Get more out of your evidence: 6 things you can learn by combining evidence you’re already collecting

As a regular part of your job, you collect evidence to meet your compliance goals. You review it (fix anything that needs fixing), approve it, and then pass it to the auditor. Once the auditor signs off, that data may as well be disposable. 

It can be a bit of a letdown in the end. All that effort, all that documentation—and it has little value beyond the audit. Or does it?

The trick is to start combining data 

When you combine pieces of evidence instead of looking at them in isolation, you’ll find a new set of insights emerge. And those insights can make your life easier—whether you're improving internal processes, fostering a culture of compliance, or helping another team answer tough questions.‍

6 ways to get more value from your evidence

1. Check for active employee access after offboarding

One simple, high-impact check you can do is compare your HR system’s list of active employees against your identity provider’s (IDP) list of users with system access. By matching on a common field like employee email, you can spot users who have left the company but still have access to internal systems. 

Evidence sources: Workday / BambooHR / HiBob ↔ Okta / Azure AD / Google Identity

Common field: Employee email

Instant value:

✅ Prevents unauthorized access

✅ Strengthens access reviews and certification processes

2. Spot coverage gaps between EDR and MDM tools

Cross-referencing your endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools with your mobile device management (MDM) systems can quickly highlight devices that have slipped through the cracks. Use this process to flag devices that are managed but not protected, or protected but not properly enrolled in MDM.

Evidence sources: CrowdStrike / SentinelOne / Defender ATP ↔ Intune / Jamf / Kandji / Miradore

Common Field: Device ID or hostname

Instant value:

✅ Helps enforce zero-trust posture

✅ Supports endpoint inventory and hardening policies

3. Change Management Alignment (PRs vs. Jira Tickets)

To enforce your change management process, make sure that every code change, whether it’s a pull request, commit, or deployment, is tied to an approved Jira ticket. By matching on identifiers like ticket ID, developer email, or PR reference, you can confirm that proper reviews and sign-offs happened before the code was merged.

Plugin Examples: GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket / Azure DevOps ↔ Jira / Jira Server 

Common Field: Ticket ID, developer email, or PR reference

Instant value:

✅ Proves enforcement of change management processes

✅ Detects untracked or rogue code deployments

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4. Validate security training completion 

To confirm that every active employee has completed required security awareness training, compare your HR platform’s employee list with completion records from your security training provider. Using employee email as a common field, you can easily spot who’s missing from the training system altogether.

Plugin Examples: Workday / BambooHR / Rippling ↔ KnowBe4 / Curricula / Wizer 

Common Field: Employee email

Instant value:

✅ Addresses training requirements in frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA

✅ Demonstrates a proactive compliance culture

5. Catch non-engineering access to dev systems

It’s important to tightly control access to source code and development tools. When you compare IDP group membership against access lists in platforms like GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Jira, you can quickly spot whether any non-technical employees, like those in HR, Marketing, or Finance, have access they don’t need.

Plugin Examples: Okta / Azure AD / JumpCloud ↔ GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket / Jira / Confluence

Common Field: User email

Instant value:

✅ Reduces risk of accidental changes or exposure

✅ Enforces least privilege and separation of duties

6. Validate background checks during onboarding

You wouldn’t want to provision new hires into your core systems without confirming they’ve completed required screenings. Comparing data from your hiring platform or background check provider with your HR system’s employee records—using candidate email or employee ID—can efficiently verify that no one’s slipped through onboarding without the proper review.

Plugins Examples: Workday / BambooHR / SuccessFactors ↔ Checkr / Greenhouse

Common Field: Candidate email or employee ID

Instant value:

✅ Ensures onboarding workflows align with hiring policy and internal controls

✅ Helps mitigate insider threats and audit findings

Complete GRC data sets unlock new value across the business

These checks are incredibly valuable, and the best part is how straightforward they are—as long as you have access to complete data sets. 

If you’re still using screenshots or static exports, you’ll be stuck trying to manually compare the data. That’s a tedious process at best, and nearly impossible to accomplish at scale.

So, to unlock this additional value from your compliance evidence, you need two things: the full underlying data and a way to merge, filter, and scope. That’s the secret sauce that transforms evidence from disposable data into a powerful resource that delivers value across the business.

There is a wealth of hidden value in your evidence. Start leveraging it to get ahead.

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