ISO 27001 Implementation, Audit Readiness & Certification Support
Smartfind helps you design, implement, and operate an ISO 27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS) that truly matches how your teams build, ship, and support products. Instead of a theoretical, document-heavy project that nobody follows after the audit, we build a living ISMS that integrates with your cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, incident management, and vendor ecosystem. From early gap analysis to scope definition, risk assessment, Annex A control mapping, policy drafting, internal audits, and certification body coordination—Smartfind acts as your hands-on partner at every step.
- Ideal for SaaS, fintech, edtech, health-tech, and digital-first organizations
- Aligned with modern stacks: AWS/Azure/GCP, Kubernetes, serverless, and remote teams
- Designed to reduce last-minute audit panic and “spreadsheet chaos”
- Built to reuse evidence for multiple frameworks (SOC 2, GDPR, customer reviews)
What you get
You get a complete, audit-ready ISMS: documented scope, risk methodology, mapped Annex A controls, practical policies, and an evidence engine that doesn’t slow your teams down. Our approach is to make ISO 27001 a management system that continually improves, not a one-time checklist that everyone forgets after certification.
- Discovery and gap analysis aligned to your business model, tech stack, and data sensitivity
- Hands-on working sessions with engineering, product, HR, legal, and leadership teams
- ISMS built to integrate with your existing tickets, tools, and documentation—not replace them
- Guidance on choosing and working with a certification body (CB)
- Support for surveillance audits and expansion of scope after initial certification
Business outcomes
- Certification readiness with fewer surprises, delays, or last-minute document rush
- Customer trust and faster vendor security assessments in sales and renewals cycles
- Security habits embedded into day-to-day delivery, not just once-a-year reviews
- Clear ownership for controls, metrics, and KPIs across teams and functions
- Better alignment between security initiatives and business priorities and budgets
- Ability to reuse ISO 27001 evidence for other frameworks like SOC 2 and local regulations
Technical outcomes
- Risk model tailored to your architecture (monolith, microservices, cloud-native, hybrid)
- Controls wired into CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and identity platforms
- Automated evidence for configuration-based controls wherever feasible
- Stronger baseline for logging, monitoring, backups, and vulnerability management
- Documented integration between incident response, change management, and problem management
- Clear, repeatable runbooks that developers and SREs can actually follow when issues arise
High-value use cases
Audit readiness
We prepare you for Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits so they feel like a structured conversation, not an interrogation.
- Full dry-run of interviews, evidence sampling, and process walkthroughs
- Identification of gaps and nonconformities before the official audit
- Support in drafting corrective action plans and tracking them to closure
- Guidance on how to clearly explain technical controls to non-technical auditors
Scale & maturity
Use ISO 27001 as a structured way to grow your security program over time instead of trying to “do everything at once”.
- Roadmap of short-term wins vs. long-term improvements
- ISMS expansion model for new regions, products, or services
- Integration with product development, DevOps, and data teams
- Metrics and management reviews that show progress year over year
Assurance for customers
Turn ISO 27001 from a compliance checkbox into a sales and trust enabler.
- Stronger answers for detailed security questionnaires
- Clear SoA and policies you can safely share under NDA
- Improved confidence for enterprise, BFSI, and global customers
- Reduced time spent on repetitive security explanations by sales and tech teams
Defining your ISMS scope
Boundaries & context
Smartfind works with your leadership and key stakeholders to define a scope that is meaningful and manageable.
- Identify which products, services, environments, and teams are in-scope vs. out-of-scope
- Map regulatory, contractual, and customer drivers that influence the scope
- Document dependencies on cloud platforms, vendors, and partners
- Clarify assumptions, constraints, and expected growth of the ISMS over time
Statement of applicability (SoA)
The SoA is the heart of your ISO 27001 program. We build and maintain it as a living document.
- Justify why each Annex A control is included, partially applied, or excluded
- Map each control to real implementation details and evidence sources
- Assign clear owners and review frequencies to ensure control health
- Version and maintain the SoA so it always reflects the current environment
Risk assessment & treatment
ISO 27001 is risk-driven. Smartfind helps you build a simple, explainable risk methodology that your teams can actually use, not just sign off once a year.
- Define risk criteria and scoring in language that makes sense to both tech and business
- Identify assets, threats, vulnerabilities, and existing controls in a structured way
- Calculate inherent and residual risk, then prioritize remediation by impact and effort
- Record decisions to mitigate, accept, transfer, or avoid each risk with clear justification
| Factor | Signals | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Likelihood | Threat activity, exposure, control strength | Weak MFA on admin users plus exposed management interfaces |
| Impact | Data sensitivity, legal impact, downtime, reputational damage | Compromise of production customer data with regulatory obligations |
| Risk | Matrix/score mapping to SLAs and action plans | High → remediation required in 7 days; Medium → in 30 days; Low → monitored |
| Treatment | Mitigate/Transfer/Avoid/Accept with justification | Mitigate via SSO, conditional access, hardening, monitoring, and training |
Annex A controls mapping (examples)
A.5 Organizational controls
Information security roles, leadership commitment, policy framework, and governance structure.
- Define and document security responsibilities across teams
- Formalize steering committees, management reviews, and reporting lines
- Ensure information security objectives are aligned with business goals
A.6 People controls
Hiring checks, onboarding, awareness, and disciplinary processes.
- Structured onboarding and offboarding steps for all roles
- Security training plan with periodic refreshers and tracking
- Clear policies for acceptable use, remote work, and personal devices
A.7 Physical controls
Physical access, secure areas, and protection of devices and media.
- Access control processes for offices, data rooms, or colocation facilities
- Guidelines for safe storage, labelling, and disposal of physical media
- Responsibilities for employees in hybrid or remote work setups
A.8 Technological controls
IAM, cryptography, operations security, communications, system acquisition, development and maintenance.
- Identity and access management integrated with SSO, MFA, and role-based access
- Secure development lifecycle, vulnerability management, and patch processes
- Backup, restore, and test cycles aligned with business recovery requirements
A.5.23 Third-party services
Vendor selection, security clauses, and ongoing evaluation of critical suppliers.
- Security and privacy requirements embedded into contracts and DPAs
- Vendor risk assessments for critical cloud, SaaS, and outsourcing partners
- Periodic reviews and exit strategies for service providers
A.8.28 Secure coding
Policies and practices for building secure software and infrastructure.
- Code review, SAST/DAST, SCA, and secrets scanning integrated into CI/CD
- Guidelines for using third-party libraries, open-source, and APIs
- Playbooks for handling vulnerabilities, disclosures, and security bugs
Policy kit (tailored)
Core policies
Smartfind provides policy templates aligned to ISO 27001 and then refines them with your stakeholders so they are realistic and enforceable.
- Information Security Policy & governance structure
- Access Control & Identity Management (SSO, MFA, RBAC, admin controls)
- Acceptable Use, remote work, and BYOD
- Secure Development & Change Management
- Incident Response, escalation paths, and post-incident reviews
- Backup, Restoration & Business Continuity principles
Support docs
We also help you build the supporting material that auditors and customers expect to see.
- Asset register (systems, apps, data stores, endpoints) and data classification
- Supplier security checklist, onboarding questionnaire, and DPA templates
- Security awareness training plan, records, and communications
- BCP/DR runbooks with test plans, test results, and continuous improvements
- Templates for management review minutes and security KPI reporting
Evidence engine & SoA
Evidence should not be an ad-hoc scramble of screenshots in random folders. Smartfind helps you design a repeatable, partially automated evidence engine tied to your SoA.
Evidence collection
- Leverage cloud provider tools, CI/CD, and security platforms for auto generated evidence
- Define simple, lightweight forms for process evidence (approvals, reviews, meetings)
- Maintain a central evidence index linked directly to SoA entries and control IDs
- Establish retention, ownership, and periodic review cycles for key evidence sets
SoA maintenance
- SoA used as a live map of controls, not a one-time document
- Change management for SoA when new services, regions, or products are introduced
- Traceability between risks, controls, evidence, and audit findings
- Clear responsibilities for reviewing and updating control statuses before audits
Internal audit & certification support
Internal audits
Internal audits are your rehearsal space. They help you improve before the certification body arrives.
- Plan internal audits with scope, objectives, and sampling strategies
- Interview process owners and review evidence as an external auditor would
- Document nonconformities, observations, and improvement opportunities
- Support root-cause analysis and corrective actions with realistic timelines
Stage 1 & 2 readiness
Smartfind ensures your teams are calm and prepared for Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits.
- Mock interviews and Q&A so owners know what they will be asked
- Guidance on arranging documents, evidence, and access for auditors
- Day-of support to clarify questions, context, and technical details as needed
- Help in understanding audit reports and planning corrective or preventive actions
Typical timeline
Exact timelines depend on your size, scope, and current maturity, but most new ISO 27001 programs follow this kind of pattern:
| Phase | Duration | Activities |
|---|---|---|
| Gap analysis | 1–2 weeks | Current state vs. ISO 27001 & Annex A, early risk and scope discussion, initial recommendations. |
| ISMS build | 3–6 weeks | Scope, risk methodology, policies, controls, SoA, and evidence framework rolled out with owners. |
| Operate & refine | 2–4 weeks | Run the ISMS, conduct internal audit, address nonconformities, fine-tune evidence flows. |
| Audit support | 1–2 weeks | Stage 1/2 readiness checks, final evidence preparation, mock interviews, and audit-day support. |
Pricing / Engagement model
Essentials
- Single product or business unit in-scope
- Policy kit, risk model, and initial SoA
- Evidence starter pack and guidance for first audit cycle
- Best for early-stage or focused-scope organizations
Growth
- Multi-product / multi-region scope
- Deeper integration with cloud, CI/CD, and existing security tools
- Internal audit support and remediation guidance
- Best for scaling companies with increasing enterprise demand
Certification
- End-to-end support through Stage 1 and Stage 2 certification audits
- Corrective action planning and evidence finalization
- Coaching for owners and leadership on how to handle future audits
- Best for teams who want a strong partner throughout the entire journey
FAQs
How long until we’re audit-ready?
Most organizations targeting a reasonable scope reach audit readiness in about 8–12 weeks. The exact timeline depends on team availability, existing security maturity, and how quickly decisions can be made for risk and scope. Smartfind will give you a realistic estimate after the initial gap assessment.
Do you provide policy templates?
Yes. We bring ISO 27001-aligned templates based on real-world environments and then adapt them with your stakeholders so they fit your technology stack, culture, and language. The goal is to have policies people will actually read, understand, and follow.
Can we automate evidence?
In many areas, yes. Cloud configuration, IAM, CI/CD, vulnerability management, and monitoring can all generate repeatable evidence. For more process-driven areas (like HR or legal reviews), we help you design simple forms and records that are easy to maintain and easy for auditors to understand.
What changes after certification?
After certification, the focus shifts from “getting ready” to “staying effective”. We support you in:
- Preparing for annual surveillance audits
- Tracking key security metrics and management reviews
- Updating scope, SoA, and risk register as your business evolves
- Maintaining an ISMS that your teams respect and rely on—not just tolerate