This guide is for pilots who have already put their first security measures in place and want to spend less time on day-to-day monitoring.
Three levers can save you significant time: properly onboarding your contributors, monitoring via dashboards rather than module by module, and staying selective about the recurring controls you set up.
Properly onboard your contributors so they feed the platform
The secret to compliance monitoring that doesn't take up endless amounts of your time is onboarding your contributors. They are the ones who feed the platform on a daily basis, by filling in the actions and recurring tasks assigned to them.
💡 To get them to fill in their assignments as thoroughly as possible, we recommend that you:
Not overload them with recurring tasks: only assign the ones you're confident they'll be able to complete, and add more gradually.
Fill in the descriptions of the actions and recurring tasks you assign them clearly, so they understand exactly what's expected.
Once your contributors are onboarded, the work doesn't stop there: a contributor who falls behind on their recurring tasks can be sent a reminder by email directly from the platform, without you having to follow up manually each time. This automated reminder saves you a significant amount of time over the long run.
🔎 To set up automatic reminders for late contributors, check out: Notification management.
Monitor via dashboards
To keep your compliance up to date without reviewing every measure one by one, the most effective approach is to monitor your activity through dedicated dashboards. A dashboard lets you see at a glance where effort is needed and where to focus your resources, rather than opening each action plan or register separately.
Action plan tracking
In the Action plans module, you can display indicators such as:
Your action plan's achievement rate: it compares your actual progress to the progress you should have reached at this point, based on the planned start and target dates. A rate above 100% means you're ahead of schedule, a rate below 100% signals a delay to catch up on.
Actions by status (open, planned, completed, in anomaly, ongoing, to be planned) along with their trends.
Progress as a curve, giving you an overview of how things evolve over time.
Progress by action group, which can correspond to the major groups in your framework.
Example of an action plan tracking dashboard:
You can also create theme-based focus views, where these themes can likewise correspond to action groups in your framework:
Gap tracking
A gap corresponds to an identified non-compliance point that requires one or more actions to be resolved. In this module, you can track indicators such as open gaps, closed gaps, the current treatment rate, or the treatment achievement rate relative to your register's target date.
🔎 To build your own dashboards, check out: Create a dashboard for action plan tracking or Create a dashboard for audit and gap tracking.
⚠️ A dashboard is only useful if you check it regularly. Build it into a weekly or twice-monthly routine: this is what lets you catch drift before it affects your compliance score or delays your path to compliance.
Track recurring tasks without spreading yourself too thin
Recurring tasks are checks scheduled at regular intervals (monthly, quarterly, etc.) that let you measure whether a security measure continues to work properly over time. They too can be tracked in a dedicated register, with indicators such as:
Entries over the last 365 days, as a curve, to observe how things evolve
Entries for the current period
Numeric breakdowns of tasks done, not done, overdue, awaiting approval, or to do
⚠️ It's tempting to check every recurring task and indicator that Tenacy's catalog suggests for a measure. Resist that temptation: an uncompleted control counts as a failure and hurts your score, while a well-maintained control keeps it strong over time. It's better to have one or two controls you actually keep up with per measure than five controls, three of which end up abandoned.
🔎 To learn how to add recurring controls to your implemented measures, check out: Setting up your compliance in Tenacy.
Demonstrate continuous improvement over time
Reaching compliance isn't a finish line: you also need to be able to show that you keep improving it over time.
This continuous improvement is easy to reflect in an action plan through improvement actions: these are actions you create on a measure that's already implemented, when you identify a way to refine its efficiency. They're different from implementation actions, which apply to a measure that isn't in place yet.
In your action plan, improvement actions are identified by a dedicated icon
. They can be interpreted as part of your continuous improvement efforts.
🔎 To learn everything about creating improvement actions and their impact, check out: Create an improvement action.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I check my compliance dashboards?
A weekly or twice-monthly check is a good pace for most organizations: it lets you spot a delay or drift before it significantly affects your score.
Should I activate every recurring control that Tenacy suggests for a measure?
No. It's better to select one or two controls you're confident you can keep up with over time, rather than activating a large number and risking having them abandoned, which hurts your score.
How do I remind a contributor who hasn't filled in their recurring tasks?
You can send them a reminder by email directly from the platform, without going through an external channel. Setting up these reminders is covered in the article on notification management.
What does an achievement rate below 100% mean on my action plan?
It means your actual progress is behind where it should be at this date, given the plan's planned start and target dates. Conversely, a rate above 100% indicates you're ahead of schedule.