7 challenges regulators face (and how to overcome them)

There’s no question the regulatory landscape is constantly changing. The combination of changing external environments, evolving ways of working, heightened citizen expectations and fiscal pressure all make the transformation of a regulator’s business model critical. Below are some of the most common challenges facing regulators today – and how regulatory software solutions such as Objective RegWorks can help your agency overcome them.

Challenge #1 Working with outdated, legacy systems

Outdated legacy systems nearing their end of life are holding government regulators back from operating efficiently and achieving best practice. Acquired over the years, these primarily on-premise systems are difficult to upgrade, costly to run, with limited or no support, and are increasingly unable to support the changing needs of the business.

Solutions such as Objective RegWorks help free your agency from the burden of legacy systems by delivering modern technology – including any future upgrades – via the cloud. With access to the most up-to-date technology, your solution will remain fit for purpose and achieve a lower total cost of ownership.

Challenge #2 Adapting to change

Regulatory agencies need their systems to adapt to ongoing changes across legislation, Machinery of Government (MoG), regulatory processes, and more. But for many government agencies using heavily customised systems, making the necessary systems changes can be time-consuming and cost prohibitive.

Having a flexible regulatory software solution that offers low-code or no-code changes makes it easier for regulators to adapt to change. For example, Objective RegWorks allows you to forward date legislative changes and update all workflows and processes to align with regulatory changes – all without breaking the user interface and reporting.

Delivering vital security for Australia - Australian Department of Home Affairs

Objective RegWorks is a user-friendly system that’s introduced greater flexibility to meet regulatory reporting requirements. It can also adapt to changing legislation, helping future-proof our operations.

Director Regulatory Compliance, Cyber and Infrastructure Security Centre

Challenge #3 Lack of single view of a regulated entity

Most government regulators have different systems for different regulatory functions such as licensing, investigations, inspections, and enforcements. These systems typically don’t interact with each other, making it difficult to get a single view of a regulated entity. As a result, agency staff struggle to make informed decisions within statutory timeframes and management struggles to produce accurate reports.

Objective RegWorks gives agencies a single, comprehensive view of regulated entities by enabling all regulatory functions to be performed within the one system. Armed with this full view, agency staff can leverage information to make intelligent, risk-based decisions that increase transparency and achieve better regulation.

Only 18% of regulators have an integrated system that provides a single view of interactions with each regulated entity*

*Source - ’Scratching the surface – the Government Regulatory Technology Report 2022’, page 6.

Challenge #4 A heavy administrative burden

Without the right systems and technology in place, government agencies are often forced to rely on inefficient processes that include manual workflows, duplicate data entry, cumbersome workarounds and paper-based document management. This can significantly increase the administrative burden and lead to poor outcomes for the agency and the public.

You can significantly reduce the administration effort at your agency by adopting a regulatory management software solution. With Objective RegWorks you can implement streamlined workflows, automate time-consuming tasks, and automatically generate digital documents. By simplifying processes and systems, you can free up agency officers to focus on the most impactful work.

Challenge #5 Delivering a digital customer experience

Customers today have come to expect seamless, digital, on-demand services across every part of their lives – including services from government agencies. People want to submit licence applications, monitor the status of those applications, make payments, raise complaints, interact with agency staff - and more – using the channel of their choice at a time that suits them.

Regulatory software solutions enable agencies to design ‘anywhere, anytime’ services with the customer at the centre. Agencies can create workflows and processes around the customer to help deliver a digital customer experience that keeps up with today’s expectations and reduces the burden of compliance.

Challenge #6 Accessing the right information at the right time to make risk-based decisions

The combination of legacy systems and lack of integration between systems means agency staff often can’t find the information they need when they need it.

Objective RegWorks helps give regulators the information they need to make informed decisions and ensure compliance by offering:

• A 360-degree view of all entities, including contact information
• Access to compliance history, including complaints or investigations
• Ready access to a full digital audit trail
• Integration with third-party BI/Analytics tools that generate urgent, ad-hoc reports
• Access to information from anywhere via desktop and mobile devices.

Intelligent enforcement underpinned by consolidated compliance data

The RegWorks solution also supports MPI’s long-term strategic planning, making better use of the intelligence data that has been collected.

Ministry for Primary Industries - Manatū Ahu Matua

Challenge #7 Sustaining trust and confidence with the public

Best practise regulators must have the capability to build trust and confidence, according to the Australian Government Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Demonstrated through transparent, informed, and consistent decision-making, this can be hard to achieve without the right supporting systems in place.

Regulatory software solutions enable confident decision-making by offering best practice workflows and recommended suggestions for the next steps. Combined with powerful reporting, auditing and risk-profiling capabilities, regulators can better manage regulatory compliance, respond to requests promptly and improve trust and confidence within the community.

Not all digital solutions are equal

While technology can help regulatory agencies overcome these common challenges, not all solutions are equal. Agencies can choose to customise a generic platform or implement a software solution designed specifically for licensing, compliance and enforcement.

Objective RegWorks is end-to-end software built specifically for government regulators. If you’re looking to address the challenges holding your agency back from increasing productivity and improving safety outcomes, get in touch with our team for more information or to see a demo.