The Indian chemical manufacturing industry has been undergoing substantial changes in the realm of innovation or research and development, making it one of the most thriving industries in India. However, with the emergence of innovation, regulatory complexities and stringent policies governing the sector also increases. There have been substantial regulatory changes that the sector has undergone over the last few quarters in industry-specific laws, labour laws and laws regarding the Environment, Health and Safety. Keeping pace with all the regulatory changes and effectively managing the compliance portfolio has indeed being a challenge for the chemical industries having an outdated database of compliance. However, having an effective compliance management solution helps in mitigating those risks and challenges. Komrisk, our enterprise compliance management solution has helped a lot of our clients sail through these changes effortlessly. Let us understand how our compliance management system has helped our clients manage and mitigate their compliance risk through a case study.

Our client is one of the leading chemical manufacturing companies in India with multiple branches and operation units spread across India. As a part of our regulatory risk mitigation process, the first step we conducted was to identify their key laggard areas.

Identified challenges/problem areas in the organization

• Highly regulated sector

• Outdated database of compliance

• User acceptance and knowledge sharing

• Low visibility on the legal risk arising out of compliance

• Lack of tracking and alert mechanism

• Lack of document repository

• Difficulty in drawing analysis or reports from excel based mechanisms

Once the issues were identified, we steadily established a compliance process in the organization, before deploying our compliance management tool. Since deploying a compliance tool is the easiest part, the acceptance from the users is the most difficult, but the most critical part of any system implementation.

Imbibing compliance culture for their organization:

• Creating a tailor-made customized checklist for the organization: Lawyers and compliance professionals performed a legal landscaping and identified laws and compliances applicable to the organization, basis their location, operations, incorporation, etc. We conducted a thorough gap assessment to identify areas of compliance risk and created a comprehensive checklist of compliances mapping them to their operating units, covering central, state, and even local laws.

• Creating legal risk categorization: Komrisk, categorizes compliances into multiple risk areas. Basis which they can analyze and prioritize activities accordingly and share important analyses with the management.

• Our pro-active client engagement: We have a Client Relationship Management (CRM) process, where each client account is aligned to 6 Lexplosion members and the hierarchy is laid down as:

  • Project Manager (Associate +): Handles Day to day project operations

  • Relationship Manager (Manager +): Interacts with the client and manages the relations

  • Service Delivery Leaders (Sr. Manager +): Offers guidance & ensures that the project is running as per schedule

  • Account In-charge (AVP +): Supervises the work and checks for escalations

  • COO: Advises on way forward on issues on the account

  • CEO: Ensures that client expectations are met

Once the initial communications and stakeholders were determined and relevant stakeholders started understanding the solution, we deployed Komrisk and gave them through training of the tool.

Implementation of Compliance management tool:

• Handholding & training: The lawyers and compliance professionals of Lexplosion provided handholding and training to the users of Komrisk not just once, but multiple times. Lexplosion provided a detailed training initially, after which Komrisk has a support mechanism, where users can proactively reach out to the support team in case of any issues or challenges. Further, there are training videos within the tool, to support them with the ongoing operations. Additionally, we also offer a paid project management services and allocate special resources to take up the challenge of the initial implementing and acceptance of the tool at the client organization.

• Getting real-time compliance status visibility: Komrisk introduces transparency in the compliance risk structure. You can get the real-time status of non-compliance in your organization and take proactive measures to mitigate the risk.

• Getting real-time alerts and escalations: The tool provided them with email alerts to the users on activities required to be complied with. A robust hierarchy of escalation points were set up to flag non-compliances.

• Getting regular legal updates: We provided legal updates regularly and on an ongoing basis to all the stakeholders in the process. The Komrisk repository gets updated automatically as well as impact analysis of these updates was shared with them regularly. This helped them save time and effort for their legal and compliance team, which further minimized their legal risk of having an outdated checklist.

• Creation of an audit repository: With Komrisk, they could now create compliance evidence or proof repository, which they can assess from anywhere in the world. Be it a notice from an inspector or any email from an auditor, they can download all the relevant documents in just a few clicks.

• Self-certification of compliance by users: After the initial push, the users started using Komrisk on a regular basis. Department-wise self-certification reports were populated by the users and admins on a regular basis and shared with the management for review.

• Reports: We presented reports after 3 months of usage to show the effectiveness of the new compliance risk framework. We also encouraged the admins of Komrisk from the client end to create the reports themselves and share them with their management.

• Constant support and updates: We started providing ongoing upgrades to Komrisk, where we try to increase the user experience by improving the workflows and UI. Our tech team continuous provide tech support and query resolution with a TAT of max of 48 hours.

With our robust system in place the results were:

• Creation of an updated checklist of all applicable compliances

• All documents/proofs stored in the central archive with access controls

• Alerts & Escalations ensured all users that they are aware of due dates/deadlines

• Reduced the expenses involved in managing their legal risk processes

• Data-backed, instant reports, and certifications – where TAT reduced by 90%

• Reduction of instances of non-compliance by 89%

The client pointed out that they have noticed a considerable improvement in their compliances observed through an internal audit. They are extremely happy with our SAAS solution and highly recommend Komrisk, our enterprise compliance management tool to their group companies. They also find value in the regulatory updates that Lexplosion shares with them on a regular basis.

Our client has managed to digitize their overall compliance process, imbibe a compliance culture within their organization, minimize the overall compliance risk and reduce subsequent penalties, all within 90 days of implementing our compliance management tool, Komrisk.

In case you want to know more, do get in touch with us.

Written by: Kanishka Bose

Co Authored by: Saikat Mondal

Disclaimer

All material included in this blog is for informational purposes only and does not purport to be or constitute legal or other advice. This blog should not be used as a substitute for specific legal advice. Professional legal advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from an action as a result of the contents of this blog. We exclude any liability (including without limitation that for negligence or for any damages of any kind) for the content of this blog. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author/(s) alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Lexplosion Solutions. We make no representations, warranties or undertakings about any of the information, content or materials provided in this blog (including, without limitation, any as to quality, accuracy, completeness or reliability). All the contents of this blog, including the design, text, graphics, their selection and arrangement are the intellectual property of Lexplosion Solutions Private Limited and/or its licensors.

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