What is compliance software?
Compliance software, often called governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) tools, helps organizations maintain regulatory and industry security requirements. It does this by streamlining risk monitoring, automating tasks, and supporting security governance. The market is flooded with compliance management tools. However, Vanta and Drata are currently rapidly growing industry leaders. They help organizations manage compliance and complete SOC 2, ISO 27001, HITRUST, or other audits. These tools utilize features such as configuration discovery, risk management, and continuous monitoring to simplify compliance management and the audit process.
Here are the key functions and features of GRC tools :
- Automate tasks, such as security reviews, policy management, and compliance monitoring, to reduce manual effort.
- Provide basic risk assessment capabilities to ensure ongoing compliance.
- Simplify the creation of reports to demonstrate compliance to auditors and regulators.
- Streamline workflows related to compliance and risk management.
- Automate evidence collection during audits.
The benefits and capabilities of compliance management software
Modern compliance software is characterized by its ability to integrate with multiple systems to gather and summarize the necessary information. The integrations include cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, and Azure. They also support collaborative office tools like Google Workspace or Office 365, project management platforms like Jira, and code management platforms such as Bitbucket or GitHub. In addition, the system integrates with security awareness platforms such as KnowBe4 and mobile device management systems such as Intune.
Safe time and internal resources
When undergoing an audit, auditors require evidence that your security and compliance controls are properly implemented and functioning. For example, they may ask for a list of users from your AWS account, proof that your databases are encrypted, confirmation that a web application firewall (WAF) is in place, or verification that employees have completed security awareness training.
Without automated compliance tools, gathering this evidence is typically a manual and time-consuming process. Teams often need to capture screenshots from various systems, since no single person usually has access to all required environments. This involves coordinating with multiple departments, explaining the required evidence, generating screenshots, and then reviewing them for accuracy before submitting them to the auditor.
This manual approach consumes significant internal resources and introduces risks of error or alteration. Modern compliance automation platforms address this issue by collecting evidence directly from source systems. This not only saves time but also increases auditors’ confidence in the integrity of the evidence.
Provide various policy and process templates
Another advantage of compliance management platforms is that they provide a library of policy and process templates. This feature is particularly valuable for smaller organizations or those just beginning to formalize their security programs. Instead of starting from scratch, companies can use these pre-built templates as a foundation for developing their own documentation.
While the templates are generic and still require customization to reflect the organization’s specific environment, data types, and structure, they offer a strong starting point and clear guidance on how to align with compliance frameworks and best practices.
High level of automation
Another key benefit of compliance management tools is automation. By integrating with task tracking systems, these platforms enable organizations to automate recurring compliance activities. For example, tasks related to the performance of specific controls can be automatically created and assigned to responsible personnel in task tracking platforms like Jira.
This ensures that compliance tasks are completed on time, reduces the risk of oversight, and provides better visibility into ongoing compliance activities across the organization.
Intuitive dashboards
Compliance management tools also provide intuitive dashboards that give real-time visibility into your organization’s compliance posture. These dashboards display the status of controls and tasks, showing what’s complete, overdue, or upcoming, and allow you to monitor progress across frameworks, teams, and time periods.
By consolidating key metrics into a single view, dashboards help identify gaps early, ensure timely completion of compliance activities, and provide leadership with a clear snapshot of overall compliance health, eliminating the need for manual tracking or spreadsheets.
Basic risk assessment functionalities
Many compliance management platforms also include features beyond evidence collection and task tracking. For example, some offer basic risk assessment functionalities that help organizations identify and evaluate potential risks to their assets and operations. While these features are often simplified, they are sufficient for performing foundational risk assessments and maintaining a centralized risk register.
Other common capabilities include vendor risk management, allowing organizations to track third-party compliance, assess supplier risks, and maintain due diligence documentation.
Some platforms also provide trust portals where companies can share audit reports, certifications, and security policies with customers or partners. Access can be restricted to authorized users, demonstrating transparency while maintaining control over sensitive compliance documentation.
The limitations of compliance management software
While compliance management tools bring significant efficiency and visibility to the audit process, they are not a silver bullet. They can streamline evidence collection and automate many tasks, but they do not completely eliminate the need for manual work or expert oversight. Below are several common limitations:
Generic policy templates
Most compliance management platforms offer pre-built policy and process templates that cover areas such as access control, data protection, incident response, and vendor management. These templates serve as a useful starting point. However, these templates are generic by design; they illustrate the structure and content of a policy rather than serve as ready-to-use documents. Simply inserting your company’s name or logo does not make them applicable to the organization.
Each policy must be reviewed and tailored by a qualified professional to reflect the organization’s specific structure, technologies, and compliance requirements.
Manual configuration required
Compliance tools are not “set-it-and-forget-it” solutions. Initial setup and ongoing configuration require significant effort. For example, by default, integrations may import all user accounts, including service or contractor accounts that should be excluded from the audit scope. Similarly, companies often need to segment production and non-production environments to ensure that only relevant systems are included in compliance assessments.
Beyond the initial setup, ongoing maintenance is critical. System configurations, integrations, and user permissions change frequently as organizations grow or adopt new technologies. Each change can affect the accuracy of automated evidence collection or control mappings. Therefore, regular validation, testing, and tuning of the tool’s configuration are necessary to maintain integrity and audit readiness.
A false sense of security
One of the most overlooked limitations of compliance management software is that it can create a false sense of security. Because these platforms automate evidence collection, generate compliance dashboards, and show many of your errors and improvements, it’s easy to assume that the security posture is fully under control.
In reality, compliance does not equal security. These tools primarily validate that certain controls exist, not that they are effective or continuously enforced in practice.
The risk management capabilities are limited
Risk management capabilities included in many compliance platforms are typically limited. They often rely on simplified questionnaires or scoring models that assess risk at a surface level rather than using a deep, evidence-based analysis. Advanced risk management, such as assessing likelihood and impact, or revealing vulnerabilities across systems, still requires expert input.
As a result, organizations that depend solely on their compliance software to measure risk or security maturity may overlook critical weaknesses.
Integrations are still limited
Despite their reliance on integrations, compliance management platforms have limitations and cannot integrate with all types of systems. Many organizations use a mix of off-the-shelf and custom-built applications, on-premise and cloud systems, or legacy and modern technologies that may not be supported for integration with these GRC tools.
Additionally, even when integrations exist, they may not be able to capture every setting or control on the system. For instance, while integration with AWS can confirm encryption status or IAM configurations, it might not verify custom security controls implemented at the application layer.
As a result, organizations often need a hybrid approach, combining automated evidence collection with manual verification processes.
How Planet 9 can help
Compliance management tools facilitate the collection of evidence, tracking of tasks, and monitoring, but they can’t replace human expertise. An expert is still necessary to make sure your controls actually work, your risks are properly managed, and your compliance efforts strengthen your overall security.
Planet 9 security and compliance consulting services combine hands-on audit experience with deep knowledge of standards like SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. We help you configure tools correctly, close compliance gaps, prepare for audits, and build a compliance program that truly protects your business.
Need expert help with SOC 2 readiness assessment? https://planet9security.com/audit-and-certification-readiness-services/soc-2-audit-readiness
