Most SaaS startups create amazing products and meet customer needs. But they fail on one front: making implementing cybersecurity controls an afterthought. This leads to a rush and panic in the startups when they’re asked to produce their SOC 2 compliance report.
Thus, it is always an excellent idea to implement cybersecurity controls early. This can help a business be SOC 2 compliant from early on. It reduces panic when there’s an upcoming SOC 2 audit. This article will look into why startups should prioritize SOC compliance.
Let’s get into it.
Show Customers That Cybersecurity is a Priority
SOC compliance is inevitable and postponing it adds to no good for a SaaS startup. Thus, companies mustn’t attempt to take security shortcuts. They need to implement the control right from the beginning. It shows clients that the company is security conscious.
If you run a SaaS startup, you will realize most customers understand SOC compliance. Most of them will ask for a SOC 2 report before doing business with you. They will trust your business more if the report shows that you have always been SOC 2 compliant.
Increase Sales Velocity
Most SaaS startups that don’t ensure SOC compliance early on lose business deals. We have mentioned that some customers require SOC 2 reports before transacting. If you didn’t have a report, it’d take you a month or even a year to get one.
This is a significant amount of time, and most potential clients won’t wait. You will lose them to your competitors who are already SOC compliant. Being proactive with compliance will ensure you produce the report in good time. This ensures you close most sales deals and make profits.
Seal Significant Cybersecurity Gaps
You cannot obtain a clean SOC report unless you have strong cybersecurity controls. This is a significant benefit for your business because the controls help seal security gaps. They reduce the attack surface by ensuring all potential security loopholes get sealed.
A perfect example of a must-have control for SOC compliance is multi-factor authentication. It is a control that helps verify identities before users access sensitive information. This secures data when it is in transit and encrypts it when stored.
Save Time and Money
Every business aims at making profits and growth. One way to do this is by implementing SOC 2 security controls from early on. SOC compliance is more achievable when a business is starting. A business’s technical footprint is small when starting operations.
Thus, it’ll need less time and money to implement SOC requirements fully. A big company will require more time and money to achieve compliance. This is because of the lengthy processes and the technical areas owners will need to cover to ensure the business becomes compliant.
Mitigate Data Breaches
Customer and business data are the most important assets for SaaS startups. Losing sensitive data can affect how a business runs. The process of ensuring compliance starts with analyzing the business network. Proper analysis can help reveal several security gaps and holes.
Then, it goes further into the sealing of these security loopholes. Once sealed, threats like malware, brute force attacks, DDOS, etc., become bygones. This helps businesses even come back from data breaches that they might have suffered in the past.
Build a Cybersecurity Culture Early Enough
Cybersecurity isn’t just a practice that businesses need to do. It is also a culture that should get built into the fabrics of a company. It is vital to ensure that everyone in your company knows why cybersecurity matters. Also, they should know how to implement security practices daily.
This is one of the reasons SOC 2 compliance matters to a business. It ensures that this culture gets instilled into managers and employees early on. Also, businesses should make it a culture to train new employees on best security practices before onboarding them.
Reduce Business Disruption
We already mentioned how businesses enter panic mode when asked for a SOC report that they don’t have. They end up forgetting about their core functions which include ensuring high-quality products. They suddenly shift their focus to SOC compliance for a month or more.
These disruptions affect their business operations. For instance, they can lead to low-quality products, or the shifted attention could make customers feel neglected. It’s possible to avoid all this by ensuring a company is SOC compliant early enough.
Ensure Easy Scalability
Scaling is easier when you have security controls in place. SOC compliance gives you the confidence to focus on growing your company. You won’t need to worry about your data or getting exposed to an attack that will affect your operations.
This makes it easier to focus on your business’ growth. It also ensures you have more resources to boost your business. As said before, waiting for your business to grow before working on SOC compliance will require a lot of resources.
Gain a Competitive Advantage
Not many business owners ensure SOC compliance early enough. Most of them take security shortcuts, as noted earlier. This should be an opportunity for your business to stand out from the crowd. You can do this by implementing SOC compliance requirements from early on.
This will bring customers to your business if they don’t find your competitors compliant. So, it would help if you had your report ready for presentation to customers. They won’t need to spend too much time doing due diligence; instead, they’ll want to close a deal.
Conclusion
Now you know why SaaS startups need to be SOC compliant. Ensuring you have adhered to the SOC compliance requirements is one way to prepare for an audit. You won’t take a day to be compliant, but the amount of work you put into it will get acknowledgment from the auditor.
All you need to do is read and understand the auditing standards. This will make it easier to know how to implement these controls. You can consider using a SOC 2 automation platform over manual processes. Automating the steps towards compliance will help you save time.