Technical audit and digital compliance

A website or platform may look good at first glance and still load slowly, be hard to find, exclude some of its users, or handle data in a way that no one has reviewed. Moreover, technology regulations change quickly, and having complied when the project was launched does not guarantee that you comply today. We explain this in more detail in the article Digital Compliance Audit: Are You Sure You Comply with the Law?.

The audit gives you a clear picture of your platform, with issues ranked by their impact and a realistic proposal to resolve them. It is part of our technology consulting, and it can be the starting point before making a larger decision.

When it makes sense

• You are going to invest in a migration, a redesign, or a new phase, and you want to know the state of what you have first.
• Your website has lost visibility or traffic, and you don’t know if the problem is technical.
• You need to know if your platform complies with accessibility regulations.
• You have inherited a platform from another provider and are unclear about what is inside or who controls the code.
• Your system handles personal data in a complex or legacy architecture, and no one has reviewed where it circulates.
• It has been a while since the last review, and since then the platform, the regulations, or both have changed.

What we review

• Performance. We measure how your platform loads and responds under real conditions, and we look for the cause of the slowness in the code, queries, cache, or third-party resources. A slow platform loses users, conversions, and rankings.
• Technical SEO. We check that search engines can crawl, understand, and index your site well. We look at the URL structure, redirects, sitemap, canonical tags, structured data, and, if you have it, the version in other languages.
• Visibility in AI Assistants (GEO). More and more people are searching through assistants and AI-powered response engines. We review that those systems can access your content and understand unambiguously what you offer. This is not about incorporating AI into your product, which is what we do in applied AI software, but about being found.
• Accessibility. We review the platform against web accessibility guidelines (WCAG) as a reference, and we also test what an automated tool does not detect, such as keyboard navigation or screen reader usage. Accessibility is already mandatory for many organizations and also improves the experience for all your users.
• Software Ownership. We check if you truly have control over your platform. Where the code is, who can access it, what depends on a specific provider, and whether you could change teams without starting from scratch.
• Data Governance. We identify what data your platform processes, where it is stored, what third-party services receive it, and who has access. This way, you can check if what your system does aligns with GDPR and what you state in your privacy policy.

It is not always necessary to review everything. Depending on your situation, we agree with you on which areas make sense.

How we work

1. Context. We start by understanding your business, your goals, and what concerns you, to focus the audit on what truly matters.
2. Review. We combine analysis tools with a manual review of the code, configuration, and actual use of the platform. The tools detect symptoms, and the criteria help to reach the causes.
3. Report. We deliver a report with what we have found, why it matters, and how to resolve it, ordered by impact and effort. We review it with you so you can share it within your organization.
4. Correction. Corrections can be made by your team, your current provider, or us. If a more significant change is needed, we propose it as a legacy application modernization and migrations project, and if it is about continuous improvements, they fit into software maintenance and evolution.

What you get

• A clear view of the actual state of your platform, explained without unnecessary technical jargon.
• Identified technical and legal risks before they become a problem.
• A prioritized list of improvements that you can tackle in phases.
• Criteria for deciding where to invest and where it is not necessary.

An audit is not an excuse to redo everything. If what you have works and just needs correction, we will tell you.

Related case: FastBill

FastBill is one of the leading European solutions for online invoicing. Since 2019, we have been responsible for the evolution of its web platform in Drupal. A significant part of that work has focused on the areas covered by this audit, such as technical SEO, structured data, performance optimization, and security enhancement.

Frequently asked questions

What do I receive at the end of the audit?

A report with what we have found in each area, why it matters, and what we propose to do, ordered by priority. We review it with you to resolve any doubts and so you can present it within your organization.

Do I have to hire you for the corrections afterwards?

No. The audit has value in itself. You can apply the improvements with your team, with your current provider, or with us.

Can you audit a platform that you have not developed?

Yes. In fact, it is one of the cases where it makes the most sense, because it gives you an independent view of what you have received and its state.

Does the audit replace legal advice?

No. We review the technical part of compliance, that is, how your platform is built and what it does with the data. When we find something with legal implications, we point it out for you to evaluate with your legal counsel.

Does it include a security audit or penetration testing?

Not as an independent service. We focus on the software, and if during the review we see outdated versions or obvious security issues, we point them out. Infrastructure security audits and penetration testing are a separate specialized task.

What platforms do you work with?

Primarily with Drupal, PHP/Symfony, and Python. However, much of the review, such as performance, technical SEO, or accessibility, can be applied to any website or platform.