From Manual Entry to Masterful Automation: Entrust's Compliance Portal Evolution

The Compliance Challenge

Entrust Solutions Group is a leader in engineering and compliance services, trusted by electric generation providers to support critical infrastructure. But with that trust comes responsibility—specifically, helping their customers meet NERC compliance requirements.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) sets strict standards designed to maintain the reliability and security of the power grid. Compliance is not optional; it’s legally enforceable. This includes documenting activities, maintaining audit-ready records, completing self-certifications, reporting issues, and addressing violations.

Traditionally, compliance work performed by Entrust customers had been tracked using a patchwork of tools and manual processes. While this worked for documenting issues or events that clearly needed attention, routine activities that didn’t uncover a problem often went undocumented simply because there was no easy way to record them. That gap created unnecessary stress during audits and left teams scrambling for information.

Why It Mattered

Entrust’s team needed more than just a digital tool—they needed a system that worked with the complexity and pace of compliance operations. 3 Key problems emerged:

• “If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen.” Entrust’s customers must be able to show evidence of all compliance-related activity—even when nothing goes wrong. 
• Compliance is complex. NERC standards are built around scheduled questions, checklists, and tasks that shift based on responses and the type of equipment or site involved. This required constant tracking across a wide range of variable standards. 
• Audits are high-stakes. Without a centralized, automated process, every audit became a fire drill—reliant on scattered emails, memory, and spreadsheets.

The Approach

As we waded through the discovery process, Bulb Digital partnered with Entrust to map out the full scope of the problem. We started with a discovery engagement, including stakeholder interviews, process mapping, and a technical audit. The discovery process is cornerstone to our design solutions as it allows us to dig deep into what's already there, what's great about it, and what needs fixing.

Deliverables included:

• A 45-page Executive Readout Report
• A summary deck with budget and implementation recommendations
• A secure portal for Entrust customers to manage and track NERC compliance for their equipment.

The quality of the deliverables and clarity of direction gave Entrust the confidence to move quickly into implementation.

“Your work is such a higher level of quality than our previous developer. The whole time I’ve been sitting here asking myself, how did we ever decide to go with a different developer in the first place?”

— David Parry, Entrust Solutions Group

We know what you're thinking: "That sounds like a lot of work—who did it, and how long did it take?" Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Following an Agile development approach, we met weekly with Entrust for an average of 40 minutes. These sessions were used to review progress, gather feedback, and refine the solution iteratively. This lightweight, focused cadence helped us stay aligned with Entrust’s needs, build trust with stakeholders, and ensure that each deliverable was both usable and maintainable.

Over the course of 18 weeks, we also documented the solution thoroughly—creating clear work instructions and implementation guides. These resources serve as a long-term reference for Entrust, empowering their team to manage and extend the platform independently if needed.

The Outcome

The new system gives Entrust and its customers a clear, centralized way to manage compliance. Instead of relying on memory or digging through fragmented tools, users now have guided, automated prompts to complete compliance activities—whether or not they result in a reportable event.

This not only reduces audit risk but saves significant time and effort across teams, ensures compliance, and simplifies documentation. All three boxes—checked. ✅

The solution was launched on time and received enthusiastic feedback from stakeholders. Entrust has since engaged Bulb for additional work, deepening the partnership and expanding the system's capabilities.