Keeping pace with compliance

Complinet has also included an e-learning component in its service, to aid in keeping employees educated about the myriad compliance requirements. More than 40 off-the-shelf products are offered, as well as customized online training, instructor-led training and a learning management system (LMS) to track corporate training.

Casting a wide net for compliance

For organizations that want to carry out Web surveillance to gather compliance-related news and information, smart agents from Connotate may be the right answer. Agents are set up to monitor Web sites, and then transform the collected data to present a customized and normalized view of the data. "Because these agents are intelligent, they can distinguish between a news story and advertising," says Bruce Molloy, CEO of Connotate, "or find the right data on a page even if it has been rearranged."

Connotate can access the so-called "deep Web" because the intelligent agents can interact with Web pages to gain access to databases and other sources that are not displayed initially on the Web page.

Investment banks are using Connotate agents to monitor regulations issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and pharmaceutical companies are monitoring those on the Web site of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for example.

"Private corporations that are considering acquisitions can retrieve data from a variety of Web sites that pertain to the potential acquisition," adds Molloy, "to detect material changes in the company’s status that might have compliance implications." Brokers who need to ensure that a basket of stocks is maintaining a particular level can set up complex agents to obtain the data and display it in conjunction with articles or analysts’ comments on the stocks.

Such integrated presentations from multiple sources are referred to as "mashups." By collecting and standardizing data from multiple sources and in different formats (e.g. HTML, XML, database), Connotate can present information in unique ways. Point-and-click interfaces empower users to create new content applications dynamically as their information requirements evolve.