Building a modern compliance tech stack: prioritizing efficiency and a stronger security posture

Equipping your compliance team with all the tools they need is relatively easy. The hard part is getting all of those tools to work together.

For enterprise organizations managing multiple frameworks and compliance requirements, the situation becomes even more complex: Different teams handle different certifications, each with their own tools and processes, often duplicating efforts without realizing it. 

The result? 

Higher costs, exhausted teams, and audits that feel like organizational fire drills rather than validation of strong security practices.

This disconnect between compliance preparation and the actual audit process has become one of the most pressing challenges facing security and compliance teams today. While organizations pour resources into evidence collection, policy automation, and monitoring platforms, these investments often fail to translate into smoother audits or stronger security postures. 

Instead, teams find themselves trapped in what we call the “audit gap“—that frustrating space where all your compliance work doesn’t quite line up with what auditors need to see. 

Let’s explore how forward-thinking organizations are rebuilding their compliance infrastructure to close this gap once and for all.

The importance of audit-ready compliance

Does this sound familiar? Multiple monitors displaying different dashboards, browser tabs open to various portals, and teams switching between systems to answer basic questions about their security posture. Matt Udicious, Director of Infosec Assurance at Thoropass, sees this situation all too often.

“The upmarket customers we work with often have one tool for risks entirely, another tool for access control entirely, another tool for logging and monitoring—and none of that is really centralized. They might have another tool that’s just for issue management. It’s really sparse and spread, and none of it provides a combined experience.” – Matt Udicious, Director of Infosec Assurance, Thoropass

The real cost of this fragmentation becomes painfully clear for organizations trying to achieve compliance. Concierge platform Belong For Me, for example, first ran its compliance program off of spreadsheets and disconnected tools—a setup that quickly proved unsustainable. 

“We knew that if this were the path we had to follow, it would take us possibly years to achieve compliance, which was not an option for the business,” said Pat Stewart, Chairperson of the Board at Belong For Me. After overhauling their stack and adopting Thoropass, they achieved SOC 2 compliance in record time and cut their workload by 30 to 50%.

The real cost of this fragmentation becomes clear during audit season. CoEnterprise, a B2B data and analytics company, saw deals stall because of it. “Compliance was a major lift, and we were reinventing the wheel every time,” a member of their team shared.

After moving to a consolidated platform with Thoropass, the company was able to achieve multi-framework compliance, including SOC 2 and ISO 27001, and streamline evidence management for good.

These transformations reflect a broader trend: compliance isn’t just a checkbox—it’s a strategic function. And tool consolidation is the lever organizations are using to get there faster.

Building a better compliance infrastructure: how to choose your platforms and point solutions

Untangling your compliance tech stack doesn’t require starting from scratch—it requires starting with the right questions and planning your transition to a modern compliance setup.

Start with strategic assessment

Before making any changes, you need to understand what you’re actually dealing with. Udicious recommends starting with a comprehensive time audit.

“Look at what your organization is doing today and where you want to be,” he says. “What are the hours spent on these various tools? What are the efforts spent in audit, gathering data from these various tools, conducting access review of these tools, and performing vendor management of these tools?”

This analysis often reveals surprising truths. Teams discover they’re spending more time on tool administration—managing access, coordinating between systems, gathering evidence from multiple sources—than on actual compliance work. Once you add up the hours across activities, the business case for consolidation becomes clear.

The key is to be honest about hidden costs. License fees are just the beginning. Consider the time spent training new team members on multiple systems, the delays caused by switching between platforms, the errors introduced by manual data transfer, and the frustration of trying to get a unified view of your compliance status. These indirect costs often dwarf the direct expenses of your tool licenses.

Plan your transition strategy

Smart organizations don’t try to change everything at once. Udicious has seen successful transitions follow a deliberate pattern: “A lot of enterprise customers we work with might start with risk management and bring that into our platform, and then they might bring their access control and access reviews over. It’s baby steps.”

This phased approach offers several advantages. Teams can learn the new platform gradually, building confidence with each successful migration. Legacy systems can continue operating during the transition, maintaining business continuity. Most importantly, you can demonstrate value at each step, building organizational buy-in for continued consolidation.

Consider starting with your most painful inefficiency. Maybe it’s the three-day process of gathering evidence before each audit, or the manual access reviews that consume weeks of effort. By addressing the biggest pain point first, you create immediate value and momentum for further changes.

Make smart keep-or-replace decisions

Not every tool needs to go. Udicious outlines a practical framework for evaluation: “You can look at those key vendor tools and make a decision—‘Hey, this compliance platform could potentially support me with all my needs, or I can work with them to build out some additional features to get me where I want to be.’”

Some tools serve such specialized functions that replacement doesn’t make sense. Instead of forcing everything into one platform, work with your compliance platform provider to build integrations.

“There might be a case where a tool is so specific to its function, and you don’t see the compliance platform ever going in that direction,” Udicious explains. “So you want to continue to use this tool, but you want to partner with the compliance platform and have them work with you to integrate data from this tool.”

The goal isn’t platform purity—it’s operational efficiency. The key is ensuring that data flows smoothly between systems and that you maintain that single source of truth for compliance status.

Leverage multi-framework intelligence

For organizations juggling multiple compliance frameworks, consolidation offers game-changing benefits. Managing SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HITRUST certification tracks separately often leads to duplicated efforts, inconsistent processes, and siloed teams. 

“A lot of organizations have multiple teams—one team might be SOC 2, another might be ISO, another might be HITRUST-specific,” Udicious shares. “They all have their own expertise, but they’re all probably managing their programs in their own way. They’re not realizing that there are actually efficiencies that can be recognized across the management of those controls.”

This fragmented approach doesn’t just drain time—it obscures the full picture of your compliance posture. Teams miss out on overlaps that could streamline audits and reduce effort.

Modern platforms change this dynamic completely by bringing programs into a single, unified system, as Udicious suggests: “If you’re doing SOC 2 and ISO 27001, as well as HITRUST, the platform is built to recognize those efficiencies and give you a compliance roadmap across all those frameworks in one consolidated capacity.”

With a consolidated platform, you’re no longer starting from scratch each time you add a new framework.

“When you want to add a new framework, the platform can tell you exactly where you stand,” Udicious notes. “Maybe you’re already 80% compliant based on existing work.”

This kind of visibility doesn’t just help with planning—it transforms how you execute audits across frameworks. What used to be a constant cycle of prep and panic becomes a synchronized, proactive process.

“Give us the evidence for SOC 2, and we can probably leverage that similar evidence across ISO 27001 as long as your assessments are taking place at the same time,” Udicious notes. That means less duplication, fewer surprises, and more time for teams to focus on strategic priorities.

Manage change and adoption

Successful infrastructure modernization requires thoughtful change management. Udicious emphasizes the importance of understanding the full impact: “You’re changing operations, you’re changing people’s responsibilities, and you’re changing how things were done in terms of overseeing compliance, gathering evidence for compliance assessments, security in general at your organization.”

Start by mapping out how different roles will be affected. Your IT team might need to learn new integration points. Compliance managers might need to adjust their workflows, and executives might need training on new reporting capabilities. By understanding these impacts upfront, you can provide targeted support and training where it’s needed most.

Budget conversations become easier when you present the full picture. “Think about the overall budget of all the tools you’re using today,” Udicious suggests. “Then, what’s the budget of this compliance platform? What tools are actually being eliminated as part of the compliance platform experience versus what tools are remaining in place?”

When organizations do this analysis, they typically see significant decreases in both budget and team time requirements.

Communication is critical throughout the process, too. Regular updates about progress, quick wins, and upcoming changes help maintain momentum. Celebrate successes—when that first audit completes in half the usual time, make sure everyone knows. These victories build confidence in the new approach and help overcome any remaining resistance.

A modern compliance vendor stack leads to organization-wide efficiencies

The path from tool sprawl to streamlined compliance infrastructure isn’t always easy, but the destination is worth the journey. Organizations that successfully consolidate their compliance tools report more than just time and cost savings. Instead of constant fire-fighting and audit anxiety, teams experience clarity, control, and confidence.

Most importantly, consolidation frees your team from the mechanics of compliance to focus on what really matters: building and maintaining a security program that protects your organization and enables your business.

Ready to evaluate your compliance infrastructure and close the audit gap? Discover how Thoropass can help modernize your compliance program and transform how your organization approaches security and compliance.