Scytale Compliance Automation Platform™

My usual use case for Scytale is for ISO 27001 compliance.

The inbuilt framework was reasonable on 27001, and the policy support was reasonable. Scytale's customizable policy framework seems acceptable.

Scytale unilaterally suspended access because in their opinion, I don't know why they did that. I'm assuming they think that we're competitive, which we're not. They sold us the system and sent a contract to us in full knowledge of what we do as a business. Compliance is a very broad word; we provide compliance into nonprofits, housing associations, markets that these guys do not serve. Somebody inside Scytale likely thought, "Oh my God, these guys must be competitive, so let's just cut them off." I'm assuming that's what happened, but there was no explanation, nothing.

Scytale did not help me streamline my compliance processes. It didn't really identify gaps. There was no gap analysis in there that we could see. I didn't really get that far to use the effectiveness of Scytale's real-time insights in identifying potential compliance issues. All my experiences with Scytale have been negative. We haven't used the automated evidence collection of Scytale. Scytale has not helped me allocate resources more efficiently for compliance; it's been the opposite experience. We have put six months of effort into looking at the controls on 27001, talking about auditors, getting audit-ready, and so forth. But we've invested significant time, which has now been a complete waste of time.

Scytale is not only unreliable, considering they can suspend access without any notice or formal reason, but this lack of stability results in serious concerns about their dependability as a partner. If they can do that without explanation, my fear is that even if they switch it on again, who's to know in three months' time that the same thing couldn't happen again?

I have been working with Scytale for about six months.

Scytale is not reliable at all; not stable. You would be unwise to put a mission-critical function like ISO 27001 on Scytale. From one to ten, I would rate the stability and reliability of Scytale as a one.

We have communicated with the technical support and customer service of Scytale. My experience with them is that the response time is very slow from Scytale. You get a ticket, and maybe a couple of days later, people might get back to you. When we asked Scytale for an explanation as to why they did what they did, there was no response—either direct LinkedIn messages out to their CEO and senior management team or in-app messages to their customer support service—just no response. I thought they'd gone out of business; that was my assumption when we couldn't access the system. Based on my experience with the technical support, I would definitely rate them a one.

We did not use a different solution for these use cases before Scytale.

Initially, I participated in the setup and deployment of Scytale, but then it was passed on to a staff member.

The processes I participated in during the setup of Scytale were straightforward; it was acceptable and fine.

We did evaluate other options and vendors before choosing Scytale; we looked at Vanta  and Drata . We decided to go with Scytale over Drata  or Vanta  because we thought the interface was a bit nicer, and we thought that maybe they were a smaller company that we would get better support from as opposed to Vanta.

We're going to sue Scytale, and we're going to sue Amazon as well because they're technically the people we're paying.

My feedback on Scytale is that it's terrible.

Currently, it's actually useless to us. When we were using it, it was good.

We used elements of integration into our core subsystems.

We were working with it and building it up; we had spent probably about a man-month in that six months, which has now been a wasted effort.

We've had a month of a man-month of effort, and now we have to go back to square one, go to Vanta or go to Drata or one of the other competitors, and that's what we're going to do next.

Scytale unilaterally suspended access because we have a subscription through Amazon marketplace, paying monthly, and we're not direct competitors with Scytale. We provide compliance services into specific vertical markets like credit unions and financial institutions. We don't do security compliance, which is their bread and butter or their primary market.

We went back because we were using Scytale for ISO 27001 certification and had put about six months' work into it. There was no formal reason, no notice, nothing. We just tried to log in one day and couldn't, and then reached out; a junior customer service representative said, "Oh, no, it's with our legal department," and provided no explanation.

I rate this review overall as a one out of ten.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services  (AWS )

What do you like best about the product?

The best part of Scytale for us was having the weekly touch points and dedicated consultant (CJ). She was absolutely phenomenal to work with.

What do you dislike about the product?

Some of the integrations did not populate and when we first onboarded there were some bugs with the policies and training synching.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

SOC II compliance.

What do you like best about the product?

I like that Scytale is continuously evolving into a more useful platform, allowing us to use it throughout the year rather than just for annual surveillance audits. It's great for reviewing and ensuring everything is in order and compliant. I also appreciate their professional services, where our dedicated consultant assists at every step, helping us use the platform optimally to reach our goals. The platform makes it possible for colleagues to collaborate, each within their area of expertise and responsibility but still ensuring a big-pic overview for management.

What do you dislike about the product?

It would be great if they communicate more clearly when they release new features. To let us know and also explain how that's changes the big picture experience.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

We use Scytale for our ISO 27001 certification, prepare for audits, and ensure compliance throughout the year. Its integrations automate compliance evidence gathering, saving time.

What do you like best about the product?

The platform is incredibly well-organized and easy to use! Scytale took what is normally a heavy process and simplified it by removing all the unnecessary overhead for us. I also have to give a huge shoutout to Romy Spencer, who was absolutely fantastic. She was always ready to jump in and help whenever needed, simplifying our workload massively. Having that level of dedicated support made all the difference

What do you dislike about the product?

I don't have any real dislikes to report. The software does exactly what it promises to do, the UI is clean, and the customer support is top-notch. My experience has been positive.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Scytale solves the problem of manual compliance tracking and evidence collection. By organizing everything in one place and removing the typical administrative overhead, it benefited us by saving a ton of time and making a normally stressful process feel completely manageable.

What do you like best about the product?

We had a positive experience working with Scytale to achieve our ISO certification. Their team (and especially our contact person CJ) provided clear guidance and support, making the certification process much smoother for us. The platform itself is intuitive, provides a clear overview of policies, controls, user reviews, risks and training. Basically, making it easy for us to stay organized and follow best practices going forward. I would recommend using Scytale if you are looking to get certified.

What do you dislike about the product?

Platform is evolving so we were facing some issues along the way (which were resolved swiftly though). One thing to note is that the effort required from our side was greater than anticipated, especially around implementing certain internal processes. With more upfront clarity on this, we could have prepared better. For future users, I’d recommend asking early about potential gaps between your current setup and the scalable processes required for certification. But overall, the combination of their expertise and platform made a big difference in getting us across the finish line.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Guided us through the process and helped us achieve ISO certification, but also ensuring that we stay compliant.