THE VALUE OF SOC 2
SOC 2 sets out an independent view of how a service organisation designs and operates the controls behind security, availability, confidentiality, processing integrity and privacy. It is the report most enterprise procurement teams open first.
For customers, boards and other stakeholders, the attestation provides credible assurance that the control environment has been examined by a licensed independent firm against the Trust Services Criteria.
Bring policies, ownership, security operations, change management and monitoring into a control set that people across the organisation can follow.
Give leadership a reliable view of which controls operate, where evidence sits, how exceptions are handled and where remediation is outstanding.
Demonstrate that the control environment has been examined by an independent CPA firm, without presenting the report as a substitute for wider compliance.
HOW WE WORK
SOC 2 attestation is decided by whether the controls operate every day, not by the elegance of the policy set. We work alongside your engineering, security and product teams to make each Trust Services Criteria commitment observable in the evidence.
OUR APPROACH
Hael provides the specialist capacity, structure and judgement needed to move the programme forward. We work across leadership, security, engineering, operations and legal, while ensuring that ownership remains within your organisation.
We establish the systems and services within scope, the Trust Services Criteria that apply, the sub-service organisations involved and the controls already operating.
The result is a clear scope, readiness assessment and implementation plan, with named responsibilities and decisions for leadership.
We develop and embed the policies, control descriptions, security operations, change management, access administration, monitoring and vendor oversight required for the selected criteria.
The work is designed around how your organisation functions, not around a generic set of templates.
We help teams operate the controls, assemble the evidence, run internal reviews with appropriate independence and resolve findings before the CPA firm arrives.
We then support preparation for Type I or Type II examination, including evidence coordination, interview readiness and remediation.
AUDIT SUPPORT
Hael does not issue the SOC 2 report. Our role is to prepare your organisation for examination by an independent CPA firm and to ensure the control environment presented for audit is supported by real ownership, operating controls and reliable evidence.
We help you select an appropriately qualified audit firm, prepare the examination plan, coordinate evidence, brief the people who will be interviewed and support the response to findings. The opinion remains entirely with the CPA firm.
Once the report has been issued, we can continue to support the next reporting period, ongoing control operation, evidence maintenance, exception handling and controlled expansion of scope.
PLANNING YOUR PROGRAMME
The route to a SOC 2 report depends on the intended scope, the systems and services involved, the criteria selected and the quality of available evidence. Audit-firm availability and the observation period required for a Type II report also affect the final timetable.
We establish these facts before committing to a delivery plan. You receive a defined scope, workstreams, responsibilities, timetable and fee, based on the organisation you have rather than a generic promise of a report.
Where ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 42001 or established risk-management processes are already in place, we reuse relevant structures and evidence. We identify what transfers, what needs adapting and what must be created specifically for the Trust Services Criteria.
CONNECTED REQUIREMENTS
SOC 2 should strengthen existing governance rather than create a parallel compliance structure. We map relevant controls, processes and evidence across related frameworks while preserving the distinct purpose of each one.
Run alongside SOC 2 so one control set and evidence base serves both, and the marginal cost of the second is a fraction of the first.
Extend the control environment to cover the governance of AI systems where they are part of the service delivered to customers.
Integrate data-protection accountability, assessments and evidence into controls that already govern personal data processing.
Align cyber risk-management activities with the wider control environment and management decision-making.
