Compliance

Compliance describes the adherence to a company’s internal and/or legal regulations or standards. In business process management, it describes the compliant or prescribed process implementation. This is often based on defined or modeled processes. Process compliance can be validated in process mining with the help of conformance checking.

Why is compliance important?

Many companies have internal regulations and are subject to statutory or industry-specific regulations. These regulations must be observed, otherwise contractual, monetary and legal penalties may be imposed. To ensure compliance, business processes and process execution must comply with the rules. This is where process controlling and business process management strategies come in handy.

Highly regulated industries, such as the pharmaceutical industry, banks, and insurance companies are subject to strict compliance. It is critical that business processes run according to specifications, otherwise, companies risk incurring high penalties. Since compliance plays a major role in the success of these industries, they were pioneers in the fields of process management and analysis.

How is compliance ensured?

Frequent process analysis and regular conformance checking ensure process compliance. Analysis can determine whether specified process sequences, cycle times, or internal cost specifications are being adhered to. Since processing varies from process cycle to process cycle, using process mining to analyze realistic system data works well. Process mining allows each individual process cycle to be examined in detail. Since machines, unlike humans, don’t deviate from their working patterns, it’s easier to achieve compliance with complete automation.

Related Terms: Conformance Checking, Business Process Management, Process Mining