Challenges to Visitor Management Compliance
Large corporations and organizations involved in controlled goods exports have their compliance work cut out for them. Wading through regulations and maintaining strict compliance without compromising efficiency and profitability is no easy feat. What makes implementing a proper visitor management policy so complicated?
Here are just four formidable challenges to visitor management compliance:
Deciphering what’s required of your organization. – Controlled goods exports are regulated by several government bodies and statutes, including the Department of Commerce and the Department of State. These entities have bodies of trade regulations governing various types of trade and are defined as International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Your organization is responsible for educating itself on the regulations that apply to your operation and complying. For example, access to controlled goods must be restricted to pre-approved and vetted individuals meeting specific requirements per the aforementioned regulations. Additionally, these regulations change over time, so a visitor policy must be frequently reviewed and readjusted to remain compliant.
Drowning in complicated manual processes. – Complying with trade laws involves detailed screening and time-consuming record-keeping each time someone new enters the premises. It also means creating an auditable trail of the whereabouts of each person on site – including vetted employees – and managing their access to various areas. Manually performing these tasks can drain resources, cripple efficiency, and frustrate staff and visitors. This is especially true if your organization has several branches spread across multiple countries.
Accommodating complex flow down requirements. – Today’s corporate contracts emphasize corporate security. Important security policies must flow down to all contractors and sub-contractors to avoid compromising the safety of operations. Your organization’s visitor management policy must explicitly describe how to handle visiting contractors and ensure their sub-contractors adhere to the same regulations.
Maintaining a competitive edge. – A lack of corporate governance and compliance can significantly hamper your organization’s competitive edge. Potential leads will cool off if they perceive that your organization is somehow lacking in security posture. Many organizations won’t risk doing business with a company showing trade compliance red flags because violations are not worth the risk. Leaving a good first impression begins with safe and streamlined visitor management.
In the face of these challenges, is trade compliance attainable? Yes. Let’s explore some key ingredients for creating an effective trade compliance program with a strong visitor management policy.
How to Create a Compliance Program – Who, What, & When?
Creating, adopting, and implementing a trade compliance program is an all-hands-on-deck process. Corporate safety and trade compliance — especially in the controlled goods industry — ranks so high on the priority list that everyone from the night watch security guard to the CEO needs to be on board.
The U.S Department of State Directorate of Defense Trade Controls advises, “In designing a compliance program you need to understand how your business works to determine your risk areas. Possessing defense articles or technical data raises your risk of an inadvertent violation. Many companies that don’t engage in manufacturing, exporting, or brokering, still maintain compliance programs to reduce the risk of such violations.
A good program is generally:
Clearly documented in writing
Tailored to the business
Regularly reviewed/updated
Fully supported by management.”
Corporations and organizations involved in controlled goods exports need a trade compliance team dedicated to ensuring all regulations governing the operation are being met and recorded. The trade compliance team must work closely with C-suite executives and those in charge of security, health, and safety to draw up a trade compliance program that ticks all the boxes.
Still, more than simply creating a roadmap to compliance is required. All levels of the organization must cooperate in implementing the procedures and policy, especially regarding visitor management.
What tools can help address your organization’s trade compliance needs and minimize visitor management risk factors? OCR Global Trade Management has a robust solution.
Best Visitor Management Software Solution & How to Deploy
OCR Global Trade Management offers powerful and customizable Visitor Management Software (VMS) to help organizations stay compliant and efficient while gaining a competitive edge.
Our VMS can stand up to government requirements in the controlled goods space. This assurance minimizes security threats and allows your operations to go on without risking costly violations. Beyond compliance with trade regulations, our VMS helps you create a consistent, professional, on-brand experience across your locations.
Let’s discuss some noteworthy features of our VMS software.
Key VMS Software Features
What sets our VMS software apart from the rest? Here are just a few dynamic features built into our VMS software:
Automated Watch List Screening
At OCR, our differentiator is that we are truly a one-stop solution. Why? We own the data and screening tool built into our software. Meanwhile, other VMS vendors in the space require third-party integrations with GTM application providers for the same data set. Third-party integrations make the process more complex and disjointed, making accessing audit records less efficient. Our automated watchlist screening makes the process seamless and simple.
Real-time Reporting
Our visitor summary, log, and metric reporting capabilities help you align your ITAR reporting with any governmental regulations. In addition, you’ll have real-time data logging necessary individual information throughout the visitor lifecycle.
App Configuration Tools
OCR VMS allows you to configure your workflow and process requirements to scale up or down based on the needs of each location. You can customize your presentation layer to ensure your most valuable assets – your employees – adopt the VMS with EASE. Branded check-in kiosks will minimize the need for manual data entry and create a consistent experience for visitors. Repeat visitors and pre-vetted employees can enjoy an expedited process, promoting morale and adding more appeal to your organization.
Deemed Export Monitoring
Our VMS pre-registration form allows key stakeholders to identify deemed export concerns. This monitoring is performed by securely collecting visitors’ identification details, including country of citizenship, type of person, and status. This data is then verified against your pre-built business rules related to export classification of programs, controlled locations, product lines, business segments, and more.
Why Investing in a Centralized VMS Yields Strong ROI
Investing in top-tier Visitor Management System software improves security, enhances your trade compliance program, and boosts your organization’s reputation.
Our agile VMS can help your organization to properly identify, register, and vet visitors anywhere in the visitor life cycle. This essential process will work to minimize the exposure of controlled goods and deemed export concerns, protecting you from expensive violations and security breaches. Plus, implementing cutting-edge software allows you to gain a competitive edge in your space. That’s what we call good ROI.
Ready to deploy? Download the fact sheet and contact our sales team to draw out your roadmap to compliance.
