The Problem With Manual GRC Workflows
As organizations grow, GRC becomes a daily coordination challenge: more controls, more evidence, more people, and more dependencies across security, IT, engineering, and compliance. What used to be simple (“check this control,” “review this evidence”) becomes a web of handoffs that introduce delays and risk.
Our Enterprise customers have described their problems with manual GRC workflows well, pointing out that they spend more time chasing people for updates than actually managing their GRC programs. They also shared how notifications get buried in email and by the time someone surfaces them, the issue is already days old. Plus they have to manually check when evidence expires, tests fail, or a control falls out of readiness.
Manual reminders create fire drills. Missed updates lead to audit gaps. Disconnected systems mean information spreads slowly, or not at all. Compliance leaders aren’t just managing frameworks, they’re managing coordination.
Drata’s Custom Workflows solve that.
Introducing Custom Workflows: Real-Time GRC Automation, Configured Your Way
Custom Workflows let you build event-driven automation using a simple no-code builder, turning platform changes into actionable tasks, alerts, or downstream integrations.
Whenever something meaningful happens — a control fails, evidence is uploaded, a risk score changes, or personnel fall out of compliance, Drata can take action instantly.
Customers are already using these workflows to reduce manual overhead and create predictable, scalable GRC processes. They report that the process to create a workflow is intuitive and tailored, with the flexibility for them to decide when and who to notify.
What Custom Workflows Automate Today
Custom Workflows are purpose-built for real GRC scenarios, the ones enterprise teams deal with every day. Here are the most common use cases customers are running in production today in Drata:
1. Notify Employees When They Become Out of Compliance
Object: Personnel Trigger: Out of compliance (0 days) Action: Send email / Slack
Automatically notify employees the moment they fall out of compliance with details on which categories need attention. Enables immediate correction and reduces compliance gaps.
2. Escalate When Personnel Remain Out of Compliance for X Days
Object: Personnel Trigger: Out of compliance for 5 days Action: Send email / Slack
Notifies admins or managers if personnel remain out of compliance beyond a configured threshold. Helps large orgs escalate and resolve issues quickly.
3. Create Tasks When a Risk’s Residual Score Reaches a Critical Threshold
Object: Risk Trigger: Residual score changed → new residual score ≥ threshold Action: Create task + optional notifications
Automatically assigns a task to the risk owner when a residual score crosses a high/critical value. Ensures urgent risks get prompt review.
(Note: Teams can create a second workflow for inherent score if needed—each workflow supports one trigger.)
4. Remind Control Owners When Evidence Is Past Due
Object: Evidence Trigger: Renewal past due by X days Action: Send email / Slack
Alerts control owners when their evidence is past its renewal date. Reduces expired evidence and audit exceptions.
5. Notify Owners When Evidence Is Approaching Renewal
Object: Evidence Trigger: Upcoming renewal – 10 days out Action: Send email / Slack
Proactively notifies evidence owners ahead of renewal deadlines to ensure updates occur before expiration.
6. Create Tasks When a Control’s Readiness Becomes “Not Ready”
Object: Control Trigger: Readiness changed → Not Ready Action: Create task + notifications
Automatically assigns follow-up work when a control falls out of readiness. Ensures owners quickly review evidence, policies, or tests causing degradation.
7. Notify or Create Tickets When a Mapped Test Fails
Object: Control Trigger: Mapped test changed → Fail Action: Email / Slack / Webhook (e.g., Jira)
Instantly alerts control owners or external systems when a mapped test fails. Can also generate Jira tickets via webhook with test + control details.
8. Notify Control Owners When Ownership Changes
Object: Control Trigger: Control owner updated Action: Email / Slack
Automatically notifies the new owner (and/or other team members) when control ownership is updated.
9. Notify Stakeholders When a New Artifact Is Uploaded to Evidence
Object: Evidence Trigger: New artifact uploaded Action: Email / Slack
Sends alerts—including file name and uploader—to evidence owners and linked control owners whenever an artifact is added. Eliminates manual checks and speeds up reviews.
10. Create Tasks When Evidence Is Linked to a Control
Object: Control Trigger: Evidence linked Action: Create task
Assigns a review task to control owners or approvers when new evidence is linked, ensuring it meets control requirements.
Pre-Built Recipe Library
To help teams see value immediately, Custom Workflows includes a library of pre-built workflow recipes you can enable in one click. These cover the highest-impact automation needs:
- Personnel out of compliance → notify employee and/or admin
- Risk score crosses a threshold → alert + task to the risk owner
- Evidence renewal approaching or overdue → notify control/evidence owners
- New evidence uploaded → send alert to owners
- Control readiness changes → create a task + alert the control owner
- Mapped test failing → send Slack/Teams/email to control owner
These recipes eliminate repetitive oversight and help teams stay continuously aligned.
Customer Story: How DataScan Scaled With Custom Workflows
DataScan’s GRC team manages a complex compliance program across multiple frameworks and business units. Before Workflows, updates required frequent manual check-ins and follow-up reminders across Slack, Jira, and email.
By using Custom Workflows to surface changes in real time, especially around evidence, readiness, and control activity, they reduced manual coordination and improved visibility across teams.
The impact was immediate:
- Evidence reviews completed faster
- Engineering and DevOps teams received clearer notifications
- Security leaders gained real-time visibility into activity
- Manual oversight decreased as workflows handled the routing
They now rely on Workflows to detect when new evidence is uploaded, when control readiness changes, and when controls are updated, making their compliance operations more predictable and scalable.
Real Customer Feedback, Real Outcomes
Early adopters describe Custom Workflows as both time-saving and clarity-building:
“The workflow did its magic. I got Slacked instantly and fixed it.” — Raj, GoodRx
“This is fantastic — it saves so much manual effort.” — Sai, Pluralsight
These stories underscore the value of real-time action: teams stay aligned, accountable, and ready, without relying on manual nudges.
Why This Matters: Efficiency, Accountability, and Scale
Custom Workflows deliver more than automation. They give security and GRC teams the power to:
Eliminate manual, repetitive tasks. Workflows act instantly so compliance teams don’t have to chase updates.
Collaborate Seamlessly across departments. Tasks and alerts go to the right owners every time.
Scale your program without scaling manual work. Build workflows that align with your operating model, without duct-taping tools or processes together.
Turn platform events into action. Real-time automation keeps your GRC program continuously aligned.
This is how modern GRC teams operate, not through spreadsheets, reminders, and manual follow-ups, but through automated tasks and alerts that reduce manual follow-up.
Why Drata’s Approach to Workflow Automation Stands Apart
Across the GRC landscape, most workflow tools fall into one of two buckets: rigid, pre-defined automations or simple multi-step task checklists. They help with basics, but they don’t give compliance teams the flexibility, control, or depth needed to truly operationalize complex GRC processes.
Drata takes a fundamentally different approach.
A No-Code Workflow Builder Designed for GRC Teams
Where others rely on fixed templates or developer-dependent configuration, Drata’s Custom Workflows empower compliance and security teams to build sophisticated automations on their own—no engineering required. You choose the trigger, define the actions, and customize the logic.
Event-Based Automation That Reflects How Modern GRC Actually Works
Instead of time-based reminders or one-size-fits-all playbooks, Drata listens to the signals that matter most in your environment:
- Test failures
- Evidence being uploaded, renewed, or expiring
- Risk score changes
- Personnel falling out of compliance
- Ownership updates
- Scope changes
These events automatically drive tasks, alerts, and downstream actions—closing gaps before they become findings.
Flexible, Multi-Step Actions From a Single Trigger
Most tools stop at a basic notification. Drata lets teams execute multiple, parallel actions instantly:
- Assigning tasks to the right owner or role
- Sending Slack, Teams, or email alerts with rich context
- Notifying managers or secondary reviewers
- Updating multiple stakeholders simultaneously
All from one event—without duplicating workflows or creating brittle chains.
Deep Third-Party Integration Through Outgoing Webhooks
Instead of siloed in-app automations, Drata enables real-time orchestration with the rest of your ecosystem. With configurable outgoing webhooks, teams can push workflow data directly into:
- Jira
- ServiceNow
- Tines
- Zapier
- Internal automation tools
This turns GRC events into triggers for tickets, remediation pipelines, and custom internal workflows.
Context-Rich, Dynamic Notifications
Most platforms send static alerts with limited detail. Drata uses dynamic content to inject real-time object details—control codes, evidence names, risk scores, owners, triggers—so stakeholders receive exactly the context they need to act immediately.
Built for Scale, Not Just Simplicity
Enterprises have complex teams, layered approval structures, and interconnected processes. Drata’s Custom Workflows were built to support:
- Role-based routing
- Multiple assignees
- Multi-channel notifications
- Real-time intelligence
- High-volume event processing
This isn’t automation bolted onto GRC—it's automation designed for GRC.
The Future of GRC Workflows
GRC functions are evolving. Programs are expanding. Regulatory pressure is increasing. And enterprise teams need automation that adapts as fast as they do.
Custom Workflows are how Drata helps you get there, real-time, no-code, event-driven automation that fits the way your organization works.
To see Custom Workflows in action and learn how teams at organizations like yours are scaling their programs, book a Demo today.
