Archived Newsletter Editorial
Reducing the costs of compliance

March 2, 2009

It's an oft stated position, particularly in the conservative life science industries, that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Or just as common for these regulated industries, "If it's validated, don't change it." But in this tight economy, there are returns to be had in exploring alternatives to "how things have always been done," to find ways to reduce the costs of compliance.

Consider how much time is consumed making sure the proper signatures are applied before work begins. Consider how long a piece of equipment is out of commission completing the proper procedures. Consider how much of an engineer's time is spent filling out forms and tracking down people versus actually working on assets. Consider how long a reverse traceability or an impact assessment takes because the information is difficult to access and consider how confident you are that the data is accurate and complete. Consider how tricky it is becoming to explain to auditors how you control your business processes and ensure what needs to get done does get done and how you ensure that people who need to be kept informed do stay informed.

And then, consider the alternative. You can map your existing business processes, what you say needs to get done to ensure quality product, into Blue Mountain Regulatory Asset Manager. You will then have a validated system that will take care of the reminders and notifications, that will not allow records to progress to the next stage without all the proper signatures and information inputted, that will provide a single source for impact assessments and that will provide a confident answer to common questions that come up in audits.

Sure, the justification requirements are more rigorous in a difficult economy. But the motivation to cut operating costs is also strong and may provide you with the opportunity to make a move you've been hoping to do for awhile.

Let us know how we can help you make that justification.

Bryce Johannes
Director of Marketing
Blue Mountain Quality Resources, Inc.