Microsoft Compliance Manager

Compliance Manager, framework scoring with closed-loop remediation.

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Microsoft
Compliance Manager
Cloud Solution Partner
  • 35+Compliance Manager tenants
  • 6+Frameworks supported
  • ContinuousScore tracking
  • 24/7Coverage
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
What an engagement covers

Six compliance-management disciplines.

Compliance Manager turns regulatory abstraction into a tracked, scored, evidenced operational programme. We do the configuration and the operations together.

Framework templates

Activation of 200+ Microsoft compliance templates: ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOX, NYDFS Part 500, GDPR, PCI DSS, HIPAA, NIST. Custom templates for industry-specific frameworks.

Control implementation

Per-control implementation tracking, ownership assignment, evidence linkage to M365 controls. Closed-loop remediation from gap to evidence.

Compliance scoring

Continuous scoring against active frameworks, trend reporting, board-ready summaries. Score-impact analysis for proposed control changes.

Evidence collection

Evidence linked to each control: M365 configuration screenshots, audit-log extracts, policy documents. Evidence chain ready for auditor review.

Risk assessment

Risk-based prioritization of remediation, regulatory-impact assessment for proposed changes, organisation-wide risk dashboards.

Auditor support

Direct auditor access to evidence packages, regulator-specific extract automation, audit-trail of every score change and evidence update.

Intelligent compliance platform

Four numbers behind a tuned Compliance Manager programme.

Numbers from our 35+ Compliance Manager client portfolio across financial services, healthcare, professional services, and government. Averages from 12-month managed engagements.
300+
Pre-built templates

Activated across regulatory regimes (ISO, NIST CSF, NIST, GDPR, SOX, NYDFS Part 500, PCI, HIPAA, SOC, sector-specific).

95%
Time saved on assessments

Reduction in time-to-evidence vs spreadsheet-tracked compliance, measured against pre-engagement baseline.

60%
Risk reduction

Reduction in residual risk score after closed-loop remediation across 12 months of operations.

10M+
Control evaluations

Automated evaluations across managed tenants per quarter, M365-managed controls assessed continuously.

How it works

Four-step compliance process.

Compliance Manager turns "we should be ISO 27001 compliant" into a tracked, scored, evidenced programme. Each step has clear deliverables and a success criterion before moving on.
  1. 01
    Step 1· 1-2 weeks

    Assessment

    Select from 300+ pre-built assessment templates or create custom assessments tailored to your specific regulatory requirements. Output: framework activation plan.

    • Pre-built template selection (ISO 27001, NIST CSF, GDPR, etc.)
    • Custom assessment builder for industry-specific frameworks
    • Multi-regulation support and overlap mapping
    • Risk-based prioritisation across all controls
  2. 02
    Step 2· 4-12 weeks

    Implementation

    Follow guided implementation plans with step-by-step actions, assign responsibilities, and track progress across teams. Closed-loop from gap to evidence.

    • Action assignment with owners and due dates
    • Progress tracking with status per control
    • Team collaboration via comments and notes
    • Document management with evidence linkage
  3. 03
    Step 3· Continuous

    Monitoring

    Continuously monitor your compliance status with automated scans, real-time alerts, and proactive risk identification.

    • 24/7 automated monitoring of M365-managed controls
    • Real-time alerts on configuration drift
    • Trend analysis with score-over-time charts
    • Risk detection with prioritised remediation
  4. 04
    Step 4· Continuous

    Reporting

    Generate comprehensive compliance reports for auditors, executives, and regulatory bodies with automated documentation.

    • Automated reports per framework
    • Audit trails of every score change and evidence update
    • Executive dashboards with board-pack quality
    • Regulatory submission packages
Why GR IT for Compliance Manager

Four reasons clients pick us for the deployment.

Compliance Manager is enabled for everyone with M365 E5 Compliance; few clients use it operationally. The discipline is in tracking, evidencing, and remediation.

35+ Compliance Manager tenants

Pattern recognition matters. We have configured Compliance Manager for NYDFS Part 500, SOX, ISO 27001, and NIST CSF reviews. We know which controls auditors verify.

Framework expertise

Engineers with ISO 27001 LA, CIPP, and CISM credentials. Framework templates configured against actual regulatory requirements, not generic mappings.

Closed-loop operations

Gap identified, remediation planned, evidence captured, score updated. The cycle that turns Compliance Manager from a dashboard into an operational programme.

US-based engineers

Senior compliance engineers based in the United States. Same time zone as your audit cycles, same regulatory context as your auditors.

Supported regulations and standards

Frameworks we configure and operate against.

Compliance Manager ships with 300+ assessment templates. These are 16 we activate most often for USA clients, mapped to local and international regulators across privacy, financial, healthcare, and information-security regimes.
ISO 27001
NIST CSF
GDPR
HIPAA
PCI DSS
NIST CSF
SOX
SOC 2
CCPA
USA DPL
PIPEDA
SOX
Basel III
MAS
HITECH
FDA 21 CFR Part 11
Industries using Compliance Manager

Compliance Manager deployments by sector.

Six sectors where Compliance Manager turns framework abstraction into operational delivery.

Financial services

SEC- and NYDFS-regulated firms tracking regulator-required ISO 27001, SOX, NYDFS Part 500 controls. Continuous scoring, audit-evidence packaging, regulator-ready reports.

Healthcare

Hospitals and clinics tracking HIPAA, HITECH, ISO 27001 A.18 (compliance). PHI-aware control implementation, regulatory-ready evidence.

Professional services

Law firms and consultancies tracking ISO 27001, ISO 22301 (continuity), client-imposed compliance frameworks. Multi-framework scoring.

Tech and SaaS

SaaS companies tracking SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR for customer-trust evidence. Continuous compliance for sales-cycle support.

Retail and e-commerce

Retail groups tracking PCI DSS, GDPR, NIST CSF. Multi-store compliance posture, store-level scoring, executive-summary dashboards.

Education

Schools and universities tracking FERPA, COPPA, GDPR for international students. Multi-framework compliance dashboards.

Government

Federal and Emirate-level entities tracking US data protection Law, NIST CSF T-controls, ISO 27001 alignment. Continuous evidence for ministerial reviews and inter-agency audits.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing groups tracking ISO 27001, ISO 9001, sector-specific safety regulations. OT/IT control segregation evidence, supply-chain compliance dashboards.

How compliance score is calculated

The four components behind your score.

Compliance Manager uses a risk-weighted scoring algorithm with four components. Knowing how the score works tells you which remediation actions move the number most.

Technical Implementation (40%)

  • Security controls
    Endpoint, identity, network, cloud configuration
  • Data protection
    Encryption at rest and in transit, key management
  • Access management
    RBAC, conditional access, privileged-access workflows
  • Monitoring systems
    SIEM coverage, audit logging, alerting

Procedural Compliance (30%)

  • Policy coverage
    Information-security, data-handling, IR, BCP policies
  • Procedure completeness
    Runbooks for routine and incident operations
  • Documentation quality
    Up to date, version-controlled, owner-assigned
  • Training records
    Annual security awareness, role-based training

Risk Assessment (20%)

  • Threat exposure
    External attack surface, threat-intel relevance
  • Vulnerability management
    Scanning, prioritisation, patch SLA
  • Incident history
    Past incidents and lessons-learned actions
  • Risk mitigation
    Compensating controls and residual-risk acceptance

Continuous Monitoring (10%)

  • Monitoring coverage
    Percentage of controls under continuous check
  • Alert response
    P1 / P2 / P3 SLA adherence and MTTR
  • Continuous improvement
    Action items closed quarter on quarter
  • Trend analysis
    Score trajectory and remediation velocity
Compliance Manager vs spreadsheet-based tracking

Why dedicated compliance tooling beats spreadsheets.

Many clients track compliance in Excel: control list, status column, evidence in SharePoint. The honest comparison:
Feature
Spreadsheet tracking
Manual updates
Compliance Manager
Operational tooling
Real-time scoring
Automated evidence linking
Multi-framework coverage
Manual mapping per frameworkNative multi-framework
Audit-trail of changes
Excel version historyNative audit log
Stakeholder dashboards
Auditor-ready evidence packages
Manual exportAutomated package
Cost of compliance work
High labourLower labour, higher tooling cost
Licensing reality check

Compliance Manager is part of Microsoft 365 E3 / E5.

Most clients already pay for Compliance Manager and have not turned it on. M365 E3 includes basic Compliance Manager with 50+ templates; M365 E5 unlocks the full suite (300+ templates, custom assessments, advanced analytics, API integration). For tenants on M365 Business Premium, the Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance add-on gets you the full feature set without re-licensing the whole tenant.

  • M365 E3: basic Compliance Manager with 50+ templates and standard scoring
  • M365 E5: full Compliance Manager, 300+ templates, custom assessments, API access
  • M365 E5 Compliance add-on: Compliance Manager + Purview without full E5
  • Premium assessments (NIST, FedRAMP, sector-specific) require E5 or per-assessment licences
  • Microsoft-managed controls scored automatically; customer-managed need your evidence
Get a licensing review
Built into the Microsoft compliance estate

Three integrations that turn Compliance Manager into operational tooling.

Compliance Manager scoring is automatic when the underlying Microsoft controls are configured. We deploy the integrations alongside Compliance Manager so evidence flows in without human curation.

Microsoft Purview

Sensitivity labels, DLP, retention, and audit-log controls in Purview evidence Compliance Manager scores automatically.

  • Sensitivity-label coverage feeds Information Protection controls
  • DLP policy state evidences data-loss-prevention controls
  • Retention policies satisfy records-management requirements
  • Audit-log retention closes evidence-preservation controls

M365 Defender + DLP

Defender for Endpoint, Identity, Office 365, and Cloud Apps configurations evidence security controls in Compliance Manager.

  • Endpoint EDR coverage maps to threat-protection controls
  • Conditional access posture evidences access controls
  • Email anti-phishing satisfies email-security requirements
  • Cloud Apps CASB closes shadow-IT and SaaS controls

Azure Security Center

Defender for Cloud (CSPM + CWPP) evidence flows into Compliance Manager for Azure-native and multi-cloud controls.

  • Multi-cloud posture (Azure, AWS, GCP) feeds infrastructure controls
  • Defender for Cloud secure-score maps to platform controls
  • Container, Kubernetes, and SQL coverage closes workload controls
  • Regulatory-compliance dashboards align to active frameworks
The cost of non-compliance

Stop failing audits and compliance checks.

USA businesses lose contracts and pay fines because they cannot prove compliance during tender or audit. The numbers are not theoretical, they come from real projects we have remediated this year. Compliance Manager turns evidence collection into an automated background activity instead of a quarterly fire drill.

  • Maximum GDPR fine: USD 10M (or 4% of annual revenue, whichever is higher)
  • 65% of enterprise tenders include compliance requirements as a hard gate (Gartner)
  • 150 days is the average time to achieve compliance manually
  • A USA logistics firm recently lost a USD 50M government contract because they could not prove ISO 27001 status during tender
  • Continuous compliance, not annual scrambling, is the only sustainable model
Book a compliance gap analysis
How an engagement runs

From framework selection to managed operations.

Every Compliance Manager engagement runs the same path. Documented, evidenced, deliverable on a fixed timeline.
  1. 1

    Framework scoping

    1-2 weeks

    Regulator audit, framework prioritization, control inventory. Output: framework activation plan and ownership map.

  2. 2

    Configuration

    2-4 weeks

    Templates activated, controls assigned, evidence-collection workflows configured, integration with Purview and other M365 controls.

  3. 3

    Baseline

    2-3 weeks

    Initial control assessment, gap-remediation prioritization, evidence backfill. Output: starting score and 90-day improvement plan.

  4. 4

    Operate

    Continuous

    Quarterly framework reviews, ongoing evidence updates, control-change impact analysis, auditor-evidence packaging.

“We had three regulatory frameworks tracked in three different spreadsheets, with overlapping controls and inconsistent evidence. GR IT consolidated everything into Compliance Manager: ISO 27001, NIST CSF, and our internal risk framework all scored continuously, evidence linked to controls, dashboards shared with the board. The next ISO surveillance audit was the easiest we have done.”
Justin Holloway
Chief Compliance Officer · Multi-jurisdiction financial services group
Three frameworks consolidated, surveillance audit eased
Real compliance success stories

How clients turned compliance gaps into closed deals.

Four real engagements where Compliance Manager delivered audit success, won contracts, or reduced fines. Industry, challenge, action, outcome.
Manufacturing, Hoboken
Challenge

During an ISO 27001 audit, the team could not find half of the required documents. The auditor asked for the data-retention policy. They did not have one written down anywhere.

What we did

We deployed Compliance Manager with the ISO 27001 template, automated evidence collection, and built every missing policy. Every control got an owner, an evidence link, and a documented implementation status.

Outcome

Passed ISO 27001 audit with zero findings, saved USD 500K in potential contract losses

0 audit findings
SaaS startup, USA
Challenge

A potential client asked for SOC 2 compliance before signing a USD 2M contract. The team had no idea what SOC 2 meant, let alone how to achieve it inside the deal cycle.

What we did

We activated Compliance Manager pre-built SOC 2 assessment, mapped existing controls, and identified the gaps. A 16-week remediation plan with weekly check-ins; SOC 2 Type 1 in month 4, Type 2 by month 10.

Outcome

Achieved SOC 2 in 4 months, won the original contract plus 3 more requiring compliance

USD 2M+ contracts won
E-commerce, USA
Challenge

A GDPR fine notice arrived: USD 1.8M penalty for not having proper data-processing documentation. The team thought GDPR did not apply to USA companies serving European customers.

What we did

GDPR template activated, data-processing records (Article 30) documented, breach-notification workflow built, subject-rights workflow connected to Microsoft Priva.

Outcome

GDPR compliance achieved, fine reduced to USD 50K with full remediation plan

Fine reduced 97%
Fintech, San Francisco
Challenge

The bank required annual security assessments. The team was spending USD 200K per year on consultants to create compliance reports manually, every report a fresh fire drill.

What we did

Compliance Manager configured against ISO 27001, NYDFS Part 500, and NIST CSF templates. Automated evidence collection from M365 controls. Quarterly reports generated in minutes; annual report assembled from continuous evidence rather than rebuilt every year.

Outcome

Reduced compliance costs by 80%, improved compliance score from 45% to 92%

80% cost reduction
Common questions

Microsoft Compliance Manager, frequently asked.

Further reading

Resources for compliance leads.

Microsoft Purview

Data-protection platform whose controls are evidenced automatically in Compliance Manager. Sensitivity labels, DLP, retention, audit logging.

Learn more

Microsoft 365 Reporting & Auditing

Custom dashboards and audit-evidence packaging that complements Compliance Manager scoring. Often deployed together for board-ready compliance reporting.

Learn more

Cybersecurity audit

Independent compliance posture audit. Framework gap analysis, written remediation programme, alignment with Compliance Manager scoring.

Learn more
Ready to operationalize compliance?

Talk to a compliance specialist.

Three-minute form. Our compliance team gets back the same business day to schedule a discovery workshop. We will tell you which frameworks to activate first based on your regulator and customer pressure.

Get a quoteSee cybersecurity audit

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