Companies today live and die by their ability to attract customers.

If you want to build trust with prospects and customers, sell to enterprise clients, and move upmarket, you'll need to become compliant with SOC 2.

But the process of achieving compliance can be a major roadblock for companies that don’t have resources to spare.

Preparing for and completing a SOC 2 audit can be expensive and time-consuming. It can take tens of thousands of dollars and months of your team’s precious time.

This is where compliance automation tools can be a lifesaver for companies that need a SOC 2 report more efficiently and cost-effectively — all while maintaining ironclad security standards.

What is a compliance solution, and is it a good investment for your company?

What is Automated Compliance?

SOC 2 automation software streamlines the compliance process. It cuts down the hundreds of hours of manual work needed to prepare for and complete an audit.

To help identify the most compelling benefits of compliance automation software, we used data from a 2024 survey of Secureframe users conducted by UserEvidence. Let's take a look at these benefits below.

Reduces manual work

SOC 2 compliance often requires organizations to spend their limited resources on manual tasks like gathering evidence, filling out security questionnaires, maintaining policies, and more. All of this busy work means less time for other high-priority, revenue-generating tasks.

A compliance automation platform that automates tasks required to get and stay SOC 2 compliant — including evidence collection, continuous monitoring, policy management, risk assessments, and task management — can reduce the costs and efforts required to manage a compliance program. A platform with AI capabilities can further automate manual tasks, like performing risk assessments and updating SOC 2 policies, to supercharge your teams and enable them to focus on higher priorities.

Reducing the manual overhead of compliance is a top benefit reported by Secureframe users. In the UserEvidence survey, 97% of Secureframe users said they reduced time spent on compliance tasks per month, with 76% saying they reduced that time by at least half. 85% also said they unlocked annual cost savings.

Spots gaps in your system configurations and internal controls

Understanding what gaps exist in your controls and policies and how to fill them is essential for achieving and maintaining SOC 2 compliance. A compliance automation tool like Secureframe can automate this gap analysis. Once you integrate the audit-relevant softwares and tools you use every day, you can see exactly what you need to do based on your unique configurations and IT infrastructure. As you work through the SOC 2 framework and complete activities within the Secureframe platform, it will update showing your progress percentage toward compliance, ensuring you have peace of mind going into your SOC 2 audit.

But Secureframe goes beyond audit prep to help you implement best-in-class security practices. Our compliance experts offer advice based on your unique systems and business needs. And they’ll be able to identify gaps in your system and controls to keep your entire security program running smoothly. 

Due to this automation and expertise, 97% of Secureframe users said they strengthened their security and compliance posture.

Streamlines the audit process for you and your auditor

Software solutions streamline the process of collecting and transferring evidence to your auditor. It saves you both from the back-and-forth of asking for additional evidence or manually re-testing controls. To further simplify the process, Secureframe has established relationships with highly regarded auditors. Their familiarity with the Secureframe platform means faster audits with fewer headaches for everyone involved.

In fact, 95% of Secureframe users said they saved time and resources obtaining and maintaining compliance.

Makes it easier to maintain compliance

Compliance software can not only automatically collect evidence for your annual audit — it can also continuously monitors your tech stack to alert you of threats or non-conformities. You'll be able to fix issues quickly and proactively instead of scrambling to put out fires right before your audit.

Using a compliance automation platform to make continuous monitoring more cost-effective, consistent, and efficient unlocks a range of benefits, according to Secureframe customers. In the UserEvidence survey, 75% of Secureframe users said they reduced the risk of non-compliance and 71% said they improved visibility into security and compliance posture.

Simplifies compliance across multiple frameworks

Today, organizations of all sizes and industries are challenged with complying with multiple laws, regulations, and industry standards. This can result in organizations wasting valuable time and resources creating independent sets of controls, gathering the same evidence, performing redundant tests, and repeating other activities for multiple audits. 

SOC 2 and ISO 27001, for example, have a lot of overlapping requirements — approximately 80% according to AICPA criteria mapping. And both can be essential security frameworks for growing companies looking to expand internationally.

Instead of starting from scratch, compliance software can help map what you’ve already done for SOC 2 to ISO 27001 and other frameworks. This automated mapping makes it faster and easier to achieve additional certifications and avoid duplicate efforts.

As a result of Secureframe’s control mapping and other automation capabilities, 89% of Secureframe users surveyed by UserEvidence said they sped up time-to-compliance for multiple frameworks by at least 10%. Over half (53%) said they sped up time-to-compliance by 76% or more. 

SOC 2 automation can be incredibly useful for streamlining the compliance process. But it’s important to avoid becoming overly dependent on a tool. Your company stakeholders must continue to own audit scope, risk analysis, and understanding how your internal controls are implemented. Use the software to automate tedious and time-consuming tasks like evidence collection, threat notifications, and vendor management.

Who Needs Compliance Automation Software?

Compliance management tools can be an essential part of your tech stack. Especially for startups that have achieved product-market fit and are ready to scale quickly.

So how do you know it’s time to look for a vendor?

If the following applies to your organization, a compliance automation tool probably makes sense for your needs:

• Your company is (or customers are) in the healthcare, finance, retail, or other industries where compliance is required
• Your target customers include enterprise brands in the US
• Prospects are asking whether your organization has a SOC 2 report
• Your team is spending a significant amount of time and resources on highly manual and repetitive tasks like evidence collection
• Issues are often identified right before or during an audit, leaving you to scramble to remediate them
• You'd like peace of mind that you're maintaining compliance, even as the SOC 2 framework or your organization undergoes changes

Tips for Choosing a Compliance Software Solution

The regulatory compliance software landscape is a fast-growing space. There is an increasing number of vendors to choose from.

Here are a few questions to ask during the evaluation process to help you determine which software is the best fit for you:

• Are your chosen security frameworks supported? Be sure to consider any you may need as your company scales.
• Is the number and depth of integrations enough to save your team from excess work?
• What is the level of customer support? What channels are available to receive support? Does that support extend through the audit itself and after?
• What is the vendor’s relationship with the auditor? 
• What type of audit scope is included in the pricing package? Look for clear, transparent pricing and packages. You want to know exactly what you’re paying for without hidden costs.

Key Features of Compliance Automation Software

We also used data from the 2024 survey of Secureframe users conducted by UserEvidence to identify the key features of compliance automation below.

Continuous Monitoring

Choose a tool that sends real-time alerts for issues that could threaten your compliance. Some tools will even provide detailed guidance for correcting each issue so you won’t have to second guess whether you’ve fixed it. Secureframe goes one step further with Comply AI for Remediation, which automatically generates remediation guidance tailored to your environment. This improves the ease and speed of fixing failing controls in your cloud environment to improve test pass rate and get SOC 2 audit ready.

84% of Secureframe users in the UserEvidence survey reported continuous monitoring to detect and remediate misconfigurations as an important Secureframe feature to them, making it the top answer. 

Automated Evidence Collection

Eliminating tedious, manual tasks is one of the core advantages of SOC 2 automation software. The solution you choose should automatically collect evidence to simplify your audit.

When asked what the most important Secureframe features are to them, 79% of Secureframe users said automated evidence collection.

Integrations

Ideally, you want an automation platform that can act as a central place to track and hold evidence for your entire SOC 2 compliance program. That means you'll want a tool that offers integrations to audit-relevant softwares and tools you use every day.

Secureframe not only offers 200 native integrations — it also has an API that can integrate with and pull evidence from any tool or service beyond those native integrations so it can act as any organization's compliance source of truth.

When asked what challenges led them to purchase Secureframe, 57% of Secureframe users reported a lack of centralized, single source of truth in storing and managing security compliance data.

Policy Management

Building a set of internal security policies can be immensely time-consuming. The best SOC 2 automation tools offer a library of templated policies that are approved by a team of former auditors. These templates make it much easier and faster to build out your policies and ensure they’re compliant with SOC 2.

Some tools can also make it easier for you to tailor your policies to your organization and easily manage and distribute them to employees so you never fall out of compliance. 

The UserEvidence survey confirmed that robust policy management capabilities was a major benefit of compliance automation. When asked to select the most important Secureframe features to them, 68% of Secureframe users chose policy management.

Personnel Management

Educating your team on security policies and systems is an essential part of SOC 2 compliance. SOC 2 software can verify that every member of your team completes security training and policy reviews. And when it comes time to revoke access for former employees, the software can make that easy, too.

61% of Secureframe users selected personnel management as one of the most important features to them.

Risk Management

Like many other compliance frameworks, SOC 2 includes requirements for risk management. Some SOC 2 automation tools can help improve the accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness of risk management.

Secureframe, for example, automatically gather information from different sources, figures out which risks are most important, suggests ways to reduce or handle these risks, and monitors risks over time. It also incorporates AI capabilities to automate risk assessments and other parts of the risk management process. 

As a result of these capabilities and benefits, 50% of Secureframe users in the UserEvidence survey reported risk management as an important Secureframe feature to them.

Vendor Risk Management

Choose a tool that helps you manage all of your vendor agreements and security certifications in one spot to help simplify how you manage vendor risk.

The value of compliance automation on vendor management was supported by our UserEvidence survey findings as well. 55% of Secureframe users reported vendor risk management and vendor access management as important features to them.

Asset Inventory

Compiling and maintaining an inventory of assets manually in a spreadsheet is tedious and difficult to keep up-to-date. A SOC 2 automation tool can keep an up-to-date inventory of all your assets for improved visibility and monitoring.

55% of Secureframe users selected endpoint/asset inventory as one of the most important features to them.

Expert, End-to-End Support

SOC 2 auditors will have follow-up questions no matter how well prepared you are. Having a team of compliance experts by your side can help you field questions and evidence requests. And give you tailored security advice based on years of experience with best practices.

Look for solutions that have a team of experienced ex-auditors on staff. At Secureframe, our team will help you prepare for an audit and be with you throughout the audit itself and after.

This type of support is a major benefit considering that 67% of Secureframe users said limited knowledge and expertise in compliance and security matters was a major challenge that led them to purchase Secureframe.

About the UserEvidence Survey

The data about Secureframe users was obtained through an online survey conducted by UserEvidence in February 2024. The survey included responses from 44 Secureframe users (the majority of whom were manager-level or above) across the information technology, consumer discretionary, industrials, financial, and healthcare industries.