Software Method for Regulatory Compliance

Abstract

Some acts of legislation impose various requirements on public and private entities. Generating awareness of these requirements and how they impact operations, as well as ongoing monitoring for compliance, is a complex problem. A solution to the challenge can be facilitated by a software system capable of simultaneously addressing multiple regulatory compliance requirements. The software method of this invention combines a unified ontology-based compliance model with reasoning elements to address compliance issues across multiple governance areas. The unified compliance model (UCM) allows a more effective identification and analysis of compliance issues that are common between separate regulatory acts as well as addressing interrelationships between multiple distinct regulations. By using a unified hierarchical ontology-based knowledge repository, the analysis software is able to operate on a consistent semantic representation of the information while facilitating the development and ongoing enhancement of the solution. Analysis and automated reasoning about the information in the knowledgebase can be implemented either as a capability of the built-in reasoners of the ontology system or via external analysis elements. The method of this invention can be applied to various issues common to regulatory compliance such as analysis of electronic, communications, network activity, or combinations of both. Additionally, financial analysis elements can utilize the unified compliance model to identify the costs associated with bringing an organization into compliance as well as provide planning support for optimizing a response in accordance with specified restraints.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.