For many companies, attaining and maintaining SOC 2 compliance can be a major undertaking filled with manual tracking, gathering evidence, and preparing for audits. But automating parts of the process can greatly simplify achieving SOC 2 certification.
Streamline Evidence Collection
One of the most labor-intensive parts of SOC 2 compliance is gathering and organizing all the necessary evidence and documentation. This includes everything from access logs to security policies to vendor contracts. Manually tracking down these materials from various systems is time-consuming and prone to gaps.
Automation can programmatically gather relevant evidence from the right systems so it’s ready for auditors. This eliminates manual digging and ensures all requirements are covered. Automated evidence collection makes it far easier to demonstrate controls and compliance to auditors.
Centralize Audit Management
Preparing for a SOC 2 audit also involves a lot of back-and-forth communication and paperwork shared through email and spreadsheets. This disjointed tracking of audit requirements, questions, evidence and more creates bottlenecks.
Audit management automation centralizes the entire audit in one system. Auditors can request evidence, ask questions, and review controls in a streamlined way. This reduces the compliance team’s manual labor so they can focus on high-value SOC 2 strategy versus paperwork.
Maintain Compliance Effortlessly
Even after achieving initial SOC 2 certification, there’s ongoing work required to maintain compliance at each annual audit. Gathering evidence, updating paperwork and answering auditor questions doesn’t get any easier over time without the right system.
Companies that automate compliance keep compliance programs updated with far less effort. Integrations pull the latest data, controls stay mapped to requirements, and workflows trigger reviews and updates. This makes maintaining compliance seamless compared to manual upkeep.
Leverage Compliance Expertise
For many companies, building internal SOC 2 compliance expertise can be difficult and expensive. Automation provides built-in guidance for SOC2 requirements which is more efficient than having to learn by trial and error.
Automated systems designed specifically for SOC 2 also incorporate compliance expertise right within the platform. This gives companies access to the know-how needed without having to build it internally from scratch.
Automation Improves the Accuracy of SOC 2 Reporting
Automation can improve the accuracy of SOC 2 reporting in several ways:
- Eliminates manual errors – With automation gathering evidence, populating reports, and tracking controls, there is less room for human error that could lead to inaccuracies in reporting.
- Provides real-time data – Automated integrations pull live data from relevant systems to give the most up-to-date view of compliance controls rather than stale manual reporting.
- Enforces consistency – Report templates and automated workflows ensure reporting follows consistent formats and standards every time.
- Maps controls precisely – Systems map controls and requirements in a precise one-to-one relationship, accurately reflecting compliance coverage.
By removing the reliance on manual processes, automation takes SOC 2 reporting accuracy and transparency to the next level. Auditors have greater assurance that they are getting precise and current compliance data. In summary, leaning on automation can save companies significant time, effort, and headache throughout the SOC 2 compliance process.
Removing manual work opens the door to achieving and maintaining certification with far greater ease and efficiency. When compliance is simplified, companies can put more focus on their core business goals.