How to Leverage Automation Tools to Streamline Your Next Compliance Audit: 3 Tips for Security Teams

Originally published by BARR Advisory.

Compliance automation tools are designed to assist organizations in streamlining the rigorous demands of cybersecurity frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HITRUST. These platforms can help address the heavy lifting involved in preparing, undergoing, and maintaining compliance by automating repetitive tasks, freeing up security teams to think more strategically and focus on the bigger picture. But as with any tool, the value it delivers largely depends on how it’s implemented.

To get the most out of a compliance automation platform, security leaders must be deliberate and thoughtful in their approach. With the right preparation, security teams can unlock the full potential of these tools, empowering more efficient and transparent compliance audits.

Here are three tips for security leaders aiming to get the most value out of their chosen compliance automation platform:

1. Define accountability.

One of the first actions to take when implementing a compliance automation tool in your organization is to designate a specific individual or team to be responsible for managing it. While these platforms are designed to simplify compliance tasks, they still require ongoing oversight to establish accountability and ensure they’re being used effectively and to their fullest potential. Without clear ownership, there’s a risk of broken integrations, missing or outdated documentation, inaccurate controls, or missed opportunities for mapping.

“It’s critical to give the individual or team whose responsibility it is to manage these tools the appropriate time and resources to do so,” said Amanda Parnigoni, manager on BARR’s attest services team. Ensuring your team has both the bandwidth and the expertise to manage the tool is essential for keeping your compliance efforts on track, she explained.

It’s also important for the compliance team to play a significant role in the initial setup of the tool. By being closely involved from the beginning, they can ensure the platform is properly configured and aligned with the organization’s specific needs. This includes setting up the proper integrations and customizing controls to reflect the organization’s unique environment and compliance requirements.

2. Leverage integrations.

One of the key advantages of compliance automation platforms is their ability to integrate with other systems throughout your organization and across all departments. These integrations are crucial for maximizing the value of the automation tool, as they enable it to pull relevant information directly from other key systems to support specific compliance requirements. Without these connections, the platform’s capabilities are limited, and much of the process remains manual, leaving room for inefficiencies and delays during an audit.

This also means that getting buy-in from other areas of the business, such as HR and IT, is essential to ensure you’re getting the most value from your chosen automation tool. By integrating systems across many departments into a single platform, auditors and security teams can spend less time chasing down evidence and allow the automation tool to do its job—providing visibility and transparency throughout the engagement process.

For example, properly integrating your compliance automation tool with your HR systems can help verify background checks have been completed for new employees as required, without requiring your security team to manually upload a completed background check. When the correct systems are integrated, auditors can use the automation tool to test both the design and operating effectiveness of this control by validating that the necessary checks were performed in accordance with the organization’s internal policies.

Setting up these integrations takes time and effort, but it’s well worth the investment. They not only reduce the time required to manually collect evidence for your auditor, but also provide you with a more seamless and transparent engagement experience, as well as a more accurate representation of your compliance status. With the right integrations in place, security teams can rely on their chosen automation platform to continuously monitor controls and provide real-time insights, freeing up their time and ensuring that compliance audits go as smoothly as possible.

3. Implement custom controls and custom tests.

While most compliance automation platforms provide a standardized set of controls and tests to help organizations adhere to various frameworks, these may not always align perfectly with the specific requirements of your audit or the control activities tested by your auditor. Standard control templates can provide a general overview, but they might not fully capture the unique controls your organization has in place or the specific tests an auditor will perform. This misalignment can lead to discrepancies in the “completion” percentage reported by the tool, which might not accurately reflect your actual compliance status.

To bridge the gap, security teams should implement custom controls and custom tests within their chosen automation platform that are tailored to their organization’s specific needs. By doing so, you enable the platform to provide auditors with more relevant, precise information, reducing the need for additional manual reviews and improving efficiency on all sides of the engagement.

Takeaways

Compliance automation platforms are a game-changer for organizations of all sizes that are leveraging cloud-based tools to manage day-to-day operations and drive growth. While automation tools aren’t a substitute for human oversight, if you define accountability within your organization, configure the right integrations, and implement custom controls and tests, then these tools will empower more efficient, effective compliance audits for years to come.