Achieving a gold medal has always involved stamina, perseverance, hard work and determination. Achieving this gold-standard compliance is no different.
The SOC 2 certificate is challenging but worthwhile. As well as visibly showing your commitment to Information Security, it is an incredible way to systematically evaluate and improve your company’s handling of customer data throughout its lifecycle.
The goal of a SOC 2 audit is to pass! You do not get extra points for sleepless nights or mammoth efforts. Your auditor will be looking to see results. You should be looking for the most efficient method to achieve comprehensive results whilst alleviating the most common pain points associated with SOC 2.
A SOC 2 type 2 audit report involves solid preparation, widespread data collection, remediation, testing, analysis, and clear reporting. Using an automated compliance tool can bring endless benefits to the process and to the company, beyond the obvious.
The value of automated tools for SOC 2 is their ability to simplify tasks, minimize labor and optimize efficiency and output. Take time to understand how SOC 2 automation will assist you and which features to take advantage of.
Benefits of SOC 2 Compliance Automation
Time is Money: Save Both!
Not everything can be achieved with automation (yet!), but the parts of the process that you can automate will save you hundreds of hours of manual labor, freeing you up to concentrate on managing the process and continuing to run your company.
Consider the manual labor involved in each of these processes and now imagine how much time will be saved with a soc audit software that automates the following:
- Automated onboarding and data collection – Onboard and begin uploading upload data in minutes.
- Automated presentation and analysis of data – Clear organized lists and charts with organized findings for insightful analysis
- Generate different types of reports automatically – Customizable reports for tracking progress, remediation, and for the final audit!
- Smart questionnaires and mapping – Pre-loaded questionnaires to easily track your fulfillment of SOC 2 requirements and controls. Answer once and use the data across other compliance frameworks to measure compliance with Smart Mapping!
- Automated remediation steps – Insightful remediation steps automatically generated based on your input data.
- Visibly measure and track progress – Centralized visual dashboards will provide high-level and detailed representations of compliance progress as well as assign a score for clear understanding!
Organization, Storage & Access
There’s no need to deal with thousands of papers detailing evidence of controls or worry about others losing it or creating havoc. SOC 2 compliance software will concentrate all of your data and evidence in one place. You can upload and store evidence, keeping it accessible at a moment’s notice and without the worry of keeping it in order. Using a centralized compliance automation platform means that you can assign roles and responsibilities and give access to as many or as few individuals as necessary.
Start Getting Value With
Centraleyes for Free
See for yourself how the Centraleyes platform exceeds anything an old GRC
system does and eliminates the need for manual processes and spreadsheets
to give you immediate value and run a full risk assessment in less than 30 days
Easy Analysis & Visibility
A SOC 2 compliance automation platform will organize all the data and present it clearly for easy analysis and full visibility over your progress. You can assign and track tasks, measure progress, and see clearly what remains to be done. Look out for a centralized dashboard that can provide visual high-level and detailed representations of your data for easier decision making and a continuous realistic view of your compliance posture.
BONUS TIP: Gaining comprehensive visibility over your company will help you to limit the scope of your audit to that which is necessary.
It isn’t just about your data. Understanding what is expected of you from the SOC 2 audit is overwhelming. Using a platform that has a pre-programmed list of controls and requirements in questionnaire form will help you understand what you need to do to achieve compliance and greatly boost your ability to prioritize and see tasks through to completion.
BONUS TIP: Automated analysis of your company’s information security posture will provide you with insight into your policies, processes and how your company is functioning overall, irrespective of SOC 2.
Reduce Human Error
Eliminate repetitive and tedious work, dual labor and the mistakes that inevitably come as a result. Automated tasks will assist workers and even alert managers to anomalies, gaps or suspicious activity. Records and assignments will increase accountability and help employees remain organized.
Automated built-in lists of SOC 2 security requirements eliminates the worry of leaving out important steps or forgetting to evaluate particular controls.
Reports
Automated reports that were once a dream are now a welcome reality. Reports are necessary at many stages of the process- in addition to the final SOC 2 audit report. Customizable reports can show progress, identify gaps, prioritize remediation, explain the company’s compliance posture to gain board level support or supply information needed for strategic decision making. Automated reports save hours of sifting through information and collating it for presentation and allow real-time visibility. Auditors can download reports in seconds.
True Security
Automating continuous scans, monitoring and alerts mean that you not only fulfill SOC 2 requirements for your current audit, you also maintain compliance throughout the year, readying your company for annual SOC 2 renewals and other compliance audits. Alerts will let you know when something needs your attention. All of these tools will increase your company’s security posture, strengthening smooth business operations, protecting you from legal issues and boosting your ability to function optimally.
Additional Features to Look Out For SOC 2 Compliance Automation Tool
- Easy to Use: Look for an intuitive visual software that is easy to deploy and start working with. Modern platforms will save you significant amounts of time with easy onboarding and smart questionnaires to get you started in minutes and manage your data collection for you.
- Preloaded SOC 2 framework & Smart Mapping: Platforms that leverage preloaded frameworks will give you a comprehensive list of the SOC 2 controls list, eliminating the worry of missing anything and discovering your mistake during the audit. Smart mapping maps and applies compliance controls to your systems, endpoints, and processes.
BONUS TIP: An automated compliance platform with a smart mapping feature will take your data from the SOC 2 security controls list and apply it to other compliance frameworks to see where you’re compliant, eliminating dual labor if you need to achieve ISO 27001, HIPAA or others.
- Risk assessment: A risk assessment is a critical part in the planning phase of a SOC 2 audit. Look for a compliance platform with comprehensive risk assessment capabilities and use the outcome of the assessment to identify gaps, increase security posture, and communicate the importance of the audit easily across the organization.
- Ability to scale: Your company is growing and your compliance management tools must be able to grow with you. Look for easy onboarding and multi-tenancy to allow you to scale your growth and remain compliant.
Automating compliance can mean the difference between a laborious, manual, time-consuming slog and a streamlined, organized, successful SOC 2 audit.
See for yourself how the automated Centraleyes Compliance Management platform will free-up hundreds of hours, maximize your resources, boost your efficiency and see you to the successful completion of your SOC 2 audit. Schedule a demo today to see our specialized SOC 2 pathway and pave the way for next-gen automated compliance management.
Start Getting Value With
Centraleyes for Free
See for yourself how the Centraleyes platform exceeds anything an old GRC
system does and eliminates the need for manual processes and spreadsheets
to give you immediate value and run a full risk assessment in less than 30 days
