NERC compliance is supposed to be painful, right?
If you’re not sweating bullets preparing for audits, drowning in spreadsheets, or wondering who still has admin rights to a retired asset, are you even doing NERC CIP compliance? For those who enjoy the chaos, NovaSync might not be the right fit. It’s way too streamlined, way too automated, and frankly, a little disrespectful to the time honored tradition of the “compliance scramble.”
Here are five solid reasons why you definitely should NOT use NovaSync’s NERC CIP GRC platform, especially if your organization prefers doing things the hard way.
1. Your entire NERC CIP compliance program operates in spreadsheets and calendar invites
If you’re nostalgic for the days of juggling countless spreadsheets and manual data entries, NovaSync’s automated evidence collection will disappoint you. Integrations with tools like Active Directory and other Identity & Access Management (IAM) platforms means you won’t experience the thrill of last-minute evidence hunts anymore.
Ah yes, the good old spreadsheet symphony. Rows, columns, formulas, and the occasional rogue macro that brings your laptop to its knees. Who doesn’t love debugging a VLOOKUP at 11:58 p.m. the night before an audit?
Let’s be honest: if your entire CIP compliance program runs entirely in Excel, you’re basically one CTRL+Z away from disaster. Excel crashes? It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Bonus points if you’ve had to explain to your boss why “CIP-007 evidence FINAL_v8_UPDATED_REVIEWED2_ACTUALLYFINAL.xlsx” is still somehow missing half the data.
Speaking of version control, who really needs it? Nothing like hunting through six different SharePoint folders and dozens of email conversations just to figure out what your compliance posture looked like last quarter.
But here’s the bummer: NovaSync kills that chaos. It integrates with Active Directory, IAM platforms, and other systems you actually use, automatically pulling in evidence and maintaining a clean audit trail with zero human error. No more spreadsheet-induced heart palpitations. No more duplicated tabs labeled “Do Not Touch.”
So if you prefer living on the edge with unstable formulas and document musical chairs, you’ll hate how collaborative and boring NovaSync makes NERC CIP compliance.
2. You would miss the “Stare and Compare” CIP-004 access reviews
Remember the joy of manually reviewing NERC access logs line by line? You know, matching up dates with (Personnel Risk Assessments) PRAs, training records, and authorization dates. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you didn’t get to complete this fun activity with your entire team?
NovaSync’s continuous monitoring and automated alerts for NERC CIP Access Management take all that excitement away. Who would want to lose the unmatched satisfaction of spending an afternoon (or three) manually cross-referencing access records? Line by painstaking line. Who had access to what? When did they get their PRA? Were they trained? Did they have authorization? Who cares, you’ve got a highlighter and unlimited extra hours, right?
This process is practically a team-building exercise. Everyone huddled around a spreadsheet, guessing whether “JSmith” is the same as “Judy.Smith” and if her access to the BCSI was ever actually removed. If that doesn’t scream productivity, what does?
NovaSync ruins all that fun. Its integration with IAM platforms and Active Directory means access authorization requests and changes are tracked and monitored continuously. Visual alerts let you know exactly where the mismatches are before you even fire up the ol’ color-coded matrix. It removes the entire “stare and compare” ritual and replaces it with clear, automated insights.
But if you’re the type who enjoys the meditative quality of manual access reviews, just you, a spreadsheet, and hundreds of rows of NERC access records, you’ll hate how efficient NovaSync makes your life.
3. Custom workflows and notifications are way too efficient!
If your team depends on using calendar invites for compliance task reminders, you’ll hate using NovaSync. It would be too easy to have automated notifications be sent out to the SMEs responsible for compliance tasks. Instead, your team relies on those 15 minute calendar reminder pop-ups to review patches and other critical compliance processes that can’t be missed. I mean we use calendars for everything else, right?
Alternatively, NovaSync allows for customizable workflows tailored to your organization’s needs. But if standardized processes are too predictable and challenging to manage, let’s not mess with a system that (sort of) works. Who has ever missed a calendar invite or post-it note on their desk? How else would your SMEs remember it’s time to review critical compliance tasks, besides a vague Outlook pop-up buried under 87 unread emails?
Sure, NovaSync’s Task Scheduler could automatically send tailored notifications to the actual person responsible for the specific task, complete with due dates and context. But that just feels… excessive. Where’s the spontaneity in that? Real compliance CIP compliance professionals enjoy the adrenaline rush of remembering to complete compliance tasks only moments before their next meeting starts.
And workflows? NovaSync lets you build custom ones like: “Alert Jane if Patch A isn’t installed within the 35 day window” or “Automatically notify Compliance team when a PRA is overdue.” But that’s a little too organized. It’s almost like someone wants to eliminate dropped balls and email chains that start with “Did anyone follow up on this?”
If you prefer a more freestyle approach to compliance, calendar chaos, accidental oversights, and post-it notes, NovaSync’s built-in workflows and notifications will feel way too efficient and structured for your tastes.
4. Having audit-ready reporting ruins the surprise
Part of the thrill of going through NERC CIP audits is the high stakes suspense of gathering documentation at the last minute. With NovaSync’s audit-ready reporting and easy ERT (Evidence Request Tool) exports, you’ll miss out on those adrenaline pumping compliance moments. After all, what’s more thrilling than receiving a data request from the auditor and scrambling to find your documentation scattered across six systems, multiple email threads, and a shared drive labeled “NERC CIP STUFF”?
With NovaSync’s Document Repositories, there’s no scramble. No late night PDF stitching. No digging through Outlook for that one authorization email from three quarters ago. NovaSync’s built-in reporting engine keeps your risk management data, internal control evidence, and ERT exports clean, centralized, and terrifyingly… ready.
Let’s face it, if you’re not pulling documents five minutes before they’re due and hoping no one notices that “FINAL” was edited an hour ago, you’re not doing it the traditional way.
5. You have unlimited time and resources for NERC CIP compliance
Your compliance team has nothing but time. They’re probably just sitting around, wondering what manual compliance task to work on next. So go ahead, build a NERC CIP compliance program from scratch. Handcraft every report. Chase down every access change request across the various silos in your organization. If there is ever more time available, it’s all spent on manually chasing down evidence.
If you’re running lean and still expected to pass every NERC audit with flying colors, NovaSync gives you the software to do that without throwing bodies at the problem. Unless you really do have a team of 12 idle compliance analysts and nothing better to do.
NovaSync frees up your limited time and resources so your team can focus on higher-impact work. NovaSync focuses on automating the core routine functions of a modern CIP compliance program, from change management, internal controls, asset management, patch management, and so much more. NovaSync’s audit-ready reporting and default NERC CIP workflows out of the box. Plus, it’s built for on-prem environments, so you maintain full control without compromising security of BCSI.
At the end of the day, NovaSync’s NERC GRC platform isn’t for everyone.
NovaSync won’t just change how you manage NERC compliance. It might just ruin the thrill of the CIP scramble forever.