and standards all at once.

ZenGRC’s user-friendly, color-coded dashboards show at a glance where you comply, where you have gaps, and how to fill those gaps. ZenGRC also helps with vendor management by monitoring your third-party contractors for compliance, updating compliance regulations and requirements as they change, conducting internal audits as often as you’d like, and much more.

Worry-free compliance is the Zen way. Contact us today for your free consultation.