Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager Deployment
Continuous compliance posture platform that replaces manual spreadsheet tracking. This is the EPC Group 4-6 week deployment playbook.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
Purview Compliance Manager is Microsoft's continuous compliance posture platform. It provides pre-built assessment templates for major regulations (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2, NIST 800-171, FINRA, CCPA, SOX, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and 300+ more), tracks improvement actions to close gaps, collects evidence for auditor sharing, and produces a rolling Compliance Score for the tenant. It replaces the manual spreadsheet-based compliance tracking most organizations do today.
What license tier do we need?
Compliance Manager is included in Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance and Microsoft 365 E5 (full suite). Base compliance scoring is available in Microsoft 365 E3, but with limited assessment templates. Premium assessments (custom + industry-specific) require E5 Compliance. For most enterprise deployments, the E5 Compliance add-on ($12/user/month above E3) is the target license.
Which assessments should we run?
Depends on vertical + geography. Baseline recommendations: (1) NIST 800-171 for federal contractors + defense (also inherited by CMMC L2/L3). (2) HIPAA for healthcare covered entities + business associates. (3) SOC 2 Type 2 for organizations with external assurance requirements. (4) GDPR if you have EU-resident data. (5) CCPA if you have California residents. (6) FINRA Rule 4511 + SEC 17a-4 for broker-dealers. Every organization runs 2-6 concurrent assessments. Assessment templates are stackable — a single control (e.g., "encrypt data at rest") often applies to multiple assessments simultaneously.
How does the improvement action workflow work?
Each assessment surfaces a list of improvement actions ranked by impact on the Compliance Score. Actions have three states: Not Started / In Progress / Implemented. Actions can be assigned to a specific user with a due date; that user attests when the control is implemented and uploads evidence. Evidence can be a policy document, a screenshot of a configuration, a Purview automated-scan result, or an external attestation. Assigned users get email + Teams notifications on due date. Manager rollup dashboards show progress per department.
How do we share assessments with third-party auditors?
Compliance Manager's Auditor role assignment gives external auditors read-only access to specific assessments + attached evidence — without giving them access to the rest of Microsoft 365. Best practice: create a dedicated Entra ID guest account per external auditor, assign the Compliance Manager Auditor role, scope access to the specific assessment(s) under review. Auditor sees the evidence, adds review notes, and marks controls as verified or not verified. This replaces the traditional email-back-and-forth evidence collection cycle.
What does an EPC Group Compliance Manager deployment engagement produce?
A 4-6 week fixed-fee engagement. (1) License activation + role assignment (Compliance Manager Administrator, Compliance Manager Assessor, Compliance Manager Reader, Auditor). (2) Assessment selection matrix — which templates apply to your vertical + geography. (3) Initial assessment run + baseline Compliance Score. (4) Improvement action prioritization + owner assignment (Legal, Security, HR, IT). (5) Evidence collection workflow via Power Automate. (6) Auditor sharing pattern deployed with guest account templates. (7) Quarterly review cadence document for continuous improvement.
Talk to a senior architect
Email contact@epcgroup.net or call 888-381-9725.
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