The Business Case for Integrating Denied Party Screening with Salesforce – Strengthened Compliance and Increased Sales Velocity

International compliance regulations from governments and multinational bodies can often be extremely thorough and comprehensive – so much so that organizations are pressed to develop a denied party screening process that can keep up with the rules, reduce their risk exposure profile, and minimize the potential of human oversights and lapses.

The motivation to comply is out of fear of violating the rules which could hurt their business through fines, other penalties, and negative media coverage. But more enlightened companies have a different perspective; that of strengthened compliance processes facilitating faster sales cycles which in turn increases sales velocity. They see an opportunity for competitive advantage.

It comes as no surprise then that the common response by many companies has been to integrate third party screening into their existing business processes, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.

Integrating screening directly into CRM systems – especially at the leads, contacts and accounts levels – can be extremely effective and advantageous. Since all sales and business transactions have to go through an organization’s CRM system regardless, embedding an automated restricted party screening process can help them meet their compliance goals, while also keeping the actual process virtually seamless.

Why integrate screening with a CRM system?

The benefits of CRM integrated denied and third-party screening can best be understood through a practical example. Consider, for example, a sales representative who has identified a potential lead, made contact with them, and started to work on closing the sale. Towards the end of the sale, they are informed by the legal or compliance department that the lead generates a hit on denied party list, and that any business transactions with them needed to be suspended until the screening match is resolved. In a scenario like this, the opportunity cost losses are huge – all the time, effort, and resources the sales representative has spent on this lead are now potentially wasted.

However, if the organization had integrated denied party screening into their CRM system, then as soon as the lead’s name was entered into the system, a hit would have been generated, and the salesperson would have known not to pursue the lead, pending the match being resolved by the compliance department. A lot of time and resources, not to mention frustration, would have been saved.

And because integrated screening is automated, the compliance status of a lead is already up-to-date when the draft deal is handed to Legal who can focus on examining the terms and conditions. The result is that a high level of compliance is maintained throughout the sales cycle and since the vetting of the paperwork is completed faster, the sales velocity increases significantly.

Why Salesforce?

Salesforce presents itself as a natural fit for integrating global sanctions screening and export compliance processes for a variety of reasons. Chief among these is the fact that it is the leading CRM platform with the capability to allow for seamless integrations with multiple apps.

Salesforce’s intrinsic simplicity means that extending its capabilities to include a compliance process would be straightforward via integrations with external add-on modules or managed packages

Organizations should extend their compliance coverage

In today’s compliance world, different parts of the organization’s business need to make sure they are adhering to the rules. Traditionally, compliance has been the responsibility of the Legal and Export Compliance departments. However, companies risk interfacing with denied parties on many fronts – new hires, contractors, visitors, to name a few. Sales and marketing are no exception, and here the route to compliance is through a screening process integrated with Salesforce or other CRM systems.

Because the fallout from non-compliance can be severe, it makes sense for companies to expand their compliance capabilities to include screening in Salesforce. It’s not just about abiding by the regulation, it also makes sense in terms of the smooth running of the business over the long term, with as few disruptions as possible. Adequately addressing compliance requirements, gives organizations a competitive edge over those who have not.

How Descartes Visual Compliance can help

Descartes Visual Compliance is a provider of industry-leading compliance and automated denied party screening solutions. Its extensive, accurate, and up-to-date compliance data makes it an easy choice for organizations of all sizes, industries, and geographies aiming to minimize their potential exposure to export compliance violations.

When deploying it with Salesforce, it has some unique and specific benefits and advantages. Most importantly, Descartes Visual Compliance has almost no deployment time – integration typically takes less than an hour, and the solution can be implemented at multiple points in the sales cycle, further extending and enhancing an organization’s compliance coverage while requiring minimal IT resources or human intervention. Descartes Visual Compliance is also uniquely modular, allowing organizations to select only the functionality and screening lists that are relevant to their business, which save on costs by not having to spend money on lists or features not currently required.

Read our white paper to get more detailed information about Performing Effective and Comprehensive Denied Party Screening Within the Salesforce CRM.

Find out what our customers are saying about Descartes Denied Party Screening on G2 – an online third-party business software review platform. Additionally, you can read this essential buyer’s guide to denied party screening to help you select a solution that fits your needs.