Regulatory change is now a recurring cost. Plan it like one.

Regulation no longer arrives as a one-off event. In the EU alone, the electronic freight information regulation is one of a sequence of digital reporting mandates, each with its own data model, deadline and national implementation. The Commission’s own impact assessment put the administrative savings from eFTI at €20–27 billion across 2020–2040 and 75–102 million work hours a year. The investment side was costed at €268 million. That ratio only materialises for companies that build the capability once and reuse it.

The pattern we see: a project team is stood up, a vendor is chosen, the deadline is met, the team disbands. Eighteen months later the next mandate arrives and the work starts again from zero, with a new team and a new vendor.

What changes the result: treat regulatory change as a standing capability with an owner, a data model and a budget line. Map every obligation to a system of record. Rehearse the next deadline before it is announced. Companies that do this stop paying the set-up cost twice.