Trust Centers: Showcasing Your Organization's Security and Compliance Efforts

  • September 19, 2024
Author

Anna Fitzgerald

Senior Content Marketing Manager

In 2023, 29% of organizations lost a new business deal because they were missing a compliance certification and 72% of businesses completed a compliance audit specifically to win new business — an increase from 63% in 2022. 

In fact, the driving force behind the compliance program for most organizations is to increase revenue/win new clients (23%). For large companies with over $1 billion in revenue, the percentage is even higher at 34%.

To win new business and increase their revenue, among other advantages that compliance offers, companies are increasingly seeking ways to demonstrate their commitment to data security and privacy and build trust.

One effective method is through the use of a Trust Center, or a centralized hub where organizations can showcase their security and compliance measures. By offering transparency into their security and compliance posture, organizations can not only build trust but also reduce the friction associated with security reviews.

This blog explores what a Trust Center is, the benefits it brings, how to build one, and how it can be used as a sales and marketing tool.

What is a Trust Center?

A Trust Center is a dedicated webpage or portal where organizations can highlight the measures they are taking to protect sensitive data and comply with regulatory and industry standards. It provides visitors—whether customers, prospects, partners, investors, or other stakeholders—with a clear overview of the security measures in place.

A Trust Center may include the following components:

Visitors are able self-serve or request these documents with information on data security and compliance, like SOC 2 reports, with an automated NDA workflow. Admins can easily review, approve, and/or deny requests and enforce an NDA for these resources directly in the Trust Center dashboard. This significantly simplifies document request management. 

By centralizing all security and compliance documentation, policies, and real-time data and enabling visitors to self-serve or request this information, Trust Centers help organizations present an accurate and comprehensive view of their security program. This transparency helps build trust with stakeholders who need assurance that the organization is taking security seriously and streamline the end-to-end security review process.

What are the benefits of a Trust Center?

A Trust Center can help your organization showcase the measures you’re taking around security and compliance, on one dedicated page. Let’s take a look at why this is beneficial: 

Builds trust

A Trust Center creates transparency around the security protocols your organization follows, which can foster greater trust among customers, prospects, and other stakeholders. It demonstrates that your organization prioritizes the protection of sensitive data and adheres to stringent compliance standards.

Speeds up security reviews

One of the main pain points in security assessments is the back-and-forth that occurs between organizations and customers and prospects requesting documentation and proof of security measures. A Trust Center allows visitors to self-serve, reducing the back-and-forth communication and speeding up security reviews.

Provides a competitive advantage

A Trust Center allows organizations to proactively demonstrate their commitment to security and compliance, which can differentiate them from competitors who may not offer the same level of openness.

Reduces sales cycle friction

Trust Centers can speed up sales cycles by providing prospects with the information they need upfront. This reduces time spent answering repeated security questions and instead allows your team to focus on other priorities.

Provides ongoing assurance of security and compliance posture

Trust Centers integrated with compliance platforms, like Secureframe, can provide real-time monitoring and continuous assurance that your organization is meeting key security controls. Customers can see that your organization isn't just compliant at one point in time but is committed to maintaining a strong security posture.

How to build a Trust Center

Use the best practices below to build or optimize your Trust Center to showcase your security and compliance posture and build client trust.

  • Identify key information: Determine the security certifications, frameworks, policies, and compliance documents that are relevant to your organization and your customers. Consider adding downloadable reports like SOC 2 reports, ISO 27001 certifications, and pen testing reports.
  • List subprocessors: Since subprocessors play a crucial role in handling, processing, or storing sensitive information, openly listing them demonstrates your organization’s commitment to accountability and compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR. This transparency also helps to mitigate any consumer concerns about data privacy and security risks, especially for customers that want to assess your full data ecosystem before making a purchasing decision.
  • Enable continuous monitoring: A Trust Center is most effective when it provides real-time data. Integrate it with a compliance platform like Secureframe, which automatically pulls data from your security stack to show the current status of your controls.
  • Enable self-service: Make it easy for visitors to download security documents or request access to more sensitive ones. Implement automated workflows for document approvals, including non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), to streamline the process and save time.
  • Customize to match your branding: Ensure your Trust Center reflects your brand. Incorporate your logo, brand colors, and custom domain. A branded, professional Trust Center provides a seamless experience for prospects and customers, reinforcing the perception that your organization takes security seriously.
  • Keep it up-to-date: Ensure your Trust Center reflects the most current information by regularly updating it with real-time security monitoring data, new certifications, and compliance documents. This ongoing maintenance builds trust with customers, showing that your organization is actively committed to maintaining a strong security posture.
  • Streamline the document request management process as much as possible: Implement automated workflows for handling document requests, including NDA approvals, to reduce friction and improve response times. By simplifying the process, you allow visitors to quickly access the information they need, enhancing their overall experience and speeding up security reviews.

Trust Centers vs security questionnaires

Security questionnaires are a common way for organizations to assess each other's security measures, but they can be time-consuming, repetitive, and tedious. They can also significantly delay the sales process.

Trust Centers, by contrast, provide an easier, more scalable solution. Rather than filling out questionnaires for every prospect, a Trust Center provides the information in a centralized location that prospects can access at their convenience. This eliminates the need for repeated questionnaire responses and significantly reduces the workload for your security and sales teams.

In addition, Trust Centers offer more flexibility than security questionnaires. Admins can choose which security controls to highlight, update information in real-time, and share only the data they want with visitors. 

How to use a Trust Center

While Trust Centers are invaluable for security teams, they can also be a powerful tool for sales and marketing efforts. Here’s how:

  • Reduce security review friction: Allow prospects to self-serve by downloading security documents directly from your Trust Center. With customizable workflows in place, security teams can approve or deny document requests efficiently, reducing delays.
  • Proactively share with prospects: Sales teams can use a Trust Center to proactively address concerns about security early in the sales cycle. This reduces the need for repetitive security conversations and helps accelerate deals.
  • Showcase on your website and social: A well-designed Trust Center can differentiate your organization from competitors. By showcasing your commitment to security in a transparent and visually appealing way on your website as well as other distribution channels like social, you can build credibility with prospects who value security and compliance.
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"Nametag is the world’s first identity verification platform designed to protect accounts from impersonators and AI-generated deep fakes. Thanks to Secureframe Trust Center, we can now confidently showcase our security and compliance standards in a way that's crystal-clear, concise, and comprehensive for our valued customers.” —Andy Caird, Software Engineer, Nametag.co

Trust Center examples

When building a Trust Center, it helps to look at how leading companies have implemented theirs. Below are examples from our own organization and three customers—Cohere, Finch, and Remote. Each showcases different elements of transparency, customization, and ease of use.

Secureframe

Secureframe’s Trust Center is a comprehensive and highly customizable solution that showcases real-time security monitoring and compliance status. It allows admins to display relevant certifications, compliance documents, and security controls while offering full control over what information is public. This flexibility makes it easy for organizations to showcase their strengths without revealing unnecessary details.

Secureframe’s integration with its compliance platform is key to its effectiveness. The real-time data pulled from the Comply platform ensures that the Trust Center is always up-to-date, providing continuous assurance to prospects and customers. 

Cohere

Cohere’s Trust Center highlights the importance of transparency and ease of navigation. It includes an intuitive dashboard that displays information about the company’s security policies, compliance certifications (such as SOC 2), and privacy practices. Cohere provides downloadable documents for customers, including security policies and audit reports.

What sets Cohere’s Trust Center apart is its clear and accessible structure. The information is presented in a user-friendly format, making it easy for customers to browse or to quickly find what they need. It’s a great example of how an organization can streamline communication about its security and compliance efforts, while still offering visitors a clear path to request additional information.

Finch

Finch’s Trust Center emphasizes their dedication to safeguarding sensitive data, with a specific focus on privacy and compliance. The Trust Center features an overview of Finch’s data protection practices, security measures, and a list of frameworks it complies with. Finch also lists the controls they put in place and continuously monitor to ensure secure data handling and compliance with relevant frameworks.

A standout feature of Finch’s Trust Center is its transparency around the use of third-party vendors, making it clear how data flows through their ecosystem. This focus on data privacy makes Finch’s Trust Center an ideal example for businesses looking to emphasize their data protection practices and provide detailed vendor management information.

Remote

Remote’s Trust Center is designed to give visitors a comprehensive view of the company’s global compliance with data privacy laws and employment regulations. The center is structured to cover various aspects of security, from certifications like ISO 27001 to security questionnaires to security policies. Remote highlights their global reach and compliance measures, ensuring that customers understand their data is protected across borders.

Remote’s Trust Center stands out because of its seamless user experience. It provides clear and simple CTAs throughout so visitors can immediately jump down to its compliance certifications and reports, request all documents in one click, and see an overview or detailed view of the controls it has in place and continuously monitored.

How Secureframe’s Trust Center can empower your organization to build trust

Security is not just a one-time effort—it's an ongoing process. Secureframe’s compliance platform provides continuous monitoring of your security stack, ensuring that your organization stays compliant with changing regulations and emerging threats. Secureframe's Trust Center then allows you to create a dedicated space to demonstrate your security program publicly, with real-time data pulled directly from the platform.

Whether you're looking to provide prospects with transparency, reduce the time spent on security reviews, or empower your sales team to close deals faster, Secureframe's Trust Center is an ideal solution. Customers choose Secureframe for its:

  • Automated document management with Zapier: Secureframe's integration with Zapier allows organizations to automate document requests and notifications, reducing the time and effort spent on manual processes. This streamlines workflows and enables teams to focus on more critical tasks.
  • Reduced security review friction: Visitors to your Trust Center can self-serve or request any security documents they need. Admins at your organization can manage document requests with the Zapier integration or automated email notifications updating the requester on the status of their request, whether it's being reviewed, approved, or denied. Admins can leverage an automated NDA workflow to collect NDAs from requesters looking to download access-granted documents.
  • User-friendly and customizable platform: Secureframe Trust Center offers powerful editing tools, intuitive section control, and a streamlined design. Users can easily customize their Trust Center with flexible editing, real-time preview, and options like custom HTML and CSS for brand consistency.
  • Complete admin control: Admins can fully control their Trust Center’s content by hiding or showing specific sections, such as headers, subprocessors, and compliance details, ensuring the platform reflects their unique brand and security posture.
  • Centralized monitoring: The Trust Center integrates with Secureframe’s compliance platform, pulling in real-time data on security controls and allowing admins to selectively display what’s relevant to customers.
  • Enhanced subprocessor transparency: New fields such as “purpose” and “location” for subprocessors ensure comprehensive communication about third-party vendors, improving transparency for customers.

Secureframe’s Trust Center, along with its other features and capabilities, has helped Secureframe users unlock a range of benefits, including:

  • 95% strengthened trust with customers and prospects
  • 95% improved visibility into security and compliance posture
  • 66% accelerated sales cycle
  • 65% improved sales win rate

Ready to remove friction from the end-to-end security review process and turn your security posture into a competitive advantage? Schedule a demo with one of our product experts to discuss Secureframe’s Trust Center and Comply platform today.

About the UserEvidence survey

The data about Secureframe users was obtained through an online survey conducted by UserEvidence in February 2024. The survey included responses from 44 Secureframe users (the majority of whom were manager-level or above) across the information technology, consumer discretionary, industrials, financial, and healthcare industries.

FAQs

What is the purpose of a Trust Center?

The purpose of a Trust Center is to provide a centralized platform where organizations can transparently showcase their security and compliance efforts. It allows customers, prospects, and stakeholders to easily access critical information about the organization’s security measures, certifications, and privacy practices, helping to build trust and streamline security assessments.

What does a Trust Center typically include?

A Trust Center typically includes compliance certifications (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001), security policies, privacy practices, data subprocessors, and downloadable audit reports. It may also feature real-time monitoring data, document request functionality, and customizable sections to highlight key security controls or other relevant information.

Why list data subprocessors in your Trust Center?

Including data subprocessors in your Trust Center not only helps meet requirements of data privacy regulations like GDPR — it also enhances transparency and builds trust with customers by clearly outlining which third-party vendors have access to their data. This helps to mitigate customer concerns about data privacy and security risks and streamline the due diligence process for those who want to assess your full data ecosystem before making a purchasing decision.

Why choose Secureframe Trust Center?

Secureframe’s Trust Center offers a fully customizable platform with real-time security monitoring, allowing organizations to provide up-to-date information on their security and compliance efforts. It simplifies security reviews by enabling self-service document requests and automated workflows, while giving admins full control over what is displayed. Integrated with Secureframe’s compliance platform, it ensures continuous visibility into the organization's security posture, making it a powerful tool for building trust and reducing sales cycle friction.

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