Innovation in Compliance with Tom Fox Putting Compliance In Your Hands with Garin Bergman
This week’s guest on Innovation In Compliance is Garin Bergman, founder of the Palmtree compliance app. He chats with Tom Fox and Ronnie Feldman about the app, and how it puts compliance into the hands of employees.
Making Compliance Simpler and Timely
Ronnie believes that the next boundary in compliance is simplicity, not complexity. Garin’s innovative solution is a simple way to get compliance to people through technology, he says. Garin explains that Palmtree is a mobile application for smartphones and tablets that allows compliance departments to put their materials into their employees’ hands wherever they are. The app can recognize employees’ location and send them communications that might be relevant to their project or that might minimize compliance risk. In addition, having the app available on their devices - an environment they’re already used to and like to use - in an engaging and easy to read format, further supports the compliance program.
Key Features
Palmtree has the ability to track and analyze metrics that are important to the company. Another innovative feature is the gift registry module. Garin explains that this allows individuals to submit gifts to be reviewed and approved by their supervisor. The supervisor is notified of the request and, using the information available in the app, makes an informed decision whether to allow the gift. The request is approved or declined right within the app, and the employee is notified. Additionally, robust back end analytics can provide reports on the types of gifts that have been given over the past two years.
Solving A Compliance Problem
Tom comments that an often overlooked reason why adoption of new technology is slow in the compliance industry is that it requires lawyers, who comprise the majority of the industry, to deviate from the static policies, procedures and delivery of training they’re accustomed to using.
People also assume that having a solution like Palmtree will be very expensive, Garin says. However, the cost is quite reasonable and it can be deployed in as few as 45 to 60 days. Tom adds that it also allows you to comply with the Department of Justice’s requirements for ongoing improvement of your compliance program.
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