Deploying world-class security standards, without compromising on agility
Location: Bengaluru, India
Industry: SaaS
100+ policies created in 50% less time
70% reduction in manual burden
Enterprise-grade security processes
The Context
Proactively establishing secure practices
As an intelligent document processing solution, Cogniquest serves customers across industries and geographies. They regularly process large amounts of unstructured data using NLP and AI to uncover useful insights for their customers. Business continuity documents by nature contain sensitive information, requiring Cogniquest to maintain a high degree of customer trust at all times. This was a call for the founding team to proactively implement the right set of internal processes and controls in order to build a credible, world-class brand. Implementing multiple infosec standards such as ISO27001, SOC2, and GDPR was a means to this end.
Satish G , Chief Evangelist, Cogniquest
“Scrut gave us added confidence in managing documentation for ensuring continuous compliance across 3 standards, and now we’re in the process of getting our HIPAA certification as well!”
Challenges
Striking the right balance in process v/s agility
From inception, Cogniquest’s platform adhered to standard security practices in DevOps. However, to achieve international security standards, they had to establish processes for a consistently secure posture. As a young company, Cogniquest grappled with the balance of introducing new processes while maintaining lean and agile operations.
1. Establishing Robust Controls
With limited infosec resources, understanding technically complex compliance requirements posed a potential bottleneck to global expansion plans. Cogniquest needed expert guidance to understand and set up the right controls from the ground up
2. Safeguarding Sensitive Data
Ensuring privacy of the vast amounts of sensitive customer data they process posed a significant challenge. Cogniquest, utilizing AI technology, had to maintain high levels of security, meeting the demands of their innovative platform.
3. Balancing Process Efficiency
The challenge lay in introducing policies and processes without adding complexity. Cogniquest aimed for controls that are scalable and processes to manage those controls - without adding unnecessary hassles for their team.
To solve this, they evaluated multiple solutions with similar features but Scrut’s responsiveness and quality of support made it the ideal choice for Cogniquest.
The Solution
Building enterprise grade security for a young and dynamic company
The Scrut platform established a single source of truth for all compliance artifacts. This structured approach provided easy access to evidences, policy documents, audit logs, and tasks in one central location.
The Scrut platform provided standard templates allowing Cogniquest to build 100+ policies in 50% less time, a robust control structure, pre-mapped frameworks, and integrations for automated evidence collection. The evidence tracker enabled the team to track and monitor compliance tasks, completion status, version logs (including comments, and revisions), and reduced up to 70% manual burden in the process.
Additionally, ISMS requirements were conveniently managed through the platform’s in-built security trainings and customizable workflows to administer the same.
Throughout this journey, Scrut’s continuous support remained highly responsive, providing timely assistance and guidance for an accelerated and hassle-free journey.
Favorite Product Features
- Policy Management
- Evidence Tracker
- Central Artifacts Vault
- Security Awareness Trainings
Scrut made it super easy to track and remediate even the minor issues around evidences
The Impact
Continuous, extensive, and quickly attainable security program
1. Accelerated Security Program
Scrut platform swiftly advanced Cogniquest's security program. With a headstart on policy building and control monitoring, they were able to reduce circle-time in documentation by 50%. Features like task trackers and ready-to-use awareness quizzes made security processes straightforward, ensuring comprehensive coverage while saving valuable time.
2. Continuously Compliant Posture
By leveraging SmartGRC, Cogniquest was able to put day to day compliance operations on auto-pilot. Relevant stakeholders are notified of dependencies via efficient workflows and overall progress with transparent reporting. Furthermore, Scrut’s infosec team proactively helps with certification renewals as needed.
3. Enterprise Grade Process Maturity
Implementing Scrut brought a notable boost in process maturity for Cogniquest. While solid technological processes were in place, Scrut introduced mature organizational practices such as standardized vendor agreements and employment contracts. The implemented controls led to a thorough appreciation across all security areas, including employees, vendor and risk management. This elevated Cogniquest's security measures to enterprise-level controls, thus commanding a greater customer trust.