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Because compliance is by nature mandatory, it is often seen as a burden, something with little upside beyond satisfying the obligation, avoiding fines, and passing audits. But if one takes a step back from the process, it is possible to gain a new perspective, and find new value in data collected for regulatory purposes.

Remember that regulatory and compliance data is just data. It describes business activity, plain and simple. Especially in an industrial context, a huge amount of data is collected, curated, cleaned, stored and used for regulatory reporting.

While some regulatory data may be hard to repurpose for anything but compliance, other data like reporting on the chain of custody in pharma companies or emissions data in oil and gas companies can also be used to understand the state of many business processes. The chain of custody data can track the speed of various steps in the manufacturing process. Emissions data may be able to improve models for mass and energy balance. 

At Hitachi Vantara, we seek to enable data to have as many lives as possible. We love the fact that data is one asset that isn’t consumed when it is used. Once collected and in place, it just keeps radiating value, sort of like the sun. 

That’s why we recommend that our clients consider how they can get an ROI from regulatory and compliance data by putting it to use for other purposes. Here are some tips for doing so:

Treat Regulatory and Compliance Data as an Asset: Too often regulatory and compliance data is collected and used in single-purpose databases. To unlock its value, store it in a data warehouse or object storage or some other format that can be described with metadata, catalogued, and easily reused.

Combine Regulatory and Compliance Data with Other Sources: While regulatory data may tell the whole story for compliance purposes, it often tells only part of the business story. Remember to blend regulatory data with sensor and other business data sources to see the bigger picture. Often regulatory data includes data from suppliers and partners, which allows a larger story to be told. Consider the data you have in the context of the whole supply chain. What can you glean from thinking of the data you have more broadly?

Use Regulatory and Compliance Data to Build Detailed Models: Regulatory and compliance data can be the foundation of models of business activity. If partner and supplier data is included, those models can extend beyond the boundaries of the enterprise.

Seek to Identify Business Signals in Regulatory and Compliance Data: Regulatory and compliance data often tracks mission critical activities. By looking for trends and anomalies in such data, important business signals can be unearthed. For example, think about emissions data; you need this data for regulatory reporting. But what else is in that data? Could machine learning surface hidden information in that data to drive predictive maintenance? 

Brainstorm with Those Closest to the Data: By collaborating with operational technology (OT) experts, the people closest to the machines that collect the data, you can get insights into the meaning of data and possible uses for it that go beyond compliance to business value. 

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it should show that it is possible to transform regulatory and compliance data into an asset that provides new types of value.

To learn more, please read this E-book on Why we need IT/OT Convergence from Hitachi Vantara and visit the https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/products/iot/lumada-edge-intelligence.html.