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Beth Murphy, Founder, President & CEO In the world of business, the nightmares of risk and compliance managers tend to play out in the headlines of the world’s media. Over the past year, the public has been witness to scandals involving widespread bank fraud, shocking allegations of sexual misconduct across multiple industries, and corruption that has rocked university athletic departments. In every case, these incidents could be tracked to an individual or small group that was either unaware of, or had violated organizational policies and procedures put in place to protect them and their organization. High-risk employee behaviors like these repeatedly thrust corporations and institutions into an unforgiving spotlight and make them the subjects of scathing commentaries. Combined with ever-changing government regulations and heightened awareness of corporate responsibility and reputation risk, it’s no wonder today’s risk and compliance executives are actively seeking solutions to help them manage governance, risk, and compliance more effectively and efficiently.
A Company that “Gets It”
Employee misconduct, such as insider trading or bribery of government officials, tends to originate from gaps in the communication and adoption of policies and procedures among groups, departments, and individuals -- gaps that the team at CFM Partners, led by president and CEO Beth Murphy, works to bridge through its expertise and technology.
“A critical component of compliance management is effective communication of policies and regulatory changes to employees, yet it remains one of the most challenging aspects of the function,” Murphy explains. “We only have to look at the headlines to see what happens when individuals lack awareness and understanding of policies and procedures that pertain to their responsibilities. The missteps of a single employee can pose substantial risk to an entire organization.”
Businesses spend a tremendous amount of time and effort carefully developing policies, procedures, and educational materials to guide employees and management in how to minimize the risk of negative incidents and do their jobs well. However, it can be a struggle to implement policies and relevant education programs in a manner that encourages a pervasive culture of compliance throughout an organization.
"Simply put, companies that know better, do better"
CFM’s innovative solutions support companies’ efforts to modernize their approach to compliance and risk management, educate employees, and promote cultures of compliance. The firm has developed comprehensive solutions that accelerate the adoption of GRC strategies -- not only in the financial services industry but in higher education, general corporate, athletics, and sports management markets too.
Cloud-Based Solutions that Help
CFM’s flagship GRC solution, Access Compliance™, was developed to support companies’ efforts to effectively distribute policies and critical information securely and rapidly.
Access Compliance delivers policies, procedures, and other important information that are directly relevant to the role, responsibilities, and environment of every user, when and where they need that information, thereby enhancing employee productivity while embedding compliance into day-to-day business practices.
When we see an opportunity to enhance our solutions in ways that matter to our clients, we readily pursue those enhancements and make them a reality. It’s kept us ahead of the market repeatedly over the years
CFM solutions align corporate, business group, and country-specific policies – at the end-user level – to ensure users don’t have to sift through volumes of irrelevant information, but rather see only the policies they need to do their jobs, to stay compliant, and to stay productive. In addition, the platform makes role-appropriate information and education easily searchable and accessible.
Integrated into all aspects of Access Compliance are features that allow administrators to designate who sees what and when, via CFM’s exclusive Push-by-Profile™ distribution and customized audience assignments. This feature has helped the company carve out a well-differentiated position for itself among GRC solution providers by ensuring the right information is at the fingertips of the right people at the right time.
“Risk can be substantially mitigated by consistently making people aware of how a particular policy, procedure, or regulation applies to them and their job,” Murphy maintains. “To address that, we determined early-on that our solutions need to be configurable to deliver information that is relevant to each user.”
Access to information is essential. To this end, CFM Partners was one of the very first solution providers to offer its products in the cloud. Leveraging cloud-computing technology, Access Compliance hosts a suite of solutions and tools that are integrated, configurable, and customizable. Applications and content are swiftly deployed across different regions to specific, appropriate audiences – providing its global clients with round-the-clock access to the information they need to do their jobs well.
“We’re fortunate that we can work with clients to implement performance-driven innovations,” Murphy notes. “When we see an opportunity to enhance our solutions in ways that matter to our clients, we readily pursue those enhancements and make them a reality. It’s kept us ahead of the market repeatedly over the years.”
Education Is Key
“Simply put, companies that know better, do better,” says Murphy.
One of the first applications CFM Partners developed was an education and training solution, and over the years they’ve continually worked to improve and enhance this essential component of GRC management.
Effective compliance education starts with a corporation’s policies and procedures and is supplemented with training to fully educate employees on complex or critical issues.
More than an online training platform, its robust functionality provides easy course administration, customizable and tailored content, review and monitoring of employee progress, reporting, and updates.
Streamlining GRC for Managers
CFM recognizes that the easier it is to administer a solution, the more effective it will be. Access Compliance includes tools and templates that make it easy for clients to map policies to particular groups that need them.
“We’ve worked to centralize and streamline the development of policies and procedures, as well as distribute them through a single interface,” Murphy explains. “We also provide a single access point where managers can see when, where, and by whom policies are reviewed. These tracking features are ideal for managers who understand the importance of monitoring for red flags that may indicate additional communication or employee training is needed.”
Taking monitoring one step further, Access Compliance generates reports that record when policies have been reviewed or training programs completed. Data is archived for future reference and regulatory compliance.
In addition, Access Compliance’s modular design has taken the notion of “easy-to-manage” to a new level. Modularity makes it possible for organizations to acquire as much, or as little, functionality as they need to improve their GRC initiatives.
Where Clients Come First
A deep knowledge of GRC, innovative solutions, and an unwavering commitment to client success—these are the keystones upon which CFM Partners built its business.
“Knowledge and technology are only parts of the equation,” Murphy reflects. “It is critical to recognize that every client has its own distinctive needs. We meet the client where they are, and our philosophy is to adapt our products and services to meet the needs of each organization.”
Based in Washington, D.C., CFM Partners has been on the frontlines of Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) management for over 20 years, offering knowledge-based solutions and tools to help companies pro-actively manage their risk, turn compliance into performance, and develop effective governance strategies.
"We only have to look at the headlines to see what happens when individuals lack awareness and understanding of policies and procedures that pertain to their responsibilities"
CFM helps global organizations and institutions address high-risk issues, and offers automated solutions to mitigate compliance risk. CFM’s cloud-based, high-performance solutions, and client-centric approach have attracted prominent clients from Wall Street to College Avenue.
As demand for solutions that facilitate cultures of compliance continues to grow, Murphy and her team are enthusiastic about tapping into new opportunities by working on the country-specific capabilities of the system, and developing efficient, scalable applications and solutions. Building on the company’s long history of client-centric innovation, the industry can look confidently to CFM Partners for future developments in GRC solutions that help build winning strategies.
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Company
CFM Partners
Management
Beth Murphy, Founder, President & CEO
Description
Specialized in integrated, knowledge-based GRC solutions that leverage modular design and the cloud to provide unique advances in efficiency and efectiveness
