The Future of Customer Communications Compliance
We had a blast during the 2018 Advertising Review Client Advisory Board (CAB) meeting! A dozen of our clients and RegEd employees teamed up to review what’s coming down the pike for RegEd’s Advertising Review solution and the industry. During our nearly two-hour meeting, we discussed product features, played innovation games, and explored what the future of the industry could look like. See below for the top takeaways from this year’s session.
Third-Party Integrations
Over the past few years it has become more important than ever to have a fully holistic up- and down-stream review process. This includes connections with Marketing teams, Legal, and Subject Matter Experts (SME). Advertising Review has supported end-to-end compliance since its inception nearly 15 years ago – including integration with internal marketing and legal processes. However, firms are beginning to use a multitude of different software packages within the organization to satisfy siloed needs.
In 2016 Advertising Review started to bridge this gap when it released API web service integrations to allow different software to effortlessly communicate with Advertising Review. Several clients took advantage of this benefit by integrating internal systems, but we continued to receive requests to have turn-key connections with the most popular platforms used by other business groups in their organizations.
We were happy to announce during the CAB that we are indeed working throughout 2018 and 2019 to create “connectors” with other popular software products. Though we are not able to discuss details publicly at this time, please reach out to your Relationship Manager to provide feedback and suggested platforms to integrate with. If it is one we are currently working with, we will be sure to incorporate your ideas and recommendations.
Updated Reporting Metrics
It was clear that firms are consuming more and more data to help make better decisions throughout the compliance lifecycle. In doing so, it is vital that firms have access to reports to make their jobs more efficient. Advertising Review has always had actionable standard reports, and added the Search All Requests ad-hoc reporting tool in 2015.
The CAB members were given an opportunity to highlight other features they would like to see added to report functionality. In general, users would like to see additional filter metrics within the Search All Requests tool – mostly around attributes. CAB members went on to explain that using Rep Attributes that are fed into the RegEd system will help further refine their reports, such as submitter parameters like organizational status or individual distinctions.
The Advertising Review team is currently reviewing the specifications for an upcoming release. If you have any other report-specific suggestions, please reach out to your Relationship Manager.
Artificial Regulatory Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a buzz word that continues to float around the regulatory industry. Many have a hard time categorizing or articulating what it is and how it should intersect with the compliance industry. Without going into too much detail, it is important to have a general understanding of the concepts. There are essentially two types of AI: Narrow and General. Narrow is what most of us are aware of – Siri, Alexa, Spotify, Amazon Shopping suggestions, etc., – which are really good at one or two processes. While General AI is the belief that machines can function like a human brain and is very good at a multitude of actions, including learning.
After understanding the general definition of AI, most in the industry agree that Narrow AI is what will help streamline firm operations. The Advertising Review team is targeting a future release of an initial Artificial (Narrow) Intelligence feature. If you would like to collaborate on the process, please reach out to your Relationship Manager.
Excitement for 2018
Most of what is covered during CAB meetings are long-term goals, however, we also discussed what is coming in 2018. We have several exciting features including three large enhancements this year:
AREF 2.0: Two-way integration with FINRA’s AREF system. Letters and statuses are automatically ported back in to Advertising Review.
Expiration Extension: Ability to extend the life of a review item without having to copy, clone, or resubmit a submission.
All-New User Interface: Completely redesigned the user interface to improve the user experience by reducing number of clicks and creating a fully-responsive application on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.
We’re excited about the future of Advertising Review and appreciate our client’s commitment to partner with us today and in the future. For more information, please continue to subscribe to our Did You Know emails and check for upcoming webinars and whitepapers.
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