8 Best Compliance Automation Tools: How to Choose

What is Compliance Automation?

Compliance automation is like finding an underground tunnel through a (literal) mountain of paperwork and manual processes. Suddenly, the daunting task of aligning processes with requirements and preparing for audits makes you sweat a lot less. 

So, what’s the secret to automation? 

It’s all about working smarter, not harder.

The perpetual cycle of catch-up is replaced by proactivity. With automation, organizations may even exceed compliance standards, setting new benchmarks for excellence. 

It sounds imaginary, doesn’t it? But it’s the new reality for those who have already made the leap to automated compliance tools.

To help teams alleviate all-too-familiar compliance pain points, we’ll share our top picks for the eight best compliance automation platforms and explore key areas where automation can make all the difference.

Top Eight Compliance Automation Platforms

1. Centraleyes (see it in action)

Standout Points: Centraleyes offers comprehensive compliance automation, powerful risk assessment tools, policy enforcement, and audit trail logging. 

Centraleyes’s centralized design, customizable workflows, and automated reporting give you a 20/20 vision of your compliance and risk management processes. It excels at providing real-time insights and risk-based compliance management.

Centraleyes comes pre-loaded with over 70 frameworks to evaluate compliance progress through comprehensive risk scoring.

Centraleyes is the only hybrid vendor risk solution that constantly updates security gaps in internal systems and a vendor’s risk profile. With Centraleyes automation, organizations can continuously assess, categorize, and prioritize risk within their internal networks and across hundreds of vendors—all in one hub! 

2. ServiceNow 

Standout Points: ServiceNow GRC provides a unified platform for automating and streamlining governance, risk, and compliance processes. It offers a robust ticketing system, risk assessment, compliance monitoring, and audit management capabilities. ServiceNow GRC stands out for its expandability, customization options, and integration capabilities with other ServiceNow modules.

3. RSA Archer

Standout Points: RSA Archer is a leading GRC platform known for helping organizations manage risk, ensure compliance, and meet ESG directives. It offers solutions for policy management, risk assessment, incident response, and compliance reporting. RSA Archer is more well-liked for their first-party risk management and compliance solutions.

4. MetricStream

Standout Points: MetricStream is a comprehensive GRC platform that helps organizations automate and integrate compliance management processes. It offers modules for regulatory compliance, policy management, risk assessment, and audit management. MetricStream stands out for its user-friendly interface, workflow automation, and robust reporting capabilities.

5. LogicManager

Standout Points: LogicManager is a GRC platform known for its ease of use and automation of manual work processes. It offers regulatory compliance, risk assessment, policy management, and audit management modules. LogicManager is an ERM (Enterprise Risk Management) software that facilitates proactive risk management across businesses of various sizes and sectors.

6. ZenGRC

Standout Points: ZenGRC by Risk Optics is a user-friendly GRC platform that elevates compliance management processes to a strategic level. It offers modules for compliance, security, and IT risk activities. ZenGRC stands out for its intuitive interface, quick deployment, and built-in processes to streamline compliance efforts.

7. AuditBoard

Standout Points: AuditBoard is a leading GRC platform known for its comprehensive suite of modules designed to streamline compliance and audit management processes. It offers modules for risk assessment, policy enforcement, and audit trail logging, enabling organizations to maintain compliance across various regulatory standards. AuditBoard stands out for its centralized data aggregation, customizable workflows, and robust reporting capabilities.

8. OneTrust

Standout Points: OneTrust is a global cloud platform that empowers organizations to automate and streamline their GRC processes. It provides a unified solution that assists businesses in responsibly using data and preserving individuals’ privacy rights. 

Where Compliance Automation Tools Make a Difference

Centralized and Visual Repository

Manual documentation and auditing processes look something like this: 

• Jennifer sends Luke some docs as attachments via email.
• Luke saves them on OneDrive.
• And Andrew? He’s old school – he drops a literal stack of sheets on Jennifer’s desk.

It’s not just about having bits and pieces all over the place. You also need to hunt them down, and we’re not even talking about running after vendors for questionnaires. 

Centralizing and automating compliance activities and documentation unlocks a wealth of insights, enabling teams to organize, prioritize, and carry out critical compliance tasks from a central portal. 

It’s hard to believe that in 2024, compliance managers will still send emails and text messages reminding employees to return documentation needed for an audit or compliance directive via email. The files are stored in various formats (think Jennifer, Luke, and Andrew) until the audit looms. 

The job might be manageable if audits were done once a year. However, many organizations need to be audited or assessed every few months, and compliance requirements often overlap. By keeping a disparate system for compliance, teams spend a disproportionate amount of time on redundant tasks and technical runarounds. 

Hello, automation!

Centraleyes enables teams to eliminate hours of manual processes involved in compliance workflows. A real-time dashboard provides full visibility into compliance workflows and customized, industry-specific advisories, regulatory updates, and gap alerts.

Continuous Monitoring and Assessments

Point-in-time compliance checks hinder your team’s ability to maintain a continuous state of compliance. Automated compliance platforms scan for vulnerabilities, notify you of changes to security frameworks, and offer risk remediation guidance for you and your vendors based on real-time data. 

Periodically reassessing your frameworks can be crucial to ensure your ongoing compliance and risk posture. 

With Centraleyes,  you can set up as many reassessment cadences as you’d like for each control by simply setting dates in the frequency of your choice. The remediation center will automatically notify control owners when it is time to reassess the questions they’ve been assigned to.

Risk Assessment as a Foundation for Compliance Management

One key advantage of conducting risk assessments as part of your compliance workflow is its ability to tailor compliance practices to the business’s unique context. Compliance frameworks provide broad guidelines but do not consider your business’s unique factors. 

Automated risk assessments help organizations prioritize compliance risks based on their potential impact and likelihood of occurrence. High-priority risks are identified and prioritized in the company to-do list. 

Centraleyes puts risk assessments at the foundation for your compliance management. This way, you can be confident that the most critical compliance gaps are adequately addressed. Also, with automated risk assessment, you can identify and remediate gaps in multiple frameworks. 

Goodbye, Silos!

Audit Trail and Reporting Capabilities

Accountability is the core of compliance management. Automated platforms offer robust audit trails and reporting capabilities. With automation, it’s easy to track changes, monitor compliance activities, and generate comprehensive reports for internal stakeholders and regulatory authorities. 

Audits are the most resource-draining areas of compliance. Having automatically generated reports on hand based on the documentation you’ve compiled towards the audit helps you breathe through your audits. 

Centraleyes eliminates the pre-audit feverish frenzy that accompanies finding the necessary documentation when time is short and pressure runs high.

Automated Remediation

An automated compliance system enables you to identify compliance gaps easily. Once the gaps are identified, the platform creates actionable remediation tasks, guiding the responsible teams on what they need to do.

An advanced automated platform will notify responsible parties when compliance violations occur. 

When a system’s security configuration policy is violated, the Centraleyes remediation center alerts the control administrator.

Buy-In Tips for Compliance Teams

Communication is Everything

Automation is about change. And change can be daunting. Each department will balk at a compliance overhaul from a different vantage point. 

• The finance department is naturally wary of investing in a compliance program. 
• The IT team may be concerned about integrations and configurations. 
• The HR team may be concerned about retraining or upskilling employees to adapt to new technologies and processes.

Each department has its own set of fears and challenges. Recognizing, understanding, and addressing these is the first step towards dismantling barriers.

You’ll need to do a lot of listening to get stakeholder buy-in. Listening will help you understand each stakeholder’s unique needs and challenges. This deep understanding will allow you to tailor your compliance approach to sync with broader business objectives.

Start Small and Win Big

Quick wins (manageable tasks) demonstrate the immediate value of automation to stakeholders. Start with a few areas where automation will have a strong impact. Let these quick wins lay the foundation for broader automation initiatives and build momentum for approvals of more intensive compliance automation software solutions. It’s a win-win strategy!

Demonstrate Cost Savings: Small and medium-sized businesses usually view costs as a determining factor. Explain how security compliance automation can lead to significant long-run cost savings. Provide case studies or examples of similar companies that have benefitted from automation. This brings us to the next item on the list.

Competitive Advantage: Compliance automation is a strategic investment that can give small companies a competitive edge. Illustrate how efficient compliance processes and a strong compliance posture can enhance reputation, build customer trust, and attract new business opportunities.

Highlight Time Savings: Time is a valuable resource for everyone, especially for SMBs. Emphasize how security compliance automation streamlines processes, reduces administrative burden, and frees up time for employees to focus on more strategic business activities. 

Play on the Dynamic Regulatory Landscape: Small companies need help to stay abreast of changing regulatory requirements. Automation can help small companies proactively adapt to evolving compliance landscapes, cross easily between frameworks,  and reduce compliance risks.

The Role of Automation in Today’s Compliance Landscape

Recent updates such as NIST CSF 2.0 and PCI DSS 4.0 have made compliance more nuanced. Automation becomes crucial for organizations striving to navigate these regulatory challenges.

NIST’s proposal to include a new “governance” function within the CSF 2.0 framework underscores the importance of holistic governance practices in prioritizing and implementing cybersecurity measures. Automation plays a pivotal role here by facilitating cross-sectoral governance practices, ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements, and bridging the gap between risk and compliance across various organizational functions.

The newly effective PCI DSS 4.0’s shift towards an outcome-based approach and customized validation necessitates flexible compliance solutions. Automation enables organizations to tailor their security controls to their unique environments. 

Spotlight on HIPAA Compliance Automation

Say goodbye to manual tasks and silos and hello to streamlined workflows. With Centraleyes, you can automate compliance tasks, manage risk assessments, and ensure HIPAA compliance effortlessly. Focus on providing your consumers with the best healthcare and medical products while the heavy compliance load gets much lighter with HIPAA compliance automation.

Centraleyes: The Ultimate in Compliance Automation

We are thrilled to announce that Centraleyes is now updated with the latest standards, including NIST CSF 2.0 and PCI DSS v4.0. This update underscores our commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions that meet our client’s evolving needs.

Centraleyes stands out among compliance platforms for its advanced risk register and assessment process, which goes beyond industry-standard compliance management. Centraleyes elevates compliance from a checkbox exercise to a risk-based security strategy by tightly integrating robust risk assessment capabilities into its platform.

Centraleyes links compliance efforts directly to identified risks, unlike many compliance solutions that focus on meeting regulatory requirements. This ensures compliance activities align with the organization’s risk appetite and strategic objectives. 

Experience the power of compliance automation with Centraleyes. 

Call us today!