Suresh Kannan is Model N’s Chief Product Officer. He has over 25 years of experience in product development and management.
Regulatory violations could lead to hefty fines, bad press, lawsuits and government action while also threatening customer trust. The Trump administration is pushing for aggressive deregulation, but in reality, regulatory requirements rarely disappear—they evolve. Hence, businesses cannot plan for a reduced compliance burden. Instead, they must build flexible compliance processes.
Amid the evolving policy environment, software companies have an opportunity to differentiate their products by embedding regulatory expertise into their development process. Helping customers navigate complex regulations elevates a company from being a mere vendor to an indispensable partner. The best and commercially successful platforms don’t just enable compliance; they increase operational efficiency and fuel strategic insights.
Prioritizing Compliance In Product Development
Uncertain regulatory environments heighten the need for adaptable solutions. Failure to incorporate dynamic compliance capabilities into software solutions can lead to costly disruptions and significant business risk for the software company as well as its customers. Retrofitting changes into an existing product is time-consuming and expensive, and delayed updates put customers at risk of regulatory violations. Companies that design flexible regulatory frameworks and stay ahead of changes make it easier for their customers to adapt when policies shift.
Product teams serving regulated industries must closely monitor policy trends by engaging with industry groups, regulatory bodies and legal experts. However, tracking regulations alone isn’t enough—understanding their real-world implications is crucial. This requires direct and active customer collaboration.
One way to do this is to incorporate customer feedback loops throughout the product development life cycle. By establishing customer advisory boards, user groups, design partner programs and feedback forums, developers can better understand customer pain points and build features accordingly.
This input gives product teams the ability to anticipate customer needs and proactively translate new requirements into product capabilities before customers even ask for them. The result is a product that not only aligns with evolving regulations but also supports customers’ strategic business goals.
Supporting Compliance And Business Success With Product Features
Translating regulatory insights into tangible product capabilities requires a thoughtful approach to development. While updates should be seamless, fully automated releases can introduce unintended risks. Platforms must be structured to allow customers to control how and when they receive updates while still providing them with compliance with the most current policies.
Automated reporting is a key compliance feature. This capability helps ease the burden on teams and reduces errors. Platforms should create regulator-ready reports precisely formatted to meet unique state or agency requirements and product teams must continuously refine and update these templates as requirements change. Simplify audit readiness with automated logging and traceability so customers can quickly respond to inquiries without scrambling for historical data.
Beyond static reporting, real-time compliance monitoring is also important. These capabilities should detect potential violations, flag gaps and suggest corrective actions before issues escalate. For example, a revenue management tool might alert a pharmaceutical manufacturer to a contract pricing structure that exceeds Medicaid rebate rules before the contract is signed. This proactive approach prevents costly oversights.
Supporting regulatory compliance delivers more value for customers than just helping them avoid punitive measures. Insights from these platforms should empower businesses to optimize their revenue strategies. Scenario planning capabilities should allow companies to model potential policy changes and assess their financial impact. For example, semiconductor manufacturers can forecast cost increases from tariffs and demand shifts from trade restrictions. This information enables them to adjust supply chain strategies, optimize pricing structures and evaluate alternative market opportunities.
One significant challenge to implementing these features lies in the inherent complexity and potential ambiguity of regulatory requirements. Regulatory documents are often written for legal interpretation, not technical implementation, leaving development teams struggling to translate abstract obligations into concrete product functionalities. Additionally, ensuring data accuracy and integrity within compliance features, especially for reporting and audit trails, can be technically demanding and prone to errors if not carefully managed.
To successfully implement compliance features, build a cross-functional compliance framework, bringing together legal, product, customer success and engineering/IT teams to share insights and align on strategy. Investing in robust data validation and governance processes is crucial to guarantee the accuracy and reliability of data.
Compliance-Driven Innovation
The volatile state of regulatory changes is a source of uncertainty for many businesses, but it also presents opportunities to provide ongoing value to customers. The goal shouldn’t just be to keep up with policy updates but to lead in compliance-driven innovation.
By building flexible frameworks into the product development cycle, tech companies can strengthen customer trust by empowering their customers to adapt quickly to regulatory changes, manage risks effectively and refine their business strategies.
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