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When pursuing a SOC 2 report, most organizations focus on the controls: encryption, access management, incident response, and so on. But before any of that comes into play, there’s something even more fundamental that shapes your entire report: your service commitments and system requirements.
These two elements form the starting point for your SOC 2 journey and the standard against which everything else is measured.
Service commitments are the formal promises your organization makes to your customers or users. These promises define what customers can expect from your systems in areas like security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
They often appear in:
Service commitments sound like:
These commitments establish the baseline expectations for your systems and the outcomes your customers rely on.
System requirements refer to the technical and operational capabilities your organization needs to fulfill those service commitments. These include:
System requirements help define how your systems are designed, implemented, and maintained to deliver on what you’ve promised.
Together, service commitments describe what you deliver, and system requirements describe how you deliver it.
SOC 2 isn’t a one-size-fits-all checklist. It’s a customized examination of whether your organization is meeting the service commitments you’ve made by using your systems, processes, and people.
Here’s how it works:
In other words: The SOC 2 report doesn’t evaluate your systems in the abstract. It evaluates them in the context of what you’ve promised to deliver.
If your company promises high availability 99.9% uptime, then your SOC 2 report will focus on controls that support availability, such as:
If you’re storing customer data and promising confidentiality, the report will evaluate access controls, encryption standards, and data handling procedures.
At the end of the day, SOC 2 is about trust. It shows your customers, partners, and stakeholders that you’re not only making promises, you’re backing them up with real controls and reliable systems.
That’s why understanding and documenting your service commitments and system requirements is a critical first step in any SOC 2 readiness or audit process. They form the foundation of the report and the lens through which your organization’s performance is evaluated.
Whether you’re preparing for your first SOC 2 or maturing your control environment, getting clarity around your commitments and system design is key. At Elliott Davis, we have the tools and experience to help you turn your promises into proof. Contact us today.
The information provided in this communication is of a general nature and should not be considered professional advice. You should not act upon the information provided without obtaining specific professional advice. The information above is subject to change.
