If you ask most business leaders what keeps them awake at night, the answer is almost always the same:
“If someone knocked on my door tomorrow and asked me to prove we’re compliant – could I?”
It’s not that leaders don’t take compliance seriously. They do.
But for many, the challenge lies in how to manage it. Between running teams, serving clients and chasing growth, few have time – or the technical background – to decode frameworks like ISO 27001 or GDPR.
The fear of being caught off guard is real. A supplier slip-up, an unpatched system, or a missed policy renewal can cost six figures, shake client confidence, or even trigger personal liability.
Protects was born to stop that from happening.
The Moment the Gap Became Obvious
Before building the platform, our founders spent over two decades in IT consultancy and digital transformation, supporting hundreds of organisations to strengthen their technology, data and governance. Through that work, and later through Your Digital CTO, their specialist advisory firm, they saw the same frustration surface again and again.
Whether in five-person firms or national networks, the pattern was identical:
- Leaders felt accountable for compliance, but had no visibility.
- Tools existed, but they were built for technicians, not decision-makers.
- Consultancy support was effective – but expensive and fragmented.
Compliance, in other words, had become a luxury of the large.
And yet, the risk of non-compliance didn’t discriminate by size.
That insight sparked the idea for Protects:
Could we package the expertise of a seasoned CTO and auditor into a platform simple enough for any leader to use, without losing rigour or depth?
Designing for Non-Technical Leaders
The answer started with empathy.
Protects was never designed for ‘IT people.;
It was designed for everyone else – managing partners, operations directors, COOs – the people responsible for the outcomes but not fluent in technical jargon.
As Ryan Bishop, Co-founder of Protects, explains:
“Non-technical leaders should feel confident using Protects because that’s exactly what it was designed to do – to enable and support compliance in organisations without technical knowledge. Within 15 minutes of answering some straightforward questions about your business, you’ll understand where your gaps are and how to close them. Whether you choose to involve your IT provider, your internal team or handle it yourself, the choice is yours. This is about awareness and guidance, not complexity.”
That design principle shaped every element of the product.
From the moment you log in, you’re greeted with plain-English questions – no acronyms, no complex configuration. Within minutes, you can see your organisation’s current risk posture, understand where the gaps are, and receive clear, actionable steps to close them.
It’s awareness, not overwhelm.
Why Simplicity Was the Hardest Part
Making something simple is often harder than making it powerful.
Behind the clean interface sits over two decades of engineering and compliance experience – embedded logic that maps real-world business questions to recognised frameworks such as ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus and GDPR.
Paul Reynolds, Protects’ Co-founder and CTO, describes the challenge:
“Our goal was to take complex frameworks and make them understandable without diluting accuracy. Every insight, every report, has to be both technically sound and accessible to a non-technical user.”
The result is a platform that quietly does the heavy lifting in the background – continuous scanning, evidence tracking, supplier monitoring – while presenting information in a way that actually makes sense to the people responsible for decisions.
Turning Stress Into Confidence
Once Protects is in place, the transformation inside an organisation is tangible. Teams who once dreaded audit season now understand exactly what’s required. Suppliers operate within a clear framework. Policies, procedures and evidence live in one place, not scattered across shared drives and spreadsheets.
Suddenly, compliance shifts from being a source of anxiety to a signal of credibility.
Leaders can demonstrate to regulators, clients and stakeholders that their governance is mature, traceable and transparent.
As one client put it:
“We no longer fear a regulator or client asking for evidence. Protects gives us everything we need instantly.” – Nick Aston, Director, Tax Desk
That clarity and reassurance are exactly why the platform was built.
From Consultancy to Platform
Protects didn’t emerge in a vacuum.
It’s built on the shoulders of Your Digital CTO’s track record in digital governance and risk management. That brings not only technical expertise, but also an understanding of how people actually behave under regulatory pressure.
Consulting engagements often uncovered the same pattern:
- Businesses didn’t know what “good” looked like.
- They relied on IT providers without visibility of what those providers were really doing.
- Evidence was scattered, inconsistent and impossible to produce under time pressure.
By translating those lived experiences into technology, Protects bridges a gap the market had long ignored – governance for the non-technical majority.
Culture, Not Just Software
While technology is at the heart of Protects, the philosophy behind it is human.
The platform was created not just to check boxes, but to help organisations build a culture of continuous compliance. That means embedding risk awareness into everyday routines, not just annual audits.
Protects automates reminders, tracks training, and surfaces emerging issues before they become problems. But just as importantly, it educates teams along the way, turning compliance from a reactive fire-drill into a proactive habit.
Why Trust Matters Most
In today’s digital landscape, trust is the new currency.
Clients expect transparency. Regulators demand proof. Investors want assurance.
Protects helps leaders deliver all three, instantly.
With audit-ready reports, timestamped trails and ISO-aligned templates, the platform provides the confidence that every control, policy and process is both visible and verifiable.
It’s this combination – technical strength, clarity and credibility – that sets Protects apart from generic GRC or cybersecurity tools.
It’s not just software; it’s peace of mind, productised.
Our Mission, Then and Now
From the first line of code to the latest product release, the mission has stayed the same:
To make IT compliance effortless for businesses.
Protects exists to give leaders instant, trusted visibility of their digital landscape – combining automation, expert insight and guided action so they can protect client data, prove compliance, and sleep a little easier.
Every update, every feature, every new integration is tested against that promise:
- Does it make compliance simpler
- Does it strengthen trust?
- Does it save time without sacrificing quality?
If the answer isn’t yes to all three, it doesn’t ship.
What’s Next
As the regulatory landscape continues to evolve, so will Protects.
The team is already developing deeper integrations with supplier-risk tools, expanding its training modules, and enhancing analytics so leadership teams can spot patterns across multiple frameworks at once.
But the focus remains unchanged helping businesses of every size access enterprise-grade protection without enterprise complexity.
Because in a world where threats grow faster than resources, simplicity is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity.
Final Word
Compliance shouldn’t be something that wakes you up at 3 a.m.
With Protects, it doesn’t have to be.
Non-technical setup — results in 15 minutes Continuous monitoring across people, processes and suppliers Guided actions that close gaps fast Audit-ready proof, anytime
Start your free risk assessment here today and see how effortless compliance can be.