If your organization processes, stores, transmits, or impacts the security of cardholder data, then you need to get PCI DSS compliant as quickly as possible to protect your customers’ data. Unfortunately, the PCI DSS certification process can be time-consuming, tedious, and stressful.

You’ll need to:

• complete a thorough risk assessment and gap analysis
• design controls and document policies and procedures
• train your employees on cardholder data security and specific job function training
• ensure new hires and employees review policies
• organize all 12 requirements and submit hundreds of screenshots to use as evidence for the audit
• continuously evaluate and monitor your PCI DSS controls and regularly reviewed tasks

Completing this readiness work could require multiple team members and company leaders to oversee the compliance effort, diverting their focus from other priorities. PCI DSS may also require hiring an expert consultant with expensive hourly rates to assist you. But it doesn’t have to. 

Compliance automation software can help simplify and streamline the PCI DSS certification process which will save you valuable time and resources. Below, we’ll explain what compliance automation software does and share tips for deciding if utilizing a platform is the right choice for you.

What is PCI DSS Compliance Automation?

PCI DSS automation software simplifies and streamlines the compliance process, eliminating hours of manual work. 

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

Reduces manual work

Most organizations don't have the resources to dedicate to researching, understanding, and implementing security controls, filling out time-consuming security questionnaires, maintaining policies, procedures, and many regularly occurring tasks, and managing the entire compliance process end to end. An automation platform eliminates that busy work, freeing up resources for other high-priority, revenue-generating projects.

A compliance automation platform that automates tasks required to get and stay PCI DSS compliant — including evidence collection, continuous monitoring, policy management, risk assessments, and task management — can reduce the costs and efforts required to manage a compliance program. A platform with AI capabilities can further automate manual tasks, like performing risk assessments and updating PCI DSS 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.

Simplifies the audit process for both you and your auditor

Normally, the preparation for a PCI DSS audit involves tracking dozens of tasks in spreadsheets and collecting screenshots and documentation for evidence of compliance. PCI compliance software like Secureframe integrates with your existing tech stack to pull that information for you and present evidence directly to the auditor with no manual collection required. This saves you both from the back-and-forth of submitting additional evidence or manually re-testing controls.

Secureframe also has established relationships with highly regarded auditors. It all adds up to faster audits with fewer headaches for everyone.

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

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 PCI DSS compliance. A compliance automation tool like Secureframe can automate this gap analysis. Once you integrate the audit-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 PCI DSS 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 PCI DSS audit.

But Secureframe goes beyond audit prep to help you implement best-in-class security practices. Our compliance experts 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.

Streamlines policy managment

The best PCI DSS compliance automation platforms include a library of auditor-approved, PCI DSS-compliant policy templates that you can customize for your business needs. This saves you from having to write all of your own policies from scratch.

In addition to policy templates, the best tools provide a policy editor for quickly customizing policies and leaving comments, the ability to assign owners, and version history to track changes. You may also be able to track which employees have accepted PCI DSS policies 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.

Makes it easier to maintain compliance

A PCI DSS automation platform can continuously collect evidence and monitor your tech stack 24/7 to alert you of non-conformities, making it easier to maintain continuous compliance. The top platforms will not only alert you on standard tasks but provide actionable insights on critical security and privacy compliance issues.

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

PCI DSS has a lot of overlapping requirements with SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and other information security frameworks. Instead of starting from ground zero, compliance software can help map the controls you have already put in place and tasks you have already completed  for PCI DSS to other standards. It'll be faster and easier to achieve compliance with additional standards and avoid duplicate 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 PCI DSS automation can be incredibly beneficial, software platforms can help your business implement security best practices as well. Company stakeholders must continue to prioritize a strong security strategy, own risk analysis, and understand how internal controls are designed and implemented. They can use the software to organize and automate tedious and time-consuming tasks like evidence collection, task notifications, and vendor risk management.

Who needs PCI DSS compliance automation software?

Compliance management tools can be an essential part of your tech stack, but how do you know it’s time to look for a vendor?

If the following applies to your organization, a PCI DSS automation tool probably makes sense for your needs:

• Your company is (or customers are) in the healthcare, finance, retail, or other industries where compliance is required
• Prospects are asking whether your organization has PCI DSS certification
• Your team is spending a significant amount of time and resources on highly manual and repetitive tasks like evidence collection
• Issues are often identified right before or during an audit, leaving you to scramble to remediate them
• You'd like peace of mind that you're maintaining compliance, even as the PCI DSS framework is updated or your organization undergoes changes

How to Choose a PCI DSS Compliance Automation Platform

The security, privacy, and compliance software landscape is a fast-growing space, with a growing 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: 

• In addition to PCI DSS, are other security, privacy, and compliance standards supported? Be sure to consider any you may need as your company grows.
• Is the number and 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?
• Do they have a network of trusted Approved Scanning Vendors (ASV) and penetration testers to help meet PCI requirements?
• What is the level of customer support? What channels are available to receive support? Does that support extend through the process of getting compliant? Do you still get the same level of support when maintaining compliance?
• Is PCI DSS and secure coding training included in the platform? Look for all-in-one solutions with clear, transparent pricing.

Key Features of PCI 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

Continuous compliance requires continuous monitoring. Choose a tool that alerts you to issues that could threaten your PCI compliance or notify you when regular reviews need to be performed. The best 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 PCI DSS audit 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 PCI DSS compliance automation. Look for a solution that offers a wide range of integrations that automatically collect evidence to help you get and stay compliant with PCI’s 300+ requirements. 

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

Integrations

Ideally, you want an automation platform that can act as a central place to track and hold evidence for your entire PCI DSS compliance program. That means you'll want a tool that offers integrations to audit-relevant softwares and tools you use every day.

Secureframe not only offers 200 native integrations — it also has an API that can integrate with and pull evidence from any tool or service beyond those native integrations so it can act as any organization's compliance source of truth.

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

If you don’t already have a set of internal security policies, creating them all from scratch can be time-consuming, confusing, and may put your company at legal and/or financial risk.

The best PCI DSS automation tools offer a library of templated policies that are approved by a team of compliance experts, making it much easier and faster to build out your policies and ensure they’re compliant with PCI requirements. Some tools can also make it easier for you to tailor your policies to your organization and easily manage and distribute them to employees so you never fall out of compliance. 

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.

Employee Onboarding and Offboarding

Educating personnel working with cardholder data and those responsible for protecting it is an essential part of PCI DSS compliance. Compliance automation software can verify that every member of your team completes PCI cardholder data security,secure coding training, and policy reviews. When you need to revoke access for former employees, the software can make that easy to visualize as well.

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

Risk Management

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

Secureframe, for example, automatically gather 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.

Vendor Management

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

The value of compliance automation on 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. A PCI DSS 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.

Expert, End-to-End Support

Look for solutions that have a team of experienced former auditors on staff. At Secureframe, dedicated resources from both our customer success and compliance teams will help you through every step of the PCI compliance process and beyond, starting with determining which compliance level you fall under and whether you need a RoC or SAQ.

At any point in the process, they can answer technical questions and offer personalized security advice based on decades of experience.

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.