Using Automated Screening in Salesforce for Stronger Compliance and Business Growth

When it comes to maintaining compliance, there’s no denying the importance of Denied Party Screening to mitigate the risk of working with restricted, sanctioned or blocked parties as well as reducing the probability of incurring associated noncompliance penalties.

However, some company management teams do not consider Restricted Party Screening as an investment that generates value for the organization.

The truth is that getting the largest return on your screening investment depends on how smart your approach is. Like many other business processes, automation can be a great way to deploy a comprehensive screening procedure that lowers the cost to you while reducing risk and providing your company with enhanced competitive advantage.

Compliance laws and their associated penalties are more stringent than ever before. It’s become apparent that the increasing complexity of certain business regulations makes it difficult for a single person or department to handle compliance duties in a company.

If you are ever caught with an infraction (i.e., your sales team makes a deal with a banned party on a government watch list), the resulting fines will cut into your bottom line and potentially tarnish or ruin the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build with your business partners and customers.

Despite these compliance requirements, not all management teams look favorably on the screening process. The problems with traditional methods of Global Sanctions Screening include:

• Slow speed: Some companies believe that denied party screening just adds in extra steps and slows down the decision-making process.
• Manual work: Cross-checking all your contacts with a government watch list can take a lot of paperwork and manual searching, which are slow and expensive labor-wise.
• Administrative fragmentation: Businesses sometimes delegate the responsibility of screening to a separate compliance department. The result is that the sales team might work to close a deal only for another department to shut it down later for compliance reasons, resulting in significant frustration.

Modern solutions have largely solved these problems. Seven out of 10 businesses surveyed in the 2021 KPMG study reported using technology to boost the capabilities of their compliance programs. Screening functions, for instance, can be built into the customer relationship management (CRM) platform of a business to automate most of the work.

You’ve likely heard of or even have first-hand experience with Salesforce, one of the most widely used CRMs across businesses of all types. The service helps organizations keep track of all their customer and prospect-facing transactions and other relevant data. It also features the ability to integrate with third-party tools and solutions, which can include a Global Sanctions Search.

Salesforce Screening combines the power of CRM functionalities with integrated screening tools like Descartes. Best of all, the screening can take place before or during the sales engagement rather than only afterward. This way, the compliance team isn’t always stepping on the toes of the sales and marketing group. Automated screening also ensures you are working with the most up-to-date government watch lists.

Say, for instance, that your marketing department generates a list of potential prospects to engage with. The automated screening system checks all of them instantly and weeds out any illicit ones from the list before sales wastes any time on them.

The result here is twofold: the compliance posture of the organization is stronger and revenue is higher thanks to improved sales and marketing efficiency. It’s clear why automated screening makes so much sense for maintaining a competitive edge in an ever-changing market.

Also take a look at our white paper for more information about Performing Effective and Comprehensive Denied Party Screening Within the Salesforce CRM or visit our Salesforce screening resource center.

To help manage compliance risk more effectively, Descartes provides a range of denied party screening and 3^rd party risk management solutions, including straightforward integration and Salesforce.

By utilizing our robust solutions, organizations can strengthen their compliance processes, enhance their competitive edge, and increase sales velocity.