BOSTON-There's a (compliance) app for that.
Apple Computer's iPhone App Store model is increasingly becoming the model for delivery of services in the commercial market, including to credit unions.
Case in point: Continuity Engine, a Connecticut-based provider of an on-demand platform that automates compliance, is offering users the ability to custom-write their own code around the company's "ActionPacks" and then make that available to others.
Founded in June of 2009 and introducing its first products one year later, the goal is to make "compliance easier" by automating specific business processes involving IT, HR, front-line staff, pandemics, etc., explained Andy Greenawalt, founder and CEO of the company.
Noting compliance has typically required an onerous, paper-based system that is difficult to keep up to date, Continuity Engine created the electronic-based ActionPacks around all of the compliance requirements from various regulators, including BSA and the newest release, the AntiRobbery Action Pack. Each generates a to-do list.
"We thought it would be nice if compliance worked like a GPS," said Greenawalt, "and provided simple, step-by-step directions as you need them." The software offers up prompts as frequently as a daily basis, for instance, for tellers.
The ActionPacks can be purchased one at a time and generally run $29 to $59 a month. The most expensive ActionPack, at a couple hundred dollars per month, deals with the vendor management rules. Approximately 50 such ActionPacks are currently available in a format much like an individual purchases iTunes, according to Greenawalt.
Greenawalt said care has been put into the level of "granularity" of each ActionPack to ensure management is not overwhelmed and the process remains simple. Continuity Engine uses Control, a software as a service (SaaS) solution for the automation of the task. The company ha also now developed "PowerPacks," which cover a range of compliance area.
The App Store-like functionality uses crowdsourcing for an online collaboration portion of Control. Control brings in technology user groups, associations, community banks and credit unions to share best practices in using SaaS to simplify operations, according to Continuity Engine.
