7 steps to build a complete compliance strategy

The  compliance strategy that worked for you last year might not work today. That’s because compliance regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, FINRA, SOX, and a growing list of state and regional mandates keep shifting. And the cost of falling short of meeting new regulations has real repercussions: Fines, legal exposure, and reputational damage are all on the table for businesses that aren’t on top of regulatory requirements.

The good news is that compliance is more manageable than it looks. With the right tools and policies in place, staying audit-ready doesn't require a large IT team or an infrastructure overhaul.

Whether your business operates in the US, Europe, or both, these seven steps will help you build a strong foundation for your compliance strategy.

1. Know which regulations apply to you

Start by mapping the regulatory compliance landscape relevant to your industry and geography. You can't build a strategy to meet your compliance requirements without knowing what those requirements are. Here are a few common regulations to consider:

• HIPAA applies to healthcare organizations and any vendor handling protected health information.
• GDPR governs businesses that collect or process EU resident data, regardless of where the business is headquartered.
• FINRA and SEC rules cover financial services firms operating in US markets.
• State-level regulations in the US vary widely and add another layer, especially for businesses registered or operating across multiple states.

2. Don’t treat backup as compliance

Backup protects data from loss, and it’s a valuable solution for all businesses. That said, it doesn't satisfy your compliance requirements. Regulations like GDPR and HIPAA require searchable, tamper-proof records retained for specific periods, and backup systems aren't built for that. Business communications archiving is. Understanding the types of compliance your business is subject to makes it easier to see where backup ends and archiving needs to begin.

3. Archive your email for discovery

A solid email compliance posture starts with knowing where your data lives and how long it's retained. Most compliance requirements treat email as a legal record, and in a dispute or audit, the ability to find a specific message quickly can be the difference between a clean resolution and prolonged exposure. That means your archive needs to be indexed, organized, and searchable by date, sender, recipient, keyword, and more.

Your email compliance should also account for retention timelines. Different regulatory requirements specify how long records must be kept, and those windows vary by industry and region. Your email archive needs to reflect those requirements at the policy level, not just in practice.

OpenText MailStore is one of the leading email archiving solutions built to do exactly that, keeping your archive audit-ready without putting the burden on IT to manually pull records every time a request comes in.

4. Archive all business communications

Going beyond email, a complete approach to regulatory compliance accounts for the full picture of how your organization communicates. Businesses exchange sensitive information across Slack, Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, and other platforms every day, and depending on industry regulations, those records carry the same compliance weight as email. That's where an electronics communications archiving solution is a critical part of your compliance strategy.

OpenText Core Business Communication Archive (BCA) captures and indexes data from more than 50 sources of communication in a single, searchable archive, so when records are requested, you can surface them fast without scrambling across disconnected systems.

5. Give legal and HR self-service access

Fast retrieval is a core part of regulatory compliance management, but in many organizations, the process for pulling records is laborious. A legal or HR team member identifies a need, submits a request to IT, and waits. In a compliance context, that lag creates risk. Audit timelines are tight, and legal holds need to be applied quickly. The longer it takes to retrieve a record, the more exposure the business carries. The fix is to give the teams who need the data direct access to find it themselves.

Both BCA and MailStore are designed with non-technical users in mind, so legal and HR teams can run their own eDiscovery searches and retrieve communications without routing every request through IT. The result is a faster response during compliance audits or inquiries, and a lighter lift on your technical staff.

6. Lock down data with immutable storage

Regulatory oversight increasingly requires that archived records stay unchanged and tamper-proof. Look for archiving solutions that offer:

• Immutable storage using WORM-compatible hardware, so records can't be altered after the fact.
• Encryption and audit logs that protect data integrity over time.
• Configurable retention policies that align with your specific regulatory compliance obligations.

OpenText BCA and MailStore are both built with these protections in place, so your compliance foundation is solid from day one.

7. Review your strategy as regulations change

IT regulatory compliance isn't a one-time project. Regulatory risk grows when businesses set policies and forget them. New mandates emerge at the federal, state, and regional level, and a strategy that met your compliance regulations last year may have gaps today. Build in regular reviews to confirm your tools, retention policies, and access settings to stay current with the regulatory policies that apply to  your business.

Building a sustainable compliance culture

Building a robust compliance strategy is a journey rather than a destination. As regulations evolve and the digital landscape grows more complex, the ability to act with confidence depends on having the right tools integrated into your daily operations. By prioritizing searchable archives, immutable storage, and cross-departmental access, you transform compliance from a reactive burden into a reliable pillar of your business infrastructure. Start these seven steps today to secure your data and stay prepared for whatever the next audit cycle brings.

Read more:

Compliance regulations: What your business needs to know

The case for archiving your business communications

Regulatory compliance risks and why email archiving matters

How 3 businesses tackle email compliance