How to manage IT compliance internationally: A practical guide for growing businesses

Cross-border compliance is fundamental for any small or medium-sized business planning to grow internationally. Get it right, and it’s a strategic advantage in a new market. However, first impressions count. Mistakes can lead to costly fines and damaged reputations. IT compliance, encompassing data privacy and security, touches all parts of business today and is therefore central to overall corporate compliance.

Businesses scaling internationally must comply with the rules of new localities and the varying standards and certificates required by international customers. This isn’t just a case of reworking and adapting existing frameworks. Navigating multiple regulatory regimes simultaneously is inevitable.

Unsurprisingly, 85% of global business leaders surveyed by PWC said that compliance requirements have become more complex in the last three years.

A centralised IT compliance framework is the foundation for multi-jurisdictional compliance, supported by a well-planned IT infrastructure and automation. Smaller businesses without internal compliance teams often turn to an IT compliance services provider that can help them develop a practical, consistent and efficient approach.

Table of contents

1. What is IT compliance?

2. IT compliance: a legal obligation and a business necessity

3. The cross-border IT compliance gaps that cost businesses

4. Effective compliance depends on continuous documentation

5. What is IT governance and how does a centralised approach help compliance?

6. A practical starting point for IT governance

What is IT compliance?

IT compliance ensures that an organisation’s technology, systems, and data management processes meet legal and regulatory standards, internal governance requirements, and contractual obligations.

While these broad objectives are largely shared, compliance frameworks vary across different jurisdictions and certification schemes. Most require organisations to document compliance, but the evidence-gathering processes also differ.

In practice, IT compliance means managing several overlapping sets of regulations and standards at once.

IT compliance: a legal obligation and a business necessity

For a UK company looking to expand internationally, complexity can soon mount as compliance requirements multiply.

A legal obligation…

All organisations operating in the UK and processing personal information must comply with UK GDPR. If the company processes the personal data of individuals located in the European Union or offers them goods or services, the EU GDPR also applies.

While the two regimes share the same seven principles, businesses operating internationally must be aware of how the regulations differ, for example, in the transfer of personal data.
There is no overarching, national GDPR equivalent in the US. If the UK company plans to expand into the US, it must navigate state-level legislation such as California’s CCPA.

The company may need to comply with further regulations depending on its size and sector. A healthcare technology scaleup may need to secure its network and information systems in line with the EU’s NIS2 Directive and HIPAA requirements in the US if the company falls within its scope.

…and a business necessity

Additional certification or compliance with international standards is now common in mid-market and enterprise-level procurement processes.

The healthcare technology scaleup may also need to comply with ISO/IEC 27001 and the US-originated SOC 2 framework. These are both commonly required for vendors in the tech, software and data sectors.

If it decides to compete for a UK government contract, it may also need Cyber Essentials certification, which is mandatory for some public-sector contracts.

For businesses juggling the overlapping demands of these frameworks without a coherent, overarching approach, compliance gaps can soon emerge.

The cross-border IT compliance gaps that cost businesses

Compliance gaps can be costly. For businesses entering new markets, mistakes may mean missing out on contracts and a damaged reputation.

Common issues include:

1. Incomplete supporting documentation

Businesses may have completed the steps required by frameworks, but they must be able to document compliance. UK GDPR’s accountability principle stipulates that “You must have appropriate measures and records in place to be able to demonstrate your compliance.”

2. Manual evidence collection struggles to scale

Compliance processes often start with spreadsheets, screenshots, and email threads. What may have worked for a business operating in a single market becomes hard to manage across multiple jurisdictions.

3. Data residency is assumed, not checked

Businesses need to track where their data is stored, including backups, to ensure compliance with local laws. They must also monitor how international teams or remote staff are accessing information.

EU GDPR has strict rules on how personal data can be transferred outside the region. Even the largest global businesses can make expensive mistakes about where their data is located.

4. Acquired companies bring compliance gaps with them

Compliance issues could include fragmented and missing documentation or unknown vendors. Gaps may delay audits or could even expose the parent company to liabilities from the acquired company’s past mistakes.

5. Vendor procurement processes vary across regions

Vendors may meet local regulations but not fulfil company-wide IT governance rules. Without adequate controls in place, suppliers can present a supply-chain risk that affects the entire company.

Effective compliance depends on continuous documentation

As the compliance environment becomes more complex, manual evidence collection grows less effective.

All too often, there’s a last-minute scramble to chase down evidence before an audit or as a certification renewal date looms. What’s stressful but doable for businesses operating in a single market becomes a compliance risk as they expand into new jurisdictions.

Why annual evidence collection no longer works

It’s now common for organisations to supply compliance documents in a Request for Information (RFI) or Request for Proposal (RFP). Nearly two-thirds of businesses (65%) surveyed across the UK, US, and Australia say their customers, investors, and suppliers require a demonstration of compliance.

IT and cloud environments are constantly changing. Access controls must be regularly updated as staff come and go. New vendors become part of the supply chain. Software or AI tools are added to the tech stack. For companies with international operations, those changes are multiplied. Gaps may surface in organisations that were IT compliant just a few weeks ago.

Moving to an automated process

Many organisations are investing in compliance technologies to make the process more efficient and less burdensome.

We typically recommend clients adopt a compliance automation platform rather than relying on manual evidence collection. The right platform comes with built-in frameworks for common standards, so compliance can be monitored continuously rather than reconstructed before every audit.

The platform and compliance documentation are overseen centrally by a single team, minimising the risk of fragmentation across regions.

Continuous compliance identifies problems as they arise and ensures that organisations not only have a policy in place but also an auditable evidence trail.

What is IT governance and how does a centralised approach help compliance?

What is IT governance for small and medium-sized businesses?

IT governance is the framework of policies and procedures that guides an organisation’s IT, from procurement and operations to performance and risk management. It aligns with the company’s business strategy, helping the organisation achieve long-term success and value creation.

How does a centralised IT governance approach help compliance?

A single set of organisation-wide standards applied to employees and teams across all regions improves efficiency and minimises risk. For example:

• Documentation and evidence-gathering processes are consistent across the organisation, streamlining the audit process.

• Standardised reporting workflows make it easier to spot gaps and address them before they lead to compliance lapses.

• Clear procurement and vendor-management processes reduce supply chain risks.

• Company-wide data handling and management policies, together with controls such as access and backups, reduce the risk of data breaches

A central IT governance framework provides a company-wide standard, not a legal one-size-fits-all across all regions. Local teams must have the flexibility to respond to regional needs, for example, by adding standards commonly required in local procurement processes.

However, even the most comprehensive IT governance framework is only effective if it’s monitored and enforced. The governance team must have visibility across the entire organisation. In fact, the first step for many SMEs in more effective cross-border IT compliance is building an integrated IT environment.

Laying the groundwork for effective IT compliance

Integrated IT environments and unified systems are the foundation for centralised governance. However, fragmented systems are inevitable in global mergers and acquisitions.

This was exactly what UK-based online learning business, Mindtools, found following its merger with Australian business, Kineo. With operations across multiple countries and a distributed team of global employees, the merged company needed to manage several regulatory jurisdictions.

When the companies merged, the fragmented systems hampered visibility across the organisation, making company-wide governance difficult. This raised potential compliance issues with frameworks including Cyber Essentials, NIST, and CIS.

Having worked with Texaport before, Mindtools knew the MSP had IT compliance services expertise and international experience.

The team at Texaport designed a streamlined IT infrastructure to unify systems and introduced a federated governance model. This ensured company-wide, global processes with centralised controls. Regional offices could respond to local laws and procurement processes while the governance team retained visibility across the entire organisation.

A practical starting point for IT governance

Frameworks and policies must be guided by specialist legal advice who will clarify the organisation’s legal obligations across all its operations.

Your IT compliance services provider can then establish the IT infrastructure and workflows that deliver your governance framework.

Before you begin:

1. Define the governance framework's remit to ensure it supports the company strategy and business goals. Consider how success will be measured.

2. Map where all offices and staff are located, including remote employees.

3. Locate where your data is collected, stored (including backups), and processed for data residency requirements.

4. Identify all the regulatory regimes your organisation must comply with. Include named standards and frameworks in client contracts and those commonly required in RFI and RFP processes.

5. Pinpoint the role or team responsible for overseeing compliance evidence centrally across the entire organisation. Identify the C-suite or leadership executive with ultimate responsibility for governance.

6. Draw up a list of vendors. Check local suppliers meet existing internal procurement standards, at a local and group level. Evaluate vendors’ third-party risk compliance against international standards such as ISO/IEC 27001.

As a global IT service provider, we’ve found that companies that successfully manage multi-jurisdictional compliance have a common approach. They view it as a core business function that demonstrates their credibility and trustworthiness as business partners, not as an annual hurdle to overcome.

International IT compliance isn’t a single set of rules adapted for every new market. Instead, it’s about establishing systems and controls that enable companies to align with multiple frameworks simultaneously.

Companies can achieve this with three components: a unified IT environment, central IT governance, and a centrally monitored automated documentation system.

Specialised in IT compliance services, Texaport supports clients in achieving and maintaining compliance with ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, SOC 2, and CMMC. We have extensive experience helping businesses establish centralised governance and evidence collection for clients operating across multiple jurisdictions.

If you need help with a specific compliance question, contact us for cross-border compliance solutions.