Helping Your Clients with the ROI of Compliance

Many business leaders view compliance as a cost center.  You know, a necessary evil that drains resources without contributing to the bottom line. But as a trusted MSP, you’re in a unique position to flip this narrative. Compliance, when done right, can reduce risk, improve operational efficiency, drive business opportunities, and enhance client trust.

In this post, we’ll explore strategies to help you demonstrate the Return on Investment (ROI) of compliance programs to your clients.

Risk Reduction Saves Money (and Prevents Downtime)

Compliance frameworks often require robust security controls such as patch management, MFA, and incident response plans. By implementing these, your clients reduce the likelihood of costly data breaches, ransomware attacks, and system downtime.

Real Example:

One company saved millions in legal fees and breach remediation costs by meeting ISO 27001 requirements that preemptively hardened their systems against an attack.

Tip for MSPs: Use vulnerability scan reports converted from technical jargon to the language of business to show how compliance efforts reduce risks tied to financial losses.

Competitive Advantage: Compliance Wins Business

Clients in highly regulated industries (healthcare, financial services, defense) often require compliance attestations and certifications such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, or CMMC. Companies that can demonstrate compliance are more likely to win contracts and partnerships and shrink the risk to their revenue.

Key ROI Metric:

Show how achieving compliance certifications opens doors to new revenue opportunities or client contracts that require compliance as a prerequisite.

Tip for MSPs: Highlight success stories where compliance readiness helped clients secure deals.

Operational Efficiency and Automation

Compliance requires organizations to establish standardized processes for data security, access management, and incident handling. By automating and optimizing these processes, your clients can improve overall efficiency, reducing human error and response times.

Example ROI Metric:

• Reduced man-hours spent on audits and manual tasks.
• Faster incident detection and resolution, minimizing downtime.

Tip for MSPs: Help your clients quantify time savings by implementing automation tools and standardized policies.

Lower Cyber Insurance Premiums

Insurance providers often offer lower premiums to organizations that meet strict compliance requirements. By reducing their risk posture, your clients can save significantly on cyber insurance policies.

ROI Example:

• A client received a 25% discount on their cyber insurance premium by maintaining a CMMC certification and demonstrating regular vulnerability management.

Tip for MSPs: Offer a risk score improvement plan as part of your compliance services, tying it to potential insurance savings.

Compliance Reduces the Cost of Audits and Regulatory Fines

Organizations with mature compliance programs can respond quickly to audits and regulatory inquiries, and security questionnaires avoiding penalties and fines.

Key ROI Metric:

• $XXX saved on audit prep through automated evidence collection.
• $XXX in avoided fines for data breaches and non-compliance.

Tip for MSPs: Provide before-and-after audit readiness reports to show how compliance improvements save time and money.

Building Client Trust and Reputation

Consumers and partners expect businesses to protect sensitive information. Compliance with security frameworks can enhance trust and credibility, leading to improved brand reputation and customer retention.

Key Insight:

Businesses do business with organizations they trust to secure their data.  A compliance certification or attestation demonstrates compliance and builds trust.

Tip for MSPs: Encourage clients to promote their compliance achievements in marketing materials.

Are you helping your clients unlock the true business value of compliance?

Compliance Scorecard’s services are designed to help MSPs like you connect the dots between security, compliance, and ROI. Let’s collaborate to build stronger, more resilient client partnerships.

Contact us today to learn how our compliance expertise can support your next audit, certification, or readiness assessment.