In a perfect world, when you ask for a certificate of insurance, it’ll be given to you entirely and perfectly filled out, 100% error-free. But you already know this much: we don’t live in a perfect world.
Being a compliance officer is difficult enough with all the expiration dates and information that you have to manage or go through; it doesn’t help to have vendors, project managers and contractors who fail to realize the importance of their COIs on your desk before they begin work. It’s good that they’re eager to get something done right away, but you know better than to let them start without proof that you won’t be the one dealing with the fallout in the event of an accident or disaster.
The Three Kinds of Vendors That You’ll Meet
There are only three kinds of vendors: the kind that gives you COIs and endorsements that meet your firm’s standards, the kind that gives you a fake COI, and the kind that hands you insurance documents that are so fecklessly done you have to call them again. And again. And yet again. You probably know the drill for non-compliant COIs at this point: an unending stream of emails, calls with third party staff spanning hours and sometimes going to the Insurer directly to help you fix the mess and have the work begin ASAP.
But as a compliance officer, you don’t get to pick and choose which vendors you get to deal with. Other people call the shots for you, and they’re not always privy (or sympathetic!) to the constant paper trail that you continuously have to deal with. Still, you got your work cut out for you, and just because most of your execs don’t grasp the immense importance of what you do for your firm’s risk management strategy doesn’t mean you do your job well.
The Magic of Automation
It’s not a matter of “if,” but “when”: any way you slice it, you’ll be dealing with all three kinds of vendors throughout your career as a compliance officer. So it’s more a matter of preparedness on your part than anything else. What do you do when you’re given a verifiably fake COI? How will you manage your time between your tasks when you’re given a non-compliant COI that will definitely eat up a lot of your time?
At the end of the day, what you want is to have some real time on your hands to handle these superfluous tasks without losing track of everything else. Thankfully, you can achieve that level of flexibility through automation, namely through COI tracking software like COI Tracker. By performing end-to-end COI collection, data aggregation, and entry, as well as deadline/renewal intimation, you’ll have more time to read through endorsements and, of course, improve communication with third parties that will reduce their time spent in no-work limbo.
Get More Things Done with COI Tracker
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg: COI Tracker can do a lot more than that. It even automates COI review and validation, as well as generates a thorough report about your company’s compliance ratings. Also, it lets you deal with everything relevant to your occupation in one centralized software that integrates with your ERP flawlessly.
Don’t waste your life by insisting on doing it the old-fashioned way. Achieve a new level of ease and flexibility today by requesting a demo. It’s a great way to manage your firm’s risks and save time for other things that need your attention.