Compliance. It is something government agencies know they need to manage, but when it comes to the rubber meeting the road, it gets complicated and overwhelming. With compliance projects vying for attention among the clamor of day-to-day operations, it often loses, getting shuffled to the back burner for another day, week or month. Sometimes, an agency will be aware of the need for compliance to new regulations and yet go through several quarters without meeting those regulations because they simply don’t know where to start. For many organizations, compliance projects sit on the backburner, slowly smoldering until deadlines are suddenly looming. Which is the wrong time to start to take action.
Compliance Takes More Than Two Weeks To Achieve
Understanding what the requirements are is never the problem, is it? You likely already know how you want to meet the requirements, what solutions you likely want to use and how it will help you achieve your goals. But that’s where the planning ends and the questions begin. Without a good plan of attack, it’s hard to get from point A to point Z.
Implementing compliance measures takes time. Depending on the specifics, it can take weeks and months to plan, develop and stand-up new solutions. The process can be disruptive to workers and systems; particularly if it is done hastily. If solutions are planned effectively, you can minimize disruption and still fulfill the compliance objectives by the deadline.
A Better Path to Compliance
As an IT services partner for companies throughout the D.C. area (and beyond), we’ve helped several organizations meet stringent government compliance requirements. This is the approach we recommend:
- Map your compliance guidelines to your operational processes. Where are the challenges in your compliance? Where are you lacking compliance?
- Have a whiteboarding session with a qualified strategic IT planner to design the architecture needed for your unique situation.
- Get proof of concept. Test drive the solution to ensure that it’s what you had in mind.
- Plan the rollout strategy – how will you implement the solutions to maximize compliance within the given timeframe and minimize disruption?
- You can do it yourself or have a Managed IT Provider that has specific expertise in your target solutions roll your solutions or any combination of the two.
Nortec’s Compliance Solutions
Nortec relies on the Microsoft solution stack to provide for the compliance needs of our clients. Microsoft continues to innovate features and solutions within their most-used tools to ensure the security, compliance and reliability for users. While every organization’s architecture looks different, these solutions all have inherent compliance aspects that are invaluable for agencies:
- Microsoft’s Enterprise, Mobility and Security (EM&S) suite
- Active Threat Protection and multi-factor authentication
- Active Directory Premium (AD)
- Office 365
- Windows 10
- Azure Security Center
As one of Microsoft’s Top 200 partners in the U.S., we have access to funding for proof of concepts, whiteboarding and architectural design sessions to help agencies grasp their own specific compliance needs, discover which tools will work best for them and map out how to implement compliance procedures. Beyond the planning phase, we can also take on the task of implementing these procedures for you.
If you’re interested in learning more about Nortec’s services or setting up a whiteboarding session to get started on your compliance requirements, contact us today.