Libby Bevin

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a crucial security standard for protecting personal data during credit card transactions — and managing PCI compliance is essential for businesses that handle such data. 

The latest PCI DSS standard, Version 4.0, goes into effect March 2024. Organizations will need to adapt to new requirements and maintain compliance to safeguard sensitive information. In this blog post, we’ll explore the significance of PCI 4.0, the changes it brings, and how to stay compliant.

The New PCI DSS Requirements

PCI DSS 4.0 introduces new requirements to strengthen cybersecurity measures and address evolving threats. The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has emphasized the importance of a customized approach to meet PCI DSS requirements, considering each organization’s unique environment and risk profile.

The new version of the standard focuses on adapting security methods to keep pace with changing threats, promoting security as a continuous process, and enabling more flexibility for organizations to achieve their security goals. Some of the key changes include:

• Stricter requirements for multi-factor authentication (MFA) and updated password guidelines.
• New e-commerce and phishing standards to address current concerns.
• A new reporting option that highlights areas for improvement and provides greater transparency.
• Permissions for group, shared, and public accounts.
• Targeted risk analysis to help organizations determine the frequency of performing specific activities.
• A customized approach that allows organizations to use innovative methods to achieve their security goals.
• Improved verification methods and procedures, with increased alignment between information reported in a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) and the Attestation of Compliance (AOC).

These changes are designed to assure that the PCI DSS standard continues to meet the evolving security needs of the payments industry while providing organizations the flexibility to adopt solutions that best fit their unique circumstances.

Which PCI DSS Requirements Have Changed?

PCI DSS 4.0 introduces numerous changes to the standard, focusing on authentication, network security, malware protection, and secure configurations. Some of the most significant changes include the following.

1. Multi-factor authentication (MFA). PCI 4.0 mandates using MFA for access to the cardholder data environment (CDE), providing an extra layer of security beyond traditional passwords.
2. Network security enhancements. The new standard emphasizes the importance of securing network infrastructure, including firewalls, routers, and other network components, to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches.
3. Malware protection. PCI DSS 4.0 requires organizations to implement robust malware protection measures, such as anti-virus software, intrusion detection systems, and regular updates, to safeguard against evolving malware threats.
4. Secure configurations. The updated standard calls for secure configurations of all system components, including servers, databases, and applications, to minimize vulnerabilities and reduce the risk of compromise.
5. Increased vulnerability scanning and penetration testing. PCI 4.0 requires more frequent internal vulnerability scans and penetration testing by an approved scanning vendor (ASV). This helps organizations identify and address potential weaknesses in their security posture before malicious actors can exploit them.

When Does PCI DSS 4.0 Go Into Effect?

PCI DSS 4.0 was released on March 31, 2022, and is now in effect. To give organizations time to adapt, however, the previous version, PCI DSS v3.2.1, will remain active until March 31, 2024. This transition period allows businesses to implement the necessary changes gradually and assure compliance with the latest standard.

Some additional requirements in PCI DSS 4.0 are considered best practices until March 31, 2025. While organizations will only be required to meet these new requirements in their entirety after this 2025 date, you are still encouraged to implement the necessary controls as soon as possible.

All new requirements will be mandatory after March 31, 2025, and should be part of a comprehensive PCI DSS assessment for full compliance. 

What Will the Transition Period to PCI DSS v4.0 Be Like?

During the transition period, organizations can validate compliance using either PCI DSS v3.2.1 or PCI DSS 4.0. This flexibility allows businesses to adopt the new standard at their own pace, so that they have the necessary resources and processes to meet the updated requirements.

To make the most of the transition period, organizations should:

• Familiarize themselves with the changes introduced in PCI DSS 4.0.
• Assess their security posture and identify areas that need improvement.
• Develop a plan to implement the necessary controls and processes.
• Allocate resources and budget for the transition.
• Engage with qualified security assessors (QSAs) or other experts to guide them through the process.

By taking an active approach during the transition period, organizations can assure a smooth and successful transition to PCI DSS 4.0, minimizing the risk of non-compliance and potential security breaches.

What PCI DSS 4.0 Means for Organizations

PCI DSS 4.0 requires organizations such as merchants and service providers (and many more) to focus on risk management and targeted risk analysis. This involves conducting regular risk assessments, implementing robust security controls, and maintaining detailed documentation to identify and mitigate cardholder and authentication data risks.

Organizations must assess their security posture, identify gaps, and develop a remediation plan to achieve PCI DSS compliance. This includes evaluating the functionality of your existing security controls and implementing compensating controls where necessary.

PCI DSS 4.0 also emphasizes the importance of security awareness training for all personnel handling account data and interacting with payment pages. 

Compliance validation requires organizations to provide a report on compliance (ROC) or an attestation of compliance (AOC), demonstrating that they have undergone the necessary risk assessments, implemented appropriate security controls, and adhered to the PCI DSS requirements.

The Importance of Maintaining PCI Compliance

Maintaining PCI DSS compliance is essential for organizations that handle cardholder data, as it helps protect sensitive information, preserve customer trust, and avoid costly consequences. Here are some key reasons why PCI compliance is crucial.

• Data protection. By adhering to PCI DSS requirements, organizations can implement robust security controls to safeguard cardholder data from unauthorized access, theft, or misuse. This helps prevent data breaches leading to financial losses, legal liabilities, and reputational damage.
• Avoiding fines and penalties. Non-compliance with PCI DSS can result in significant fines and penalties imposed by payment card brands, banks, and regulatory bodies. These costs can be substantial and may even jeopardize the financial stability of your organization.
• Legal and regulatory compliance. PCI DSS compliance helps organizations meet their regulatory obligations related to data protection and privacy. Failure to comply with these requirements can lead to legal action, investigations, and other adverse consequences.
• Business continuity. In the event of a data breach, non-compliant organizations may face suspension or termination of their ability to process credit card transactions. This can severely impact business operations, leading to lost revenue and customer attrition.
• Competitive advantage. Business partners, including consumers, won’t do business with you if you cannot keep their data secure. PCI compliance demonstrates that you take data security seriously.

By prioritizing PCI DSS compliance, organizations can address these risks, protect their customers’ data, and maintain a strong reputation in the market. 

ZenGRC Can Help You Stay PCI-compliant

ZenGRC is a powerful tool that simplifies PCI DSS compliance management. It provides a centralized platform for tracking and managing compliance tasks, generating self-assessment questionnaires (SAQs), and maintaining a comprehensive document library. 

ZenGRC streamlines the compliance process, helping organizations save time, reduce costs, and minimize non-compliance risk. Ready to get started? Schedule a demo today!

Organizations must stay on top of compliance deadlines and expiration dates. Failure to meet these deadlines can lead to costly penalties, reputational damage, and legal consequences. 

Fortunately, automated tools can help streamline compliance processes and assure that important deadlines are never missed. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore how to automate triggers based on expiration dates and the benefits such automation can bring to your organization.

Which Compliance Frameworks Would Benefit from Automating Triggers?

A wide range of compliance standards can benefit from automating triggers based on expiration dates. Below are several examples.

• Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2). Automating triggers for the SOC 2 cybersecurity standard helps with the timely renewal of security certifications, policies, and procedures for securely managing customer data. This reduces the risk of lapses in security controls that could jeopardize data protection.
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). For covered entities dealing with protected health information (PHI), automated triggers allow timely review and updating of HIPAA security policies, workforce security training, risk assessments, and other HIPAA requirements. This assures continuous compliance to avoid penalties.
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Merchants can benefit by automating triggers for renewing their PCI certification, updating security policies, testing security controls, and providing security awareness training for personnel handling credit card data. 
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Automated triggers can help assure that data processing records, data protection impact assessments (DPIAs), and breach notification processes involving European Union personal data are consistently reviewed and updated per GDPR requirements.
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001:  For ISO 27001 certification of information security management systems, automating triggers allows for timely review of information security policies, risk assessments, security controls, audits, and other requirements for maintaining accredited ISO 27001 compliance.
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act. U.S.-listed companies must comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for effective internal control over financial reporting. Automated triggers can help to keep testing or documentation of internal controls on schedule. 

How Do You Automate Security Compliance?

Automating security compliance does require specialized compliance software that streamline various aspects of the compliance process, including evidence collection, continuous monitoring, reporting, and trigger notifications based on expiration dates. 

These platforms often integrate with other essential security tools and systems to provide a comprehensive view of your organization’s security posture.

Compliance automation platforms automate crucial processes such as:

• Real-time monitoring of your IT environment, processes, and security controls such as access controls.
• Automated alerts when something is not done, with escalation to more senior executives for follow-up action. 
• Automated evidence collection and mapping to control requirements for streamlined audits.
• Customizable workflows for different cybersecurity frameworks.
• Intuitive dashboards and remediation management for identified issues.

What Should You Look For in a Compliance Automation Tool?

When evaluating compliance automation tools, consider the following essential features.

• Support for multiple compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and so forth) with customizable workflows and templates.
• Automated evidence collection with intelligent mapping to relevant security controls.
• Continuous monitoring of IT environments with real-time alerts on potential issues.
• Intuitive reporting dashboards for clear visibility into compliance posture.
• Seamless integration with existing business tools and security solutions.

For SOC 2 compliance automation specifically, prioritize tools that offer:

• Intuitive interface with smart questionnaires for quick onboarding.
• Preloaded SOC 2 trust services criteria.
• Automated mapping of controls to systems, processes, and data sources.
• Comprehensive risk assessment capabilities to identify gaps and improve security posture.
• Scalability to grow with your organization.

Types of Automation Processes

Compliance automation involves the following processes.

Evidence Collection

Automated evidence collection assures that all relevant documentation, logs, artifacts, and data from sources such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), other Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, and on-premise systems are gathered and mapped to specific security controls and compliance requirements. 

It streamlines the entire audit process, including SOC 2 Type II attestation, while reducing the risk of missing crucial evidence.

Continuous Monitoring

Continuous monitoring of your IT environment, processes, security controls, and change management activities is critical for identifying potential compliance deviations before they escalate into significant issues such as unauthorized access incidents. 

Automated monitoring enables real-time alerts that trigger incident response workflows based on predefined rules, control failures, and expiration dates.

Compliance Reporting

Automated compliance reporting capabilities simplify the creation of comprehensive reports, dashboards, and audit trails tailored to different compliance frameworks, such as SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001. 

These reporting tools provide internal and external stakeholders with clear visibility into an organization’s compliance posture and overall compliance program health. Reporting insights also inform risk management decisions.

Automating Triggers Based on Expiration Dates

One critical benefit of compliance automation is the ability to set up triggers based on expiration dates. These triggers can automatically launch various actions, such as:

• Sending reminders to responsible parties to renew certificates, licenses, or contracts.
• Generating reports or audit trails for expired items.
• Initiating remediation processes or escalation procedures.
• Updating risk assessments and control evaluations.

Organizations can preemptively address potential compliance issues by automating these triggers. That, in turn, reduces the risk of non-compliance penalties, human errors, or operational disruptions.

ZenGRC Lets You Automate SOC 2 Compliance Triggers and Dates

ZenGRC is a comprehensive compliance automation platform purpose-built for streamlining SOC 2 compliance. It automates key processes such as evidence collection, continuous monitoring, and reporting.

With ZenGRC’s automation, organizations maintain a robust, audit-ready SOC 2 compliance program.

Schedule a demo to see how ZenGRC can transform your SOC 2 compliance efforts through automation.

Complementary user entity controls (CUECs) are essential to any SOC 2 compliance project report. These controls help to confirm the service provider’s system is secure by outlining responsibilities that the client (that is, the user) must undertake as well. 

Developing strategies to identify, map, and monitor CUECs is crucial for organizations that rely on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers as part of their vendor management process. You won’t be able to manage privacy risks without them.

Why Complementary User Entity Controls Are Important

For a service provider to achieve its control objectives and compliance goals, the client will likely need to implement one or more CUECs itself. Those CUECs are typically listed in the System and Organization Controls (SOC) report generated when the service provider undergoes a SOC 2 audit. To implement CUECs successfully requires coordinated effort between the service provider and user entities.

When vendors don’t implement the proper CUECs, or when they implement CUECs of the wrong design, the vendor’s own SOC 2 controls can be severely undermined. That leaves the vendor unable to meet stated goals for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Failure to enact CUECs can leave holes in the end-user’s defenses that hackers can exploit despite the provider’s own strong security protections.

Upholding your CUEC responsibilities is important for effective cybersecurity. That means you (the end-user) must review the service provider’s SOC 2 report carefully, to understand exactly what your CUEC responsibilities are. Documenting and continuously monitoring CUECs should be central to your third-party risk program.

Where to Find Complementary User Entity Controls in a SOC Report

CUECs are typically found in two places in a SOC 2 (and SOC 3) report: the system description and control activities sections.

The system description will have a defined CUEC subsection that outlines the general nature of complementary controls clients will need to implement so that the provider can meet its specified SOC 2 control objectives.

Specific CUECs are embedded within the control activities section alongside the related control objectives they address. For example, multifactor authentication for user logins may be labeled as a CUEC for logical access security. The practical upshot: to understand your CUEC obligations, you must analyze the control activities section of the SOC 2 report carefully. 

Comb through the SOC report to understand all relevant CUECs. It’s wise to document and classify CUECs too, so that you understand the additional controls and procedures you’ll need to implement within your IT environment. 

Who Is Responsible for CUECs?

Both sides of the provider-user relationship have some responsibility for CUECs. The service provider is responsible for defining, implementing, and operating controls within its system boundary. The user is responsible for configuring assigned CUECs per SOC 2 guidelines.

For example, say multifactor authentication (MFA) for provisioning user access is identified as a CUEC security control. The client must then enforce MFA for its personnel accessing the provider’s system. Any failure to implement prescribed CUECs properly results in gaps that counteract the provider’s internal controls, cause compliance nonconformities, and increase cyber risk exposure despite the vendor’s protections being aligned with industry standards.

How to Determine Your CUECs

To identify your organization’s share of control responsibilities for outsourced services, your information security team should review provider SOC 2 reports at least annually to pinpoint all applicable CUEC guidelines.

This review entails:

• Searching reports for “user entity,” “client control,” and “complementary controls” sections.
• Highlighting client obligations related to logical access controls, data security, availability monitoring, change management, and other critical domains.
• Documenting extracted CUECs in a central inventory or risk assessment repository for tracking.
• Confirming that current internal controls satisfy CUEC needs, or identifying gaps requiring new controls per SOC 2 criteria.
• Validating that user control considerations for access provisioning and system configurations are fulfilled per AICPA standards.
• Verifying that procedures for user management, network security, and operations align with prescribed CUECs

Continuous analysis clarifies any safeguards and procedures that are necessary to uphold security and compliance. MS Word natively supports taking notes while you read. Consider opening SOC 2 reports in Word to annotate key CUECs for documentation. 

Strategies for Mapping CUECs to Governance Documents

Once you’ve extracted CUECs from provider reports, the next step is to map the CUECs to your information security management system (ISMS) for tracking. This means:

• Associating the CUECs to relevant policies, standards, and guidelines in your documentation system.
• Linking CUECs to existing security controls or creating new user-entity controls.
• Adding CUEC enforcement procedures into applicable processes (user provisioning, access reviews).

A centralized platform such as ZenGRC can help automate and simplify this CUEC integration process through impact analysis and governance mapping.

The Importance of Continuous Monitoring of CUECs

Without ongoing oversight, CUECs can quickly become outdated and ineffective as vendor environments evolve. This creates security gaps, most likely without you knowing those gaps exist. Simply relying on annual SOC reports allows windows for threat exposure from one audit to the next.

A mature vendor risk program can impose continuous monitoring of prescribed CUECs, along with regular internal control assessments and independent audits of service providers. Routine CUEC reviews can assure that client obligations adapt as vendors update systems, data flows, configurations, and compliance needs.

If users fail to examine CUEC evolution across reporting periods or fail to confirm that current mitigating controls sufficiently address updated requirements, significant vulnerabilities can emerge despite strong service organization safeguards.

Comprehensive CUEC tracking establishes tighter shared responsibility for cybersecurity and vendor-risk management. It’s an important activity and users ignore it at their peril.

ZenGRC Has an Integrated Management Solution for CUECs

Managing CUECs across multiple vendors while updating internal security controls is complex without the right technology. ZenGRC centralizes SOC reporting and provides automated impact analysis of CUECs on your governance framework. 

Schedule a demo today to see how ZenGRC can optimize your CUEC and third-party risk management programs.

Modern digital supply chains are complicated. As ever more businesses outsource ever more business functions to focus on their core responsibilities, those chains stretch around the world and involve ever more links.

This has significant economic, security, and privacy ramifications. Tracking the movement of personal data across digital supply chains is difficult— but it is decidedly not optional. Privacy regulations such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) require companies to know where their personally identifiable information is at all times. 

What Is a Data Subprocessor?

A data subprocessor is a link far down that digital supply chain. First is the data controller, which possesses the information legally. The controller might then outsource handling of that data to a data processor — who might then sub-contract some part of the processing to a subprocessor. 

The data controller is ultimately responsible for protecting the personally identifiable information (PII) it has collected and handed off to processors and subprocessors. By the same token, however, processors and subprocessors have a legal duty to follow the same privacy regulations as the data controller. 

Data Subprocessors & Compliance Frameworks

The GDPR explicitly requires that subprocessors be bound by a contract that imposes the same data protection duties on them that the data processor has with the data controller. Sub-processors are likewise held liable for any breaches or noncompliance under the law and may face direct fines.

The California Consumer Privacy Act, in contrast, does not explicitly define sub-processors. It does discuss “service providers,” which act similarly; but subprocessor responsibility is significantly less rigorous since primary liability is generally held by the “business” (similar to the data controller in GDPR), rather than the service provider itself.

How do you identify data subprocessors?

Consider the following questions to evaluate whether a company operates as a data subprocessor:

• Does the business process personal data in the name of another organization?
• Is the business’s data processing purpose established by someone else?
• Does a contract with another company cover the company’s data processing activities?
• Does the organization treat personal data under the express instructions of another entity (such as a data processor)?

Data Subprocessor Compliance Duties & Responsibilities

As mentioned before, data subprocessors perform operational duties using personal data on behalf of data processors.

They mainly provide data-driven services such as cloud storage infrastructure, CRM, and email marketing. Because companies handle data, they must adhere to particular criteria to provide GDPR-compliant services.

A data subprocessor is responsible for the following compliance objectives:

Data Security and Confidentiality

Data subprocessors must implement robust security measures to safeguard personal information from unauthorized access, breaches, and leaks. Controllers should engage only subprocessors that meet appropriate security criteria.

If your subprocessor lacks proper protection, your data may be jeopardized. This might result in penalties, poor publicity, and legal action against your firm.

Acceptable security measures include, but are not limited to:

• Firewalls
• Access controls
• Multi-factor authentication
• Regular data risk assessments
• Data encryption or anonymization
• Privacy awareness training for employees

Implementing Security Measures

Data processors must apply suitable technical and organizational measures to guarantee a level of security proportionate to the risk. This includes safeguarding data against unauthorized or unlawful processing, accidental loss, deletion, or damage.

Following Data Controller’s Instructions

A data processor’s adherence to the data controller’s directives is critical to GDPR compliance. Processors are responsible for handling data only as directed by the controller, who sets the goal and context of processing.

This stringent compliance prevents unlawful data usage and protects the processor from accidentally taking on the role (and accompanying obligations) of the data controller. Stepping beyond those bounds violates the GDPR while jeopardizing the controller-processor relationship’s integrity and trust.

Maintaining Records of Processing Activities

Processors must retain complete records of all types of processing activities performed on behalf of a controller.

These records must include information such as processing aims and a description of data subject and personal data categories, which are required to demonstrate GDPR compliance.

Upholding Data Subject Rights

Data processors must help data controllers maintain data subjects’ rights under the GDPR. This includes handling requests for data access, correction, deletion, and portability.

When a data subject exercises his or her rights, the processor must guarantee that its infrastructure and operations can meet these demands promptly. This requires processors to have efficient systems to accommodate data subjects’ rights promptly, supporting the regulation’s person-centered approach to data privacy.

Reporting Data Breaches

Data processors must quickly notify their data controllers when a breach happens.

The GDPR requires that this notice be sent without undue delay, giving the controller as much opportunity as possible to take corrective action.

This prompt action is critical to minimizing harm and meeting the controller’s requirement to notify the appropriate regulatory authority of the breach within 72 hours of becoming aware.

A processor’s prompt response in the event of a data breach is a legal duty and a critical component of the trust that data controllers and data subjects put in the processors.

Best Practices for Subcontractors

Consider the following recommended practices to maintain compliance and to secure your users’ data effectively.

Data Security

Investing in adequate security measures is a critical component of GDPR compliance. This includes using cutting-edge technology to protect personal data against unauthorized access, disclosure, change, and destruction.

Strong encryption, firewalls, anti-malware software, and secure data storage systems are examples of such methods.

Documentation

Maintaining detailed records is also necessary. This isn’t simply about tracking the data you acquire and handle; it’s about monitoring the whole lifetime of personal data, including how and when consent was gained, how the data is used, and how you respond to data breaches.

Good documentation not only demonstrates compliance. It also serves as a roadmap for your data protection policy.

Transparency

As a data processor, you must maintain open and transparent communication with the data controllers. Prepare to give a thorough accounting of data processing activities and respond quickly to data subject access requests.

Employee Training

Your staff members should be well-versed in GDPR and understand their responsibility in safeguarding personal information.

Training should include the principles of data protection, the intricacies of GDPR, and the necessity of adhering to your organization’s data protection policy.

Regular training sessions assure that personnel are informed of their roles and the penalties for noncompliance.

Regular Audits

Regular audits assist in maintaining continuing GDPR compliance. These audits should focus on your data processing activities, security measures, documentation, and respect for data subjects’ rights.

Audits can identify holes in your data protection framework and expedite remediation, reducing the risk of noncompliance.

Data Impact Assessments

Before implementing new procedures or technologies that handle personal data, it’s wise to complete a data protection impact assessment.

These audits check how new activities influence personal data security and privacy and whether they meet GDPR regulations.

Key Considerations When Using Data Sub-Processors With AI Tools

With the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) products that use large language models (LLMs), abiding by data privacy standards may become even more difficult. Ideally, you would limit sub-processors access to personal data to the bare minimum required.

For example, if you’re running a market research project with a service like ChatGPT, sanitize personal information such as emails, phone numbers, and so forth. Similarly, if you’re using generative AI to create a marketing blog post, you probably won’t need to cue the tool with people’s names or contact information.

Therefore, you must:

• Understand the data flow of your subprocessor and their policies;
• Sign a comprehensive Data Processing Agreement (DPA), covering all compliance requirements;
• Opt-out of training on sensitive information;
• Track closely the use of data in a centralized repository.

ZenGRC Offers Integrated Risk and Compliance Management Solutions

The risk management and assessment process, including internal audits, can significantly strain your firm. ZenGRC is a governance, risk management, and compliance platform that may help you speed audit procedures by gathering and organizing all relevant information.

Instead of handling your compliance requirements using spreadsheets, use ZenGRC to automate documentation and audit management across all your compliance frameworks. ZenGRC’s compliance, risk, and workflow management software is straightforward.

ZenGRC includes a variety of compliance frameworks and standards for easy implementation, including GDPR, PCI, HIPAA, and SOC 2.

One-to-many control mapping makes matching internal controls to numerous standards easy, allowing you to monitor GDPR compliance alongside other frameworks. That, in turn, makes compliance management more accessible.

ZenGRC also serves as a single source of truth, so that your business is always compliant and audit-ready. Policies and procedures are versioned and readily available in the document repository. Workflow management technologies include essential monitoring, automated reminders, and audit trails. Insightful data and dashboards identify gaps and high-risk regions.

Schedule a demo today to learn how ZenGRC can assist you with compliance and vulnerability management.

Good documentation is essential for any compliance program, but all that documentation is pointless if you cannot find anything when needed. That’s where document management comes in: keeping crucial files organized and accessible.

What Is Document Management?

Document management is the process of storing, organizing, retrieving, and distributing any significant documents across your organization. You can manage documents on a shared server, in a folder on your desktop, or even in paper form in a file cabinet. A document management system (DMS) is a software solution designed specifically for document filing and retrieval.

Document Management Best Practices

When considering how to establish digital document management in your business (or how to improve your current system), success depends on identifying your goals and building a strong foundation for document management. We recommend the following three strategies. 

Set Clear Expectations From Day One

Like any other business process, document management requires employee support and comprehension; setting up a cutting-edge DMS is useless if nobody understands how to use it. Make clear what your DMS is intended to capture. For example, is the system for document production or just filing? Do you exchange papers with clients, or solely within your own organization?

Equally important, configure an organizational system for your files and assure that everyone understands how to follow it. If required, assign someone to keep the DMS clean and organized continuously — and that chore is much easier if it’s defined before the DMS becomes clogged with arbitrarily filed papers.

Move on From Paper

Reliance on printed papers, regardless of your business, is becoming an increasingly costly exercise. First, it costs money and the risks of losing a piece of paper are always present. Second, paper doesn’t help any company that has a significant number of hybrid or remote employees; they need digital document management.

For example, in 2020, 97 percent of businesses with few or no digital document processes reported that transitioning to remote work — something every company had to do thanks to the covid-19 pandemic — considerably hindered productivity. People couldn’t complete their tasks because they didn’t have convenient access to paper-based documents from home.

Remember, when you digitize your file system, don’t simply copy your old print-based methods; go beyond that. For example, if approvals are essential to your workflow, assure that your DMS enables digital signatures to eliminate the print-sign-scan cycle.

You Don’t Have to Keep Everything

Once you’ve moved on from keeping printed papers, saving everything is tempting because electronic storage doesn’t take up office space. Fight this impulse. Efficient document management is as much about which documents you choose to discard as it is about which ones you retain.

Obviously some documents will need to be retained for, say, legal purposes. Many other documents, you can live perfectly fine without them. Remember, the more documents you retain, the harder it will be to locate the most relevant (or current) information you need. So think hard about which documents you need, and establishe processes to review and discard the ones you don’t.

Automate Common Processes

Automation is one method for reducing document sprawl in your DMS. Some platforms allow you to sort and save files automatically according to tags, department of origin, or other metadata. This maintains uniformity and makes files easy to locate.

Repetitive document generation tasks can be automated. For example, using predefined document templates to create an order form or invoice for a customer directly in your DMS saves time and money.

Enforce Proper Version Control

A vital benefit of a DMS is the ability to trace earlier document versions. Some DMS solutions allow you to know who viewed a file, when, and what modifications they made. This is critical for data privacy and security, particularly in areas with rigid regulations such as banking or healthcare.

Nor are version control and revision history sensible for legal compliance. They’re also ideal for hybrid work or asynchronous collaboration, since users can make modifications and provide feedback on a document without removing another person’s work, allowing everyone to offer input.

What Is a Document Repository?

A document repository is a shared digital storage location that only authorized personnel can access. It is administered by users who have special privileges and controls. 

An organized document repository is essential to creating a DMS that works successfully for your business. These repositories are often arranged to meet the needs of team members, allowing them to search for documents by title or keyword, group documents by team, or store documents effectively using a folder system.

Document Management & Automation

Workflow-enabled document management software may drastically reduce manual activities and process completion times.

Consider this example. Say that a company’s training department generates materials distributed to all staff. Before a work may be published, it must undergo the following procedure:

• Subject matter experts outline the content.
• A staff member from the training department develops a draft based on the outline.
• Someone else reviews the manuscript for flow and correctness.
• A line editor is responsible for editing the draft
• The final draft is forwarded to the creative department to add some design flare and finish the papers before publication.

Content may go up or down the chain at any stage throughout this process; for example, the accuracy review may discover that the content is insufficient and should be returned to the writer for extra work; or the training team may use email or another manual method to distribute papers back and forth. 

This results in lost information, missed deadlines, and potential miscommunications. A workflow embedded within the document management system allows users to transfer papers to the appropriate persons or teams with a single click, so that everyone knows what they need to work on at a glance.

These concepts apply to any document-based workflow, including customer orders and bills.

ZenGRC Has a Document and Evidence Collection Solution

Document management is critical for corporate compliance, because the documents you have are often the evidence you need to present to demonstrate compliance with a security framework.

ZenGRC, one of the world’s most trusted GRC systems, provides a single, automated platform to support your document management needs. Itconnects with your existing business apps and procedures, and collects audit trail documentation from all the business apps you use to provide proof to auditors and regulators — so you don’t  have to.

ZenGRC combines all your business systems for continuous risk and compliance monitoring, allowing you to access your saved documents automatically via our “Single Source of Truth” repository. No more seeking and sifting for proof to demonstrate your compliance efforts!

Schedule a demo today to see how ZenGRC can help establish your company’s compliance program.