Compliance weighs heavily on security and GRC teams

Only 29% of all organizations say their compliance programs consistently meet internal and external standards, according to Swimlane.

Their report reveals that fragmented workflows, manual evidence gathering and poor collaboration between security and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) teams are leaving organizations vulnerable to audit failures, regulatory penalties and security gaps.

51% of organizations have either received compliance warnings or fines or are concerned they could in the near future. With the stakes this high, it’s clear that traditional approaches to compliance management are no longer working.

“The burden of compliance weighs heavy on security and GRC teams, and the pain is growing faster than teams can adapt,” said Michael Lyborg, CISO at Swimlane. “Regulations are shifting, expectations are rising, and yet most organizations still rely on processes that were never designed for this level of complexity. Until now, everything has been massive spreadsheets. Without better coordination and smarter workflows, even well-intentioned programs will fall short.”

96% of organizations say it’s challenging to keep up with the growing number of industry regulations, and only 29% report that their compliance programs consistently meet internal and external standards. 92% of respondents rely on three or more tools to gather audit evidence, often resulting in duplicated effort and disjointed workflows. On average, just 39% of the audit evidence process is automated.

Manual work is costing time and accuracy

On average, just 39% of the evidence-gathering process is automated, leaving the bulk of the work to time-consuming manual effort. Rather than accelerating audit readiness, most teams are forced to stitch together data from scattered systems.

54% spend more than five hours each week on manual compliance tasks. Unsurprisingly, 62% say their audit evidence-gathering process is at least occasionally error-prone.

When it comes to audit readiness, teams are facing pressure from all sides. While 27% of organizations cite maintaining up-to-date documentation as their biggest challenge, others point to understanding compliance requirements (21%), resource constraints (18%) and simply locating the right evidence (18%).

90% of organizations are concerned that poor collaboration between GRC and security teams is undermining audit preparation. Differing priorities, unclear roles and communication breakdowns are major barriers to alignment. Organizations cited financial penalties (39%), security breaches (36%), and reputational damage (36%) as the top risks of poor compliance management.

“Audit readiness is harder than it should be,” said Jack Rumsey, Head of GRC at Swimlane. “Teams are wasting time chasing evidence, interpreting requirements in isolation and stitching together data across disconnected systems. This report highlights just how unsustainable that model has become — and why it’s time to rethink how to manage compliance from the ground up.”

As the pressure mounts — from regulators, stakeholders and threats alike — organizations can’t afford to treat compliance as an afterthought.