Best Compliance Management Tools & Software in 2024: A SaaS Expert Guide

Table of contents

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An Overview of Compliance Management Software

To achieve compliance with a given standard or regulation, a business must meet certain security requirements determined by a certifying organization or government body. Compliance laws and standards often focus on data security — specifically, ensuring that customers’ data and privacy are protected. To ensure data is stored, used, and shared properly, companies must take careful precautions to safeguard this information.

However, managing complex compliant requirements and making sure teams adhere to the right policies is very difficult to do manually. That’s why more organizations are adopting compliant management software, a tool that assists in monitoring a company’s internal systems and controls while helping ensure continuous compliance with relevant standards and regulations.

Most Purchased Compliance Management Software

OneTrust leads as the most purchased software in the Compliance Management Software category, as evidenced by Vendr's transaction data. Their top-tier status reflects a commanding market presence and underscores the significant trust placed in their compliance and privacy management solutions.

Hot on the trail, Vanta secures the second position, recognized for its integrated compliance automation tools that streamline the complex processes for businesses. Drata follows closely, with its continuous compliance monitoring platform, proving essential for organizations aiming to maintain stringent standards.

KnowBe4 and DataGrail complete the lineup, each offering specialized compliance solutions that focus on training against security threats and managing personal data respectively, cementing their importance to companies focused on regulatory adherence and data protection.

Most Renewed Compliance Management Software

Vendr's transaction data highlights KnowBe4 as the most renewed software in the Compliance Management Software category, an accolade that speaks volumes about its effectiveness in delivering security awareness training and its impressive customer satisfaction and retention rates.

Following KnowBe4, OneTrust secures a strong renewal status, indicative of the trust and reliance that users have on its integrated platform for privacy, security, and data governance. In third place, Vanta stands out with its automated security monitoring tools, ensuring that businesses remain compliant with industry standards, which is reflected in their renewal rates.

Drata claims the fourth position, with its proactive compliance and continuous monitoring solutions cementing its position as a tool of choice for businesses looking to automate their compliance workflows. Finally, DataGrail's commitment to privacy management and the protection of personal data has solidified its renewal standings, underscoring the critical nature of privacy compliance in today's digital landscape.

Most Recently Purchased Compliance Management Software

Vendr's internal transaction data indicates that Drata has risen to the top as the most recently purchased software in the Compliance Management Software category. Their ascent signals a strong market adoption, likely driven by their automated security and compliance monitoring tools that resonate with contemporary business needs.

KnowBe4 follows, suggesting that its user education platform for security awareness is a key factor in its strategy to attract and onboard new customers. Vanta is next in line, indicating that their automated compliance solutions are gaining traction with organizations seeking streamlined compliance certification processes.

OneTrust's positioning reflects their continued expansion, with their comprehensive privacy, security, and compliance management tools bringing in new users. Lastly, Secureframe makes its mark by providing growing businesses with simplified compliance solutions, reinforcing their presence in an increasingly important software niche.

Benefits of Compliance Management Software

If your organization is required to prioritize security and compliance as part of its growth journey, you should seriously consider adopting compliance software. To help illustrate how these tools can help your company on a day-to-day basis, here are the top five benefits of using compliance management software:

• Better risk management: Most compliance software automatically alerts users to any new or emerging regulations, enabling organizations to stay up-to-date with compliance requirements to minimize the risk of potential legal repercussions, financial impact, or reputational damage.
  
• Improved efficiency: By automating manual and tedious compliance processes (e.g., data collection, analysis, and reporting), compliance software decreases the time and resources needed to remain compliant. This leads to cost savings while freeing up staff time to focus on more complex tasks.
• Increased visibility: With compliance software, users gain access to a centralized platform to oversee and execute all compliance-related activities. This level of visibility simplifies the process of identifying and resolving issues before they get out of hand.
• Data-driven decision-making: Compliance software's analytics and reporting features help organizations make more informed choices about resource allocation and cybersecurity (e.g., whether or not the company needs to implement new policies).
• Elevated reputation: Because compliance software makes it easy to pass audits and earn certificates (e.g., SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification), organizations can leverage this documentation to demonstrate their security commitment to customers and stakeholders.

While the advantages of compliance software are apparent, you may be unsure if your business is in the right position to capitalize on these benefits. Next, we’re going to examine…

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Features to Look for in Compliance Management Software

Knowing which platform will be the best fit for your business can be tricky — especially when there are so many options to choose from. The first step toward choosing the right compliance management software is knowing which capabilities to prioritize. Your compliance software should be able to:

• Monitor compliance status.
• Integrate with existing platforms.
• Assess and mitigate risk.
• Contain AI functionality.

Monitor compliance status

To best ensure that your organization is fully up to date with all applicable compliance standards and regulations, your compliance software should be able to track your security posture and issue alerts if any actions are taken that break compliance. If you are required to have specific certifications or attestation documents, the software should also let you know when these are close to expiring.

Integrate with existing platforms

What good is compliance software if it doesn't gel with the way your teams currently work? Before choosing a compliance management platform to adopt, ensure the tool can be easily integrated into your current tech stack to avoid any process and operational bottlenecks.

Assess and mitigate risk

Compliance software should be able to pinpoint potential security risks within your business — as proper risk assessment and mitigation is the key to keeping your customer and stakeholder data protected from malicious actors. Even if the risks are technically not part of the controls for a given compliance standard, knowing they exist is important so you can develop a plan to shore up your security.

Contain AI functionality

With new advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) popping up every day, the most innovative compliance management software should include AI capabilities to further increase efficiency and bolster your security posture. For example, Moody’s points to enhanced risk identification, error reduction, and data quality gains as key compliance benefits related to AI.

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Signs Your Company Needs Compliance Management Software

Still debating if your organization should adopt compliance software? Here are three major indicators you should consider:

• Stringent regulatory requirements: If your organization is in a highly regulated industry with complex compliance requirements, these tools make tracking compliance against all relevant standards much easier.
  
• Painful manual processes: When an organization manages compliance through spreadsheets, emails, and other manual processes, remaining compliant can quickly become tedious and error-prone. Compliance software automates away headache-inducing tasks to speed up work and reduce the risk of mistakes.
• Compliance issues: If you’ve ever failed a compliance audit or have been dinged with a fine or penalty, this is a sure sign that your organization needs compliance management software. Adopting a platform will help avoid future problems with alerts for compliance deadlines, regulation changes, and real-time compliance status monitoring.

If your company can relate to any of these issues, implementing compliance management software can help you stay compliant, increase operational efficiency, and reduce risks associated with non-compliance.

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Checklist for Choosing the Right Compliance Management Software

When narrowing down your list of potential compliance management software to implement, here are some other key factors to consider:

1. Operational flexibility

If you choose software geared toward healthcare companies and work in the finance industry, using the software can be challenging. Confirm that the compliance software you choose can be customized to your organization’s specific needs.

2. Update frequency

To ensure that your organization can stay at the forefront of every change in the regulatory system, your compliance software should frequently update the data and insights that power the platform.

3. Access controls

Compliance management involves a lot of sensitive information, such as customer data and organizational security practices. With such critical data on the line, you want to have full control over who can access what. Your tool of choice should provide detailed permissions settings that can be adjusted at any moment.

4. Reporting capabilities

When researching compliance software, you’ll find that not every platform has full reporting capabilities. Some platforms only provide a reporting template that could take hours to complete manually. Make sure you choose software that automates as much reporting work as possible to save precious time that could be allocated to higher-value tasks.

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Compliance Management Software FAQs

Who are the primary end users of compliance management software?

While compliance and security professionals typically oversee the operation of compliance management software, these tools are often intuitive enough that anyone can use them to learn more about the organization’s compliance posture and the policies they must follow.

What are some important regulatory certifications that compliance software can manage?

Compliance software can manage certifications such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

What types of compliance management software are there?

Generally speaking, compliance management software falls under use case buckets such as:

• All-in-one: A comprehensive platform for general compliance needs.
• Specialized: Built to assist organizations in specific industries.
• Cloud-based: Enables companies to manage compliance remotely.
• Risk management: Specifically focused on data security and compliance audits.
• Learning: Offers compliance training for professionals.