Helpful Features of Policy Management Software for Businesses

Policy management software (PMS) simplifies the process of composing, authorizing and distributing documents, and capturing authentication. It uses alerts and rules based work flow to keep the policies move through the process, warn compliance managers of unversed policies, and remind the owners when to update and retire the policies.

The entire policy life cycle includes creating business policies that are consistent and clear, tracking employee attestations, analyzing correlations between policies and incidents as well as frequently updating and reviewing policies.

The following are few features a policy management software should possess for any business/ organization to run successfully.

• User friendly: PMS enables the user interface and system navigation in such a way that employees can learn and access it immediately after the software installation.

The software should send out recurring reminders to staff and let them know whether they have read and acknowledged a policy.

• Search-ability: It should be easy to find any policy within a fraction of second.

When an employee needs to detect what their company’s position is, on an issue, it should be possible to perform a quick search to easily locate the policy.

• Scalablility: PMS should have the ability to expand, integrate and change to support the ever changing environment of a growing organization.
• Compatibility: Just because the application is delivered via the web does not mean that it needs to stand apart from other applications in your IT environment.

Ensure that the software integrates with active directory and other tools used by your organization.

• More identifiable with reduced ambiguity: PMS should possess the feature of allocating a unique ID to each document so that it can be easily identified.

This helps in reducing the risk of ambiguity where two documents are named similarly.

Also, the document can be accessed via a URL that doesn't have location specific information. This has an advantage, if the document moves or the URL changes; the link remains intact, thus making integration in to other systems more reliable.

• Security: This feature defines the possibility to secure a policy, so that only authorized users can access it throughout its life cycle.

From the moment a policy is created to the day it is archived, a policy should be accessed and edited by users only with relevant permissions.

Reach emergency requirements faster: Internet connectivity can be lost for various reasons, so the software provider must be able to back up information on site in emergency situations when using PMS as a service application.

• Smoother audits: PMS should be able to retrieve a full audit report, detailing which users did what with a policy.

As a policy is read and attested, there should be a full audit history of any changes made.

• Review and revise at certain point of policy life cycle: Once a policy is published, it is not probable that it needs any developments, the law may change, staff may not understand, or it may be just out of date.

A policy management system should support the revise and review process making it easier to work with.

Also, if the policy is no longer required, it should be archived and stored in a place such that it can be easily retrieved if the need arise.

• A set of published standards and document templates: PMS should be possible to develop all policies with a consistent set of standards. This includes a certain style of writing and structure. To help share the organization standards, it should have excellent document management features. Standardized templates help to create consistent policies and procedures across the organization.
• PMS should prevent a policy from being published until the stake holders have approved it.
• PMS should be able to store multiple versions of a policy, so that loss of data will not be an issue.
• A policy management system should allow different types of media(video, documents and interactive courses) be presented to educate the users.

Organizations of every size experience the battle of policy management along with difficulties in maintaining the growing stream of new policies associated with new laws and regulations. Having a potent policy management software in place helps you manage the complete policy life cycle.