Media Express prepares Chicago-area B2B SaaS, IT/MSPs, cloud providers, and service vendors for SOC 2 Type I or Type II. Trust Services Criteria alignment, trust posture pages, sub-processor disclosures, security policies, and coordinated referral to AICPA-licensed CPA auditors.
SOC 2 is not government-mandated. It's mandated by the market. Enterprise procurement teams add SOC 2 to their vendor questionnaires almost universally. Without it, you either get disqualified or spend endless hours answering security questions.
Rule of thumb: if your enterprise prospect's security team is involved in the sale, SOC 2 accelerates the deal by months.
SOC 2 reports cover one or more of five Trust Services Criteria (TSC). Security is mandatory in every SOC 2 report. The other four are optional based on your business and buyer needs.
The common criteria — protection of your systems against unauthorized access, disclosure, and damage. Every SOC 2 covers this.
Your systems are available for operation and use as committed or agreed. Includes uptime SLAs, DR, incident handling.
Your system processing is complete, valid, accurate, timely, and authorized. Especially relevant for financial/transactional platforms.
Information designated as confidential is protected as committed or agreed. Add this if you handle customer data marked confidential.
Personal information is collected, used, retained, disclosed, and disposed of in conformity with the entity's privacy notice. Add if you handle personal data at scale.
Type I is a point-in-time snapshot. Type II observes operation of your controls over 6-12 months. Most enterprise buyers ultimately want Type II. Many organizations start with Type I and evolve to Type II within a year.
SOC 2 isn't legally required. Ignoring it isn't illegal. But it is a business decision to accept slower sales cycles, longer procurement reviews, and lost enterprise deals to competitors who have SOC 2.
A structured, phased approach with clear deliverables and fixed pricing. You always know what's next, what it costs, and when it's done.
Take our 15-question quiz. Get an instant PDF report with your SOC 2 readiness score, applicable TSC, and top-priority gaps. This tells us whether Type I or Type II is realistic first and which criteria to include.
Fixed-price engagement. We define your report scope (which TSC), map current state against the criteria, identify every gap, and produce a phased roadmap with timelines and costs. Includes OPSEC website audit and trust posture assessment.
Security policies (16-20 policies covering access control, incident response, change management, vendor management, etc.). Trust posture page on your website. Sub-processor and sub-service organization disclosures. All the artifacts an auditor will look for — ready.
Whatever technical gaps exist — MFA, encryption, audit logging, backup testing, endpoint controls, vulnerability scanning, incident response tabletops. We coordinate the work and verify each control is designed and operating before your audit window.
We introduce you to an AICPA-licensed CPA firm partner. You engage them directly for the formal audit (Media Express does not perform SOC 2 audits — that's a strict AICPA licensing boundary). We stay involved to answer auditor questions and manage the paper trail.
Trust Posture Package for teams not quite ready for a full audit. Type I Readiness Package for teams that need a report fast. Managed retainer for teams evolving from Type I to Type II.
Type II auditor fees typically $50-150k due to 6-12 month observation window and expanded testing. Actual pricing depends on company size, TSC scope, and existing security posture.
Above are typical Illinois market rates. Media Express pricing is more accessible — we build once and reuse across clients, so you don't pay for someone else's discovery work. Contact us for a personalized quote based on your exact situation.
⚜ Free Consultation →Type I: point-in-time snapshot. Faster (2-3 months after readiness), cheaper. Type II: 6-12 month observation of your controls in operation. Higher trust, higher cost, longer timeline. Most enterprise buyers want Type II. Start with Type I if you need something to hand a buyer next month; plan for Type II as the eventual goal.
Type I: 3-6 months from scratch. Type II: adds 6-12 month observation window on top. Total cold-start to Type II report: 12-18 months. If you already have solid security operations, Type I readiness in as little as 6-8 weeks.
Trust Posture Package: $6-15k. Type I Readiness: $20-60k + $30-80k audit fee. Type II: $30-80k + $50-150k audit fee. Managed retainer: $2-8k/mo.
No. Only AICPA-licensed CPA firms can perform SOC 2 audits. This is a strict AICPA licensing boundary. Media Express prepares you for the audit — trust posture page, policies, sub-processor disclosure, gap remediation — and coordinates the referral to CPA audit partners when you're ready.
Security is mandatory. Most B2B SaaS start with Security + Availability. Add Confidentiality if you handle customer data marked confidential. Add Privacy if you process personal data at scale. Processing Integrity is niche — usually only for financial/transactional platforms.
Increasingly, yes. Enterprise procurement teams add SOC 2 to vendor security questionnaires universally. Without it, you get disqualified or spend hours answering questions per prospect. SOC 2 satisfies most enterprise buyer due diligence in one document — dramatically shortening your sales cycle.
Typically no. SOC 2 reports are confidential and shared under NDA with actual and prospective customers. What you CAN do publicly: mention that you have SOC 2 Type I or Type II, mention your report period, mention which TSC are covered. We build the trust posture page around what you're allowed to publish.
SOC 2 pairs with several other frameworks. If you want to go deeper on any of them, our wiki covers each in plain English.
Take the free 15-question Compliance Readiness Assessment. Instant PDF report with your SOC 2 status, recommended TSC scope, and top-priority actions.