Compliance Readiness

What it is

Compliance for higher-ed isn't one framework — it's five at once. We start from what your leadership needs to defend (a GLBA Safeguards exam, an annual financial audit's IT controls section, a DoD research award, a state AG inquiry, a HECVAT pile that's six months behind) and build one institutional control set with crosswalks to every regulatory regime that applies — so you stop doing GLBA, FERPA, NIST 800-171, and HIPAA as four separate projects.

Higher-Education Compliance: One Institution, Many Regulators

A Title IV college, a research university, an academic medical center, and a campus-payments operation are all the same institution — and all subject to different overlapping compliance regimes. Higher-education compliance work has to navigate GLBA Safeguards, FERPA, NIST 800-171, HECVAT, HIPAA, NSPM-33, and state privacy laws as a single coordinated control set, not a list of separate projects.

The distinction most institutions don't draw

Compliance is usually framed as “pick a framework and chase it.” For a higher-ed institution that's almost never right — you're subject to multiple regimes simultaneously. The work that pays off is building one control set with crosswalks to every regulator, so a single piece of evidence satisfies four auditors.

The pragmatic pieces we deliver

• Multi-framework crosswalk — your control set mapped to GLBA Safeguards, FERPA, HECVAT 4.x, NIST 800-171, CMMC 2.0 where applicable, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, NSPM-33, and applicable state privacy laws.
• Gap assessment against the specific framework(s) you have to answer to first.
• POA&M — Plan of Action and Milestones with realistic timelines and named owners, not a wish-list.
• Audit-ready evidence package — what evidence you have, what's missing, and how to collect the rest continuously rather than scrambling at audit time.
• Remediation roadmap sequenced by risk and audit calendar.
• Pre-audit dry-run — mock auditor questions, evidence walk-through, presentation prep.
• Vendor risk pipeline assessment — if HECVAT is the bottleneck, this is where Azimuth slots in as the operational fix.

Where the products fit

The university is a small city with different districts — administrative, academic, research, clinical, advancement — each with its own regulatory profile. ACRE shows the city from outside the walls (attacker-eye view, per district) so we know where to focus controls work first. Azimuth handles the third-party supply chain coming into each district — turning HECVAT from a bottleneck into a controlled pipeline.

What “frictionless” means here

Audit prep is not a 90-day fire drill — evidence collection runs continuously, in the background, generated as a byproduct of normal operations. One control set covers four regulators. A new state privacy law lands into an existing structure, not a six-month new project.

Frameworks we work in

• GLBA Safeguards Rule (FTC, June 2023 amendments — every Title IV institution)
• FERPA (every institution with student records)
• HECVAT 4.x (third-party / SaaS procurement)
• NIST 800-171 (CUI / federally-funded research)
• CMMC 2.0 (DoD-funded research, when applicable)
• HIPAA (clinical programs, student health centers, covered components)
• PCI-DSS (campus payments, advancement)
• NSPM-33 (research security disclosure)
• State privacy laws with material IT implications — we keep a working crosswalk
• Single Audit / Yellow Book (federal funds → IT controls section)

Engagement shape

Single-framework readiness — 6–10 weeks. Multi-framework compliance program — 6 months. Research-enclave readiness (NIST 800-171 / CMMC) — 3–6 months including enclave design. Pre-audit dry-run — 2–3 weeks. We sequence to your audit calendar, not ours.