July 5, 2023

The Teams in Your Company That Benefit from SOC 2 Compliance

Devon Lane
Content writer
at Flowbase

There’s a lot to be said about how becoming compliant with SOC 2 can help your company, especially if you’re a SaaS vendor that’s targeting enterprise customers. Beyond setting up your organization with security best practices, SOC 2 compliance can also support your go-to-market efforts, build immediate trust with prospects, and put you a step ahead of your competitors. 

While the benefits for the business as a whole are fairly obvious, there are also many ways in which individual teams and departments stand to win from your SOC 2 compliance. Below, we’ve outlined how six of your teams can benefit.

Security

There are five SOC 2 trust services criteria that determine the type of controls your company gets evaluated on during an audit: security, availability, confidentiality, processing integrity, privacy. While the latter four are all optional, the security controls are mandatory in any SOC 2 audit. As such, it’s only natural that going through the SOC 2 compliance process will be a boon for your security team. 

By deciding to embark on your SOC 2 compliance journey, you’re basically giving your security team the green light to set up the best possible security processes. Your SOC 2 audit will ultimately ensure that your team has a variety of security controls in place that meet the highest standards. This will include extensive security policies, authentication and authorization processes, and more.

In other words, by committing to a SOC 2 audit, you’re giving your security team the executive buy-in they need to set up best practices and get the rest of the company on board with them. Not only does this help with morale building for your security team, it is also indispensable for building a culture of security and compliance within your company.

Sales

While SOC 2 compliance may feel like it’s mostly about security — and it is — your sales team probably stands to benefit the most from it. For starters, having your SOC 2 report handy makes it much easier for your sales team to show that your company takes security seriously and that you’re operating at a standard that enterprise clients expect. SOC 2 is a recognizable standard, so including it as part of sales presentations and collateral is a great way to accelerate sales discussions. 

Other ways that sales can benefit include the following: 

  • Long security questionnaires become a thing of the past. Instead of filling out long forms, sales reps can quickly share your SOC 2 report and give prospects and customers the information they’re looking for. 
  • Sales reps can build trust faster. A SOC 2 report acts as a stamp of approval that makes it much easier for prospects to trust that you’re committed to security. 
  • There’s a better relationship with other departments. With a SOC 2 report in hand, sales teams don’t have to pull security reps in at random times to answer questions.

Your SOC 2 report basically becomes another tool in the sales tool belt, and it’s an important one at that. 

Marketing 

Being SOC 2 compliant is a great boost to your brand’s reputation — and your marketing team can leverage that. Whether it’s by publishing an announcement when you receive your report, sharing learnings from your compliance journey on your blog or an industry podcast, or sharing a LinkedIn post on the benefits you’re seeing from being SOC 2 compliant, there are a number of ways your marketing team can use that information.

Having that intel out there in the public will also increase your chance of building trust with inbound B2B buyers that organically find your solution through search, social media, or word of mouth.

Finance & Legal

Having robust security controls in place will go a long way towards protecting your business from a cyber attack or data breach — and your finance and legal teams will thank you. Today, the average cost of a data breach is estimated to be $4.35 million. For a lot of early stage organizations, that would decimate their operations.

Your finance team will appreciate that you’re doing the work to avoid a big financial loss due to a breach. On the other hand, your legal team will thank you for saving them from the reputational damage and legal ramifications that come from a breach.

Engineering 

Engineering and security teams are notorious for being at odds with each other — and it makes sense. While developers want to move fast and get things done, they feel that security gets in the way and slows things down. Becoming SOC 2 compliance can help with this because it helps build security into your processes, rather than it being an afterthought that isn’t always considered in production timelines. As a result, you’ll have a happier relationship between your security and engineering teams, and ultimately improve how security is incorporated into the product development lifecycle.

The Value of SOC 2 Compliance Is Extensive

At Marana, we talk often about how valuable it is for early stage companies to invest in their SOC 2 compliance journey. Not only can it help make your company more strategic and competitive, it can also act as an important foundation for many of your teams as they mature. That’s a win-win if we ever saw one.

‍Is the idea of SOC 2 compliance feeling more appealing? We can help make that happen. Get in touch to learn how.

We’re here to help.

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Frequently Asked
Questions

What type of compliance standard can you help with?

We help our clients based on their needs. The majority of our contracts involve SOC-2, HIPAA, and most recently GDPR. Feel free to ask us if we can help with your particular case. If we aren't able to, we can most likely recommend you to someone who can.

How long does a SOC 2 engagement usually take?

We move as fast as our clients are able to make progress. Our fastest client to date got their SOC-2 Type I four months after signing our engagement letter. That record is up for grab if you are up for it.

In our experience however, it takes 6-9 months to achieve a SOC-2 Type I,  and 3-6 additional months to obtain a SOC-2 Type II report.

Which standard do you follow for your security policies?

All of our security policies follow the ISO-27001 standard. The Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability standards cover the range of standards we like to work with for SOC 2.

Why do we have to become SOC 2 compliant if we are relying on AWS which is already compliant?

SOC 2 stands for Service Organization Control, meaning your clients are interested in understanding your controls, not your hosting provider’s control. As part of your vendor assessment we recommend reviewing AWS’ SOC 2 report, but relying on their report is not enough to become SOC 2 compliant.

Who is behind SOC 2?

The American Institute of CPAs. The AICPA is an established and respected organization that provides two forms of audits to companies that demonstrate evidence of a secure data-protection infrastructure. A Type I is a point in time audit that addresses the company’s description of its system, the suitability of the system’s design, and the effectiveness of its internal data controls. A Type II report happens over a period of time and emphasizes design and also focuses on the validity of the company’s controls.

Are SOC 2 reports a legal obligation?

No, but most enterprise level organizations that engage with sensitive data (again, almost all of them) have an obligation to their stakeholders to prove due diligence regarding data security, which means they’ll want to vet their service providers using this tool. SOC 2 can help these prospective service providers set themselves apart from the competition. Just as important, a SOC 2 report represents a meaningful and respected signifier of trust.

What can happen to a company without a SOC 2 report?

A lack of a SOC 2 report won’t result in legal problems, but it can and will limit outside assessments of the company’s commitment to data security. When large-scale clients look for providers, or large-scale backers look for a likely return on their investment, they don’t want concerns about security to stand in the way. Trust is a chain made of links that have each been put the test and have proven their ability to withstand pressure and scrutiny. Company leaders are wise to let SOC 2 auditors apply this pressure so their clients and backers don’t have to.

When is it too late for a SOC 2 audit?

Never. Even companies that have been in business for years but have never obtained a SOC 2 report can—and should—take steps in this direction now. Being compliant with SOC 2 can open the door to a broader base of more significant clients and larger contract opportunities. That being said, startups in the threshold of the marketplace, and new business owners who hope for an eventual public offering, should obtain a SOC 2 report during the development and financing process. By the time the company approaches Series B and C fundraising rounds, a report should be in hand.

How complicated is the auditing process?

The auditing process can be easy, or complicated depending on your level of preparation.

Preparing for the audit can take some time, attention, and the guidance of reliable data security experts. Don’t leave any part of this process to chance. Approach SOC 2 compliance one step at a time, and start by contacting a consulting firm with track record of experience in your area of the marketplace.

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