The traditional path to CMMC certification is often time-consuming, tedious, and stressful. Typically, it involves conducting a comprehensive risk assessment and gap analysis, designing controls, and drafting policies from scratch. You’d also need to train your staff on security best practices and ensure everyone reviews the new policies. On top of that, you’d be responsible for updating spreadsheets and gathering hundreds of screenshots to serve as evidence during the formal assessment.

This process usually requires the involvement of multiple team members and company leaders, and often necessitates hiring a consultant to guide you through it.

However, compliance automation software can take on much of this burden, saving your organization hundreds of hours and potentially thousands of dollars in assessment preparation and consultant fees. Below, we’ll explore what compliance automation software offers and provide tips on deciding if it’s the right solution for you.

What is CMMC compliance automation?

CMMC automation software simplifies and speeds up the certification process. It eliminates hundreds of hours of manual work from the process of preparing for your assessments and maintaining certification.

To help identify the most compelling benefits of compliance automation software, we used data from a 2024 survey of Secureframe users conducted by UserEvidence. Let's take a look at these benefits below.

Saves time and money

CMMC compliance often requires organizations to spend their limited resources on manual tasks like creating a System Security Plan, (SSP), Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M), and other documentation from scratch, tracking these dozens of documents in spreadsheets, grabbing screenshots to share with their assessor as evidence, and more. 

A compliance automation platform that automates tasks required to get and stay CMMC compliant — including continuous monitoring, risk assessments, and task management — can reduce the costs and efforts required to achieve and maintain CMMC certification. A platform with AI capabilities can further automate manual tasks, like performing risk assessments and updating CMMC policies, to supercharge your teams and enable them to focus on higher priorities.

Reducing the manual overhead of compliance is a top benefit reported by Secureframe users. In the UserEvidence survey, 97% of Secureframe users said they reduced time spent on compliance tasks per month, with 76% saying they reduced that time by at least half. 85% also said they unlocked annual cost savings.

Spots gaps in your system configurations and internal controls

Understanding what gaps exist in your controls and policies and how to fill them is essential for achieving and maintaining CMMC compliance. A compliance automation tool like Secureframe can automate this gap analysis. Once you integrate the assessment-relevant softwares and tools you use every day, you can see exactly what you need to do based on your unique configurations and IT infrastructure. As you work through the CMMC framework and complete activities within the Secureframe platform, it will update showing your progress percentage toward compliance, ensuring you have peace of mind going into your CMMC assessment.

But Secureframe goes beyond assessment prep to help you implement best-in-class security practices. Our compliance managers and customer support teams offer advice based on your unique systems and business needs. And they’ll be able to identify gaps in your system and controls to keep your entire security program running smoothly. 

Due to this automation and expertise, 97% of Secureframe users said they strengthened their security and compliance posture.

Simplifies the assessment process for both you and your assessor

Software solutions make the process of collecting and transferring evidence to your assessor easy and straightforward. It saves you both from the back-and-forth of submitting additional evidence or manually re-testing controls.

Secureframe has established relationships with highly regarded C3PAOs for organizations pursuing Level 2 certification. That means faster assessments with fewer headaches for everyone.

In fact, 95% of Secureframe users said they saved time and resources obtaining and maintaining compliance.

Makes it easier to maintain compliance

Because our software continuously monitors your tech stack, you'll be able to fix issues quickly and proactively instead of scrambling in the weeks before an assessor shows up at your door.

The Secureframe platform also monitors your tech stack 24/7 to alert you of non-conformities, making it easier to maintain continuous compliance rather than scrambling to resolve issues in the weeks before an assessor shows up at your door. Our team of federal compliance experts will also be there at every step of the compliance journey, from scoping your assessment and identifying gaps to keeping your entire compliance program running smoothly. 

Using a compliance automation platform backed by experts to make continuous monitoring more cost-effective, consistent, and efficient unlocks a range of benefits, according to Secureframe customers. In the UserEvidence survey, 75% of Secureframe users said they reduced the risk of non-compliance and 71% said they improved visibility into security and compliance posture.

Simplifies compliance across frameworks

CMMC has a lot of overlapping requirements with other federal frameworks like NIST 800-53 and NIST 800-171 and commercial frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. 

Instead of starting from ground zero, compliance software can help map what you’ve already done for CMMC to other federal and information security frameworks. It'll be faster and easier to achieve additional certifications and avoid duplicated efforts.

As a result of Secureframe’s control mapping and other automation capabilities, 89% of Secureframe users surveyed by UserEvidence said they sped up time-to-compliance for multiple frameworks by at least 10%. Over half (53%) said they sped up time-to-compliance by 76% or more. 

While CMMC automation can be incredibly beneficial, it’s important to avoid relying too much on a tool. Company stakeholders must continue to prioritize a strong security strategy, own assessment scope and risk analysis, and understand how internal controls are designed and implemented. Use the software to automate tedious and time-consuming tasks like evidence collection, threat notifications, and vendor risk management.

Who needs CMMC compliance automation software?

Compliance management tools can be a critical component of your tech stack, but how do you know when it’s time to invest in one? If your organization meets any of the follow criteria, a compliance automation tool could help your compliance readiness efforts:

• You work with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), either directly or as a subcontractor.
• You plan to bid on DoD contracts or work with a prime contractor bidding on a DoD contract.
• Your team is dedicating significant time and resources to manual, repetitive tasks like evidence collection and continuous monitoring to maintain CMMC compliance.
• Compliance issues often emerge right before or during an assessment, causing last-minute scrambles to address them.
• You want the assurance that your organization remains compliant, even as the CMMC framework evolves or your organization undergoes changes.

How to choose a CMMC compliance automation platform

The security, privacy, and compliance software landscape is a fast-growing space, with an increasing number of vendors to choose from. Keep these questions in mind as you evaluate potential solutions to help decide which is the best fit for your organization: 

Framework support

• Does the vendor support the most up-to-date version of CMMC (v2.0)?
• Is your required CMMC level supported? 
• Are other related federal frameworks like NIST 800-171, NIST 800-53, and CJIS supported? Be sure to consider any you may need as your company grows.
• Are relevant commercial frameworks supported that you need to be compliant with such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001? 

Integrations

• Does the vendor offer integrations with federal cloud products, like AWS GovCloud?
• Is the depth of integrations enough to save your team from excess work? To evaluate this, ask vendors about the integrations you need. What do these integrations do and what data do they collect?
• What’s the integration process like? Ideally, you want a vendor that offers a seamless and fast integration process to existing systems, with minimal disruptions to your workflow, an automated recovery process if any errors occur, and an automated process for keeping them up-to-date.

Expert support

• What is the level of customer support? What channels are available to receive support?
• Who makes up the support team? Ideally, you want a team of dedicated account managers and technical support staff, including compliance experts with former CMMC, FedRAMP, and FISMA assessment experience.
• Does that support extend through the assessment itself? What about during the implementation, onboarding, and Proof of Concept phases?
• What type of response times does the support team have? Ask for specific support metrics.

Partners & Pricing

• Does the vendor have established relationships with certified third-party assessment organizations (C3PAO), Managed Service Providers (MSPs), or vCISOs (virtual Chief Information Security Officers)?
• What assessment scope is included in the pricing package? Look for clear, transparent pricing without hidden costs.

Key features of CMMC compliance automation software

We also used data from the 2024 survey of Secureframe users conducted by UserEvidence to identify the key features of compliance automation below.

Continuous monitoring

Compliance doesn’t end with certification. Choose a tool that alerts you to issues that could threaten your CMMC compliance. Some tools will even provide detailed guidance for correcting each issue so you’ll know for sure it’s fixed. 

Secureframe goes one step further with Comply AI for Remediation, which automatically generates remediation guidance tailored to your environment. This improves the ease and speed of fixing failing controls in your cloud environment to improve test pass rate and get CMMC assessment ready.

84% of Secureframe users in the UserEvidence survey reported continuous monitoring to detect and remediate misconfigurations as an important Secureframe feature to them, making it the top answer. 

Automated evidence collection

Eliminating tedious, manual tasks is one of the core advantages of CMMC compliance automation. Look for a solution that offers a wide range of integrations that automatically collect evidence to simplify your assessments.

When asked what the most important Secureframe features are to them, 79% of Secureframe users said automated evidence collection.

It’s important to note that Secureframe cannot collect and store CUI, but it can help you prepare for CMMC compliance via its integrations, like policy and procedure documents, configurations, code, documentation, and more.

Expert, end-to-end support

Look for solutions that have a team of experienced former FISMA, FedRAMP, and CMMC auditors who have the expertise and experience to support you at every step. At Secureframe, our team will help you before, during, and after your assessment.

CMMC assessors will likely have follow-up questions no matter how well prepared you are. Having a team of compliance experts by your side can help you field technical questions and requests for additional evidence. Plus they can offer personalized security advice based on years of experience.

This type of support is a major benefit considering that 67% of Secureframe users said limited knowledge and expertise in compliance and security matters was a major challenge that led them to purchase Secureframe.

Integrations

Ideally, you want an automation platform that can act as a central place to track and hold evidence for your entire CMMC compliance program. That means you'll want a tool that offers integrations to federal cloud products, like AWS GovCloud, and other assessment-relevant softwares and tools you use every day.

It's also important to look for a tool that offers both breadth and depth of integrations so that it's pulling in all the compliance data you need, not just user data like names and emails. For example, Secureframe's integration with Crowdstrike goes deeper than user data and actually checks device security hygiene. This depth of integration is possible because Secureframe has its own integration builder that allows it to build any integration into any system for automated evidence collection and continuous control monitoring, rather than outsource this to a third-party integration broker. This way, Secureframe has ultimate control over the breadth and depth of integrations so it can be the source of truth for any organization.

The UserEvidence survey of Secureframe users substantiated that this was a driving factor for compliance automation adoption. When asked what challenges led them to purchase Secureframe, 57% of Secureframe users reported a lack of centralized, single source of truth in storing and managing security compliance data.

Policy management

CMMC compliance requires key documentation, including an SSP and POA&M as well as additional documents depending on the certification level. Other documentation may include a:

• Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS) Assessment
• Risk mitigation plan
• Incident response and reporting plan
• Continuous monitoring plan
• Access control policy
• Configuration management plan
• Separation of duties matrix
• Audit log management plan 

Creating all of this documentation from scratch can be time-consuming and confusing. Many CMMC automation tools offer a library of templated policies and procedures that are approved by a team of former CMMC, FedRAMP, and CJIS auditors, making it much easier and faster to build out your policies and ensure they’re compliant with CMMC requirements.

In addition to policy and procedure templates, the best tools provide a policy editor for quickly customizing policies and procedures and leaving comments, the ability to assign owners, version history to track changes, and ability to review and approve policies. You may also be able to track which employees have accepted CMMC policies and procedures and send reminders to those who still need to in the same place that you create those policies. As your compliance program scales and the number of internal policies and employees increases, a tool like this can simplify and streamline policy management. 

The UserEvidence survey confirmed that robust policy management capabilities was a major benefit of compliance automation. When asked to select the most important Secureframe features to them, 68% of Secureframe users chose policy management.

Personnel management

Educating your team on CMMC policies and processes is an essential part of CMMC compliance. Compliance automation software can verify that every member of your team completes security training and policy reviews. When you need to revoke access for former employees, the software can make that easy, too.

61% of Secureframe users selected personnel management as one of the most important features to them.

Risk management

Like many other compliance frameworks, CMMC includes requirements for risk management. Some automation tools can help improve the accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness of risk management.

Secureframe, for example, automatically gathers information from different sources, figures out which risks are most important, suggests ways to reduce or handle these risks, and monitors risks over time. It also incorporates AI capabilities to automate risk assessments and other parts of the risk management process. 

As a result of these capabilities and benefits, 50% of Secureframe users in the UserEvidence survey reported risk management as an important Secureframe feature to them.

Third-party risk management

Managing third-party risk can be incredibly complicated. Choosing a tool that collects all of your third-party agreements and security certifications in one spot simplifies the entire process. 

The value of compliance automation on third-party vendor management was supported by our UserEvidence survey findings as well. 55% of Secureframe users reported vendor risk management and vendor access management as important features to them.

Asset inventory

Compiling and maintaining an inventory of assets manually in a spreadsheet is tedious and difficult to keep up-to-date. An CMMC automation tool can keep an up-to-date inventory of all your assets for improved visibility and monitoring.

55% of Secureframe users selected endpoint/asset inventory as one of the most important features to them.

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.