Symterra Case Study

Hicomply enabled SymTerra achieve accreditation faster, strengthen its security foundations and unlock opportunities to work with larger organisations.
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“It probably would have taken us an extra five to six months to achieve accreditation if we hadn’t worked with Hicomply. I don’t think we would have achieved it without them.”
– Sarah Crawley, Co-Founder & Director, SymTerra

Overview

SymTerra is a technology company supporting construction and infrastructure teams to document evidence works, improve visibility and streamline compliance reporting. 

Working across critical national infrastructure means security is non-negotiable. Many of SymTerra’s clients operate in highly regulated environments where robust information security practices are expected as standard.

As the company grew and began working with larger organisations, SymTerra needed to formalise its approach to information security. What had previously been managed through internal processes now needed to become structured, auditable and certification-ready.

To support this next stage of growth, SymTerra partnered with Hicomply to achieve formal accreditation, strengthen its security framework and ensure compliance could scale alongside the business.

The Challenge

Security had always been important for SymTerra, but when a key client required formal accreditation as part of a contract, the timeline suddenly became critical.

The team needed to achieve accreditation within a strict timeframe, replace informal processes with a structured system, avoid excessive manual effort and to ensure policies and controls were clearly linked and auditable.

For a growing SME, the biggest constraint was time. Leadership already had to balance product development, customer delivery and commercial growth, so managing accreditation manually would have required significant internal effort and risked delaying the process.

“Time is our greatest resource as an SME business. That’s time I could be keeping customers happy, selling, growing the business.”
– Sarah Crawley, Co-Founder & Director, SymTerra

SymTerra needed a way to move quickly without compromising on accuracy.

The Solution

For SymTerra, Hicomply stood out for both its platform capability and the strength of its team.

Hicomply provided:

• A structured compliance framework

Everything sits in one place, ensuring policies, controls and evidence are clearly connected and easy to manage.

• Guided accreditation journey

Pre-built templates, workflows and guidance removed much of the uncertainty and complexity that can come with accreditation.

• Organisation-wide engagement

The whole SymTerra team could access and engage with the platform, embedding security awareness into everyday operations rather than treating compliance as a one-off exercise.

• Hands-on support from the Hicomply team

From onboarding through to accreditation, Hicomply worked closely with SymTerra to keep the process clear, manageable and aligned to deadlines. 

“It’s not just a tick-box exercise. It’s really helped streamline us in terms of visibility across the whole business. Hicomply have made the whole thing painless.”
– Sarah Crawley, Co-Founder & Director, SymTerra

The Outcome

SymTerra successfully achieved accreditation, significantly faster than would have been possible through manual processes.

The results were immediate.

• 5-6 months saved
  Using Hicomply accelerated the accreditation process by an estimated five to six months.
• Accreditation achieved on time
  Without Hicomply, SymTerra believes achieving certification within the required timeframe would not have been possible.
• Reduced operational strain
  Automation and structured workflows eliminated the burden of manually managing evidence, policies and controls.
• Security embedded across the business
  Information security is now a visible, structured part of daily operations, with greater transparency across the organisation.

Beyond compliance, the impact has also been commercial. 

“It’s positioned us in a much stronger place to win larger contracts and work with larger organisations.”
– Sarah Crawley, Co-Founder & Director, SymTerra

With accreditation in place, procurement conversations are smoother, tender submissions are stronger and SymTerra’s credibility with enterprise clients has increased.

Why Hicomply?

For SymTerra, the decision to work with Hicomply came down to both the platform and the people behind it.

• A real time saving
  “I don’t think we would have achieved the accreditation without Hicomply.”
• A strong partnership
  “The product is brilliant. But it’s the people – that’s the secret sauce.”
• Confidence in the decision
  When approached by competitors, the SymTerra team had no interest in switching. “It was just a no. The software’s too good and the team are too brilliant!”

Today, Hicomply is a core part of SymTerra’s technology stack and an important enabler of its future growth.

Conclusion

With Hicomply, SymTerra transformed compliance from a client requirement into a strategic advantage.

Accreditation was achieved faster, security processes were strengthened and the business is now better positioned to compete for larger contracts and scale with confidence.

‍Looking to accelerate your accreditation journey? Discover how Hicomply can help you embed compliance and unlock growth.