Compliance professionals are swamped, be it due to a lack of personnel, teleconferencing with auditors and suppliers, or dealing with a host of compliance concerns, including sensitive medical data, teleworking guidelines and social distancing guidelines. If compliance professionals are working in a company that is retooling to help produce critical goods during the pandemic, they have even more to worry about.

It might be hard to imagine there was a life before the COVID-19 outbreak. For compliance professionals that normally conduct audits in the second quarter, or for compliance teams working on a massive project, like companywide training programs for screening software or efforts to comply with a coming regulation, the pandemic couldn’t come at a worse time.

“This is the largest single supply chain disruption event in history,” said Travis Miller, general counsel at Assent Compliance USA. “The world is going to look different when this is done.”

Clients have approached Assent seeking advice on how to conduct remote audits, what is required of companies producing under the Defense Production Act, how to retool without violating multiple regulatory requirements and what to do about mammoth, ongoing compliance projects in the meantime.