GRC Consulting in India

A GRC consultant builds and runs the system that decides how security and privacy are governed, which risks matter, and how compliance is proven. In practice that means setting up named ownership and reporting to leadership, writing policies that match how the business operates, running a risk assessment and register that drive the roadmap, and implementing the controls and evidence that frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS and the DPDP Act require. It also covers assessing the suppliers who hold your data, running internal audits, and supporting certification and attestation audits. The difference from a one-off compliance project is continuity: the programme keeps working between audits, so surveillance audits, customer questionnaires and regulator questions draw on current records rather than a scramble. We do that work alongside your team, not instead of it.

Yes, and it is usually the cheapest way to meet all three. The frameworks overlap heavily on access control, change management, logging, incident response, supplier management and risk assessment, so one well-designed control set with one evidence trail can serve each of them. What differs is the wrapper: ISO 27001 needs a management system with internal audit and management review, SOC 2 needs controls described against the Trust Services Criteria and tested by a licensed CPA firm, and the DPDP Act adds privacy duties such as notices, consent, data principal rights and breach intimation that a security framework does not cover. We map every control to each framework in one matrix, add the framework-specific pieces on top, and plan the audit calendar so evidence gathered once is reused everywhere it applies, audit after audit.

Not necessarily, but spreadsheets stop scaling quickly once more than one framework or audit cycle is involved. Software earns its place when it holds a single control set mapped across frameworks, collects evidence automatically from cloud, identity and ticketing tools, and shows owners what is due before an auditor asks. We use TrustGrid, the platform we built for our own engagements, to run programmes that way, and we also work with established compliance platforms such as Vanta, Drata, Sprinto or Scrut where a client already uses one. The tool matters less than the discipline behind it: named owners, a maintained risk register and evidence produced as work happens. A small company pursuing a single certification can run perfectly well on documents and a tracker, and we will say so rather than sell a platform you do not need.

The first useful results arrive within weeks, and a programme carrying a first certification usually takes three to six months. Scoping takes a week or two, and the gap assessment and risk assessment two to four weeks, which is enough to give leadership a ranked roadmap. Building governance, policies and the shared control set, then collecting evidence, typically takes two to four months depending on how much already exists and how quickly owners act. A first ISO 27001 certificate or SOC 2 Type 1 report can land at the end of that period, with further frameworks added on the same controls in the months that follow. After that the work becomes a cycle of risk reviews, internal audits and surveillance audits. We commit to a timeline after the gap assessment, when the real size of the work is known.

We do not publish a single figure, because a GRC programme is scoped to the frameworks, laws and business units involved, and those vary widely. The main drivers are how many frameworks you pursue and in what order, the number of locations, products and people in scope, how much of the governance, policy and control set already exists, whether you need third-party risk assessments of many suppliers, and whether ongoing leadership through a vCISO or vDPO is part of the engagement. Several costs sit outside our fee: certification bodies and licensed audit firms, who must stay independent of whoever built your controls, any compliance software, and your own team's time. Running frameworks on one control set lowers the total compared with separate projects. We scope first, then give you a fixed price in writing, phased so each stage stands on its own.