Administrators and directors alike agree that having a Denied Party Screening process is always worth the investment when it comes to minimizing the risk of inadvertently connecting with restricted parties.
But a question companies need to ask themselves is how efficient they can make their approach to Denied Party Screening. What happens in some instances is that upper management procrastinates on seeking a robust solution because of an erroneous notion that implementation would be too complex, disrupting, or costly. The truth, however, is that drawing a return on that investment isn’t too difficult.
Compliance measures such as restricted party screening can generate value for your business without slowing down internal operations and decision-making processes. By taking advantage of the digital tools available for screening and, even better, for automating screening, organizations can systematically weed out those so-called bad actors named in restricted government watch list.
The result is a strong competitive advantage you can’t miss out on. But what exactly does screening do, and what can you do to implement it in a smart way?
Key Takeaways
- The value of investing in Denied Party Screening processes is emphasized by the growing risk of engaging with sanctioned entities and restricted parties.
- Concerns about the cost and complexity of adopting robust denied party screening solutions has held some companies back from taking the necessary steps in transforming their sanctions compliance programs.
- However, achieving an efficient screening program with potentially high return on investment is feasible without significant disruption by leveraging solutions that have integration and automation capabilities.
- Integrating sanctions screening functionalities with CRM platforms like Salesforce streamlines compliance operations offering a way to systematically identify and eliminate restricted parties from business interactions thereby speeding time to value.
- Descartes Integrated Denied Party Screening solutions with Salesforces enables organizations to enhance workflow efficiency, ensure real-time sanctions compliance checks and empowers all areas of the business that are exposed to risk such as sales, marketing, legal, and compliance teams.
Why Denied Party Screening Matters
No company wants to be in the crosshairs of a government sanction due to a compliance violation. Not only are you fined for the sanctions violation such as in this recent OFAC enforcement action, but you risk the reputation of your organization significantly. Depending on the nature of the incident, the legal fine might even be the least of your worries.
You, like 3 out of 4 firms, want to prioritize regulatory risk management and compliance insurance. Part of that job is to check on the compliance level of any prospect you’re planning on working with.
The problem here is that compliance laws are more complicated than ever before, and you can’t rely solely on sales and marketing or legal to go through every connection. Sanctions and denied party screening should be a responsibility of the company as a whole rather than an afterthought for a separate department.
Common Misunderstandings about Denied Party Screening
To begin, let us understand what is denied party screening? Also known as sanctions list screening, denied party screening is the process of checking individuals, organizations, and any third parties against official sanctions lists / watch lists of individuals and entities with whom it is illegal to do business. Examples of such sanctions lists are OFAC’s denied parties list, BIS Entity List, and the EUs entity list etc. Denied party screening is a vital element of trade compliance processes and can help ensure an organization’s global trade activities are safeguarded against sanctions violations.
So, what causes business management to think twice about denied party screening? The traditional approach to this process currently in use by many firms does introduce several disadvantages:
- It’s slow. Global Sanctions Screening involves a few extra steps that can slow down the work of the sales and marketing department if it alone ends up with the responsibility.
- It involves a lot of human input. Like most compliance tasks, checking your contacts with the government watch list usually means more manual labor for your employees, which can take up precious work hours that could be used elsewhere.
- It can be frustrating. Even if you delegate these extra steps to a separate compliance team, what happens when one party your sales group has already approved ends up caught on a restricted list? You end up throwing out that candidate and wasting precious time.
It’s clear that there’s a demand for more efficient ways to approach screening, and the solution comes in the form of automation and dedicated software. Approximately 70% of businesses already use digital solutions for achieving higher compliance rates, so don’t miss out.
Combining Automated Screening Features with CRM Platforms
In order to create a more streamlined workflow, it’s recommended that you integrate your Global Sanctions Search with the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform you already use, including Salesforce, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics and many others.
If you use Salesforce currently for organizing your transactions and data, then consider adopting a third-party integration to help with compliance as well. Salesforce Screening uses the Descartes service to provide automated screening functionalities.
This way, you can make routine checks at every step of the interaction. The sales team will know instantly whether a prospect is on a restricted list. Another benefit is that such a solution guarantees that you are working with the most up-to-date copy of sanctions lists, as the government updates it constantly.
The Takeaway
Compliance matters. Businesses need to make sure the connections they make are legal. By integrating screening features into a CRM platform, a company can improve its compliance posture without cutting down on efficiency.
To give yourself a competitive edge, empower your sales, marketing, legal, and compliance teams with Salesforce and Descartes.
Read our white paper to get more detailed information about Performing Effective and Comprehensive Denied Party Screening Within the Salesforce CRM or visit our Salesforce screening resource center.
How can Descartes Help?
To help manage compliance risks more effectively, Descartes provides a range of denied party screening and 3rd party risk management solutions, including integration with Salesforce.
Descartes Visual Compliance solutions are flexible and modular, allowing organizations to pick the specific and exact functionality and content they need for their particular compliance needs and scale up later as and when necessary.
By utilizing our robust solutions, organizations can strengthen their compliance processes, enhance their competitive edge and increase sales velocity.
Are you interested in learning more about how Descartes can enhance your Salesforce deployment? Contact us today to get started. Also read what our customers are saying about us on G2 and see why we are ranked as the top denied party screening software solution.
