[Q&A] Sharepoint vs ComplianceBridge

Cody: Welcome to the ComplianceBridge Podcast, your source for the latest on risk management and policy and procedure management. My name is Cody Miles and I’ll be your host for today’s episode.

Today, I’ll be joined by Tina Jones, Client Success Manager at ComplianceBridge, to take a closer look at our policy management system, ComplianceBridge alongside Sharepoint, a document management system developed by Microsoft. We discuss ComplianceBridge’s ability to effectively manage policies and ComplianceBridge’s approach to the needs of this industry. Welcome to the podcast, Tina, how are you doing today?

Tina: Happy to be here.

Cody: Excellent! Let’s start by discussing ComplianceBridge’s comprehensive automated workflow feature – what is it and how does it change policy and procedure management?

Tina: Workflow automation uses technology to automate manual work for steps in a business process. Businesses that create workflow automation are more efficient and save time and money, by minimizing the likelihood of errors by bringing consistency to tasks that are performed on a regular basis.
ComplianceBridge’s comprehensive workflows allows you to streamline the creation, revision and distribution processes of your policy & procedure workflow. Document editors, reviewers and stakeholders can collaborate using their powerful and comprehensive workflows on one centralized version without having to buy extras or add-ons. With ComplianceBridge these workflows are also 100% configurable by each client to ensure work flows the way the client needs it to.

Cody: Now how does this compare with Sharepoint?

Tina: SharePoint also has automated workflows, but they are pre-programmed mini-applications that streamline and automate a wide variety of business processes. This means they are not client specific so in many instances the client would need to purchase extras or add on features to get it to function the way they actually need it to function.

Cody: How does automation play a part in ComplianceBridge’s solution?

Tina: Well since ComplianeBridge’s main focus is on Policy & Procedure, ComplianceBridge takes automation to a whole new level by automating the entire Policy & Procedure process, from document creation, collaboration and distribution to employee compliance, attestation, reporting and audit tracking. ComplianceBridge is prepared to manage the entire process from start to finish right out of the box, and does not require customization.

Cody: Sharepoint, as a document management system, doesn’t really focus on automation, correct?

Tina: While Sharepoint does offer document workflow automation, SharePoint is very weak in the areas of policy distribution, employee compliance, attestation, reporting and audit tracking. Real-time data tracking and monitoring for proving compliance in the event of audits are an incredibly important factor to a robust policy management platform and it is a feature that SharePoint does not offer that ComplianceBridge does.

Cody: How does automation help policy and procedure managers improve compliance?

Tina: An automated and collective method for managing compliance activities is essential to help organizations achieve optimal visibility into all compliance specific aspects of the organization. It ensures everyone is in sync and has the latest information, while letting policy managers monitor in real-time their employees’ compliance metrics.

Cody: What kind of reports does ComplianceBridge offer and how do they help with audits?

Tina: ComplianceBridge offers an extremely robust reporting engine right out of the box, and reports on real-time data, which is very important in the event of an audit. Our reports are easily configurable by our clients to display to them exactly what they want to see, with no extra cost or programming required. Our reports are comprehensive and can cover all compliance metrics and attestation, and they can even drill down as far as to show who has viewed or not viewed a document. Since ComplianceBridge keeps all past versions of the documents and their associated metrics, you can even run reports on compliance metrics from prior years if an auditor is requesting it.

Cody: Insightful. What would you say to users who favor the connected ecosystem Microsoft and Sharepoint offer?

Tina: I would let them know that ComplianceBridge offers the same type of connected ecosystem for document storage and collaboration, but it does not place a limit on the number of times you can revise your document. SharePoint sets limits on document versioning and after you’ve hit that limit, your older document history is no longer available.

Cody: To wrap things up, let’s end with this: when it comes to ensuring compliance, what would say is the most important thing a solution can offer?

Tina: The most important thing a solution can offer is to be able to make policies and procedures easily accessible to your employees while being able to offer real-time data tracking and monitoring for proving compliance in the event of audits.

Cody: Thank you so much, Tina, for joining me today to help our listeners understand Sharepoint a bit better and learn how ComplianceBridge can meet their needs. To learn more about our automated policy management system, as well as our other risk management and intelligent forms management solutions, request a demo with ComplianceBridge today.