3 Lessons From Organizations with Mature Investigations Programs

Every organization wants an effective, mature investigations program. This is the only way to ensure you resolve issues fairly, consistently, thoroughly and in compliance with relevant laws and regulations. While there are many steps to achieving maturity, they all center around one indicator: strong data.

“The more mature your process and tools for gathering and analyzing investigation data, the better you can respond to areas of unacceptable business risks,” says investigations expert Meric Bloch. “This is the key to showing your value to your stakeholders, especially your business leaders.” To improve your program’s maturity, apply the three lessons below to your investigation processes.

RELATED: 4 Ways to Make Better Data-Driven Decisions with Case Management Software

Record Everything in One Central Database

“An optimized Program records all Reports and related activities in the case management database,” explains Bloch. In other words, in order to increase your program’s efficiency and effectiveness, you need to store all case files, evidence and related documents in a single repository.

One study found that employees might spend up to half their work week on trying to find information they need to complete their tasks. If you’re constantly searching for files you need to work on a case or manually entering data, you’re wasting valuable time. At best, this delay gives the issue a chance to escalate, and at worst, you could face penalties and fines if you fail to meet a legislative reporting deadline.

However, with software like Case IQ, team members can upload documents and evidence right into your case files, keeping all your data in one place. This is the ideal solution for teams with large caseloads. You can even integrate Case IQ with your existing databases, whether you’re using the platform for one department’s investigations or organization-wide.

RELATED: 5 Powerful Benefits of More Efficient Case Management

Protect Case Data on a Secure Platform

Next, Bloch says that “an optimized Program protects its resources.” If your organization fails to keep case data private and secure, you’re putting involved parties at risk, as well as opening the organization up to public scandals and non-compliance penalties.

In fact, out-of-date, unorganized, unsecured data storage “can lead to loss of revenue and wastage of time as it may point stakeholders in the wrong direction. Businesses undergo heavy losses due to poor data quality,” according to TATA Consultancy Services. IBM estimates $3.1 trillion in yearly losses due to “dirty data” in the US alone.

“A solution like Case IQ with stringent data protection protocols reduces these risks. Here are some of the ways:

• Reporting form templates and workflow reminders that keep your team in compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, GLB and more
• Role- and case-based access to files for team members to keep private data at need-to-know visibility
• Data masking to protect sensitive information while still letting you analyze case trends

Read more about Case IQ’s secure platform here.

Proactively Address Issues

Finally, Bloch explains that mature investigations programs are data-predictive. This means that case data should be “used to anticipate resource needs, risk areas and business vulnerabilities. Problems identified in one geography or division can be anticipated in other places and mitigated.”

Reacting after incidents have already happened is inefficient and stressful. But if you analyze your case data to spot incident trends, you can take preventive action, stopping issues before they start and helping you manage risk.

“You really need to define what risks you want to monitor. Then after that, you need to start thinking through ‘what is the data that would inform me about this risk?’” says compliance expert Matt Kelly.

Case IQ’s drag-and-drop report generator helps you bring trend data to life using charts, graphs and heat maps based on incident type, subject, date range, geographic location and more. This type of data reporting could take days to complete manually and runs the risk of missing a key insight due to human error. A modern case management solution eliminates these blind spots, so you can make data-driven decisions that improve prevention.