“I’ve spent a small fortune on Security.  What have I got?"

Security never goes to sleep.  How many times have you heard that?  Unfortunately, Security marketing never goes to sleep either.  Weekly, there is a deluge of new Security products.  Some are true innovation; some are old concepts repackaged; and some, sadly, are useless.  The one certainty is that you will be asked persistently to spend more money on “Security.“

Purchase requests arrive from all directions.  Staffing requests abound.  Processes multiply seemingly of their own accord.  And yet – how do you know that you’re getting your money’s worth for your Security investment?  For that matter, how do you know that you’re getting anything at all?  How do you separate the essential from the unnecessary?And if you get that far, how do you know that your organization truly is secure?

These answers and more can be found through Operational Integration of Security – OI for short.  OI starts from your secure end-state and works backward to identify the required components.  To define the required people, process, and technology for Security you must be able to describe what will be secured.  This requires answering questions such as:What are your most valuable assets and what risks threaten each asset?

• With which laws and regulations must you comply – globally?
• How must Security support the organization’s Strategic Business Plan?
• How does your competitive marketplace drive the need for Security?
• How do Human Resources issues affect Security?
• How quickly must operations resume after a disaster?

These are high-level questions, each of which can be drilled down to greater detail.  Those details in turn form the basis of the right Security Program for your organization.  A typical enterprise already has many of the components in place – people, processes, and technology.  The art of OI is to add the missing components, then organize all to produce the appropriate Security for your business.  The big-picture approach also yields more efficient operations, whose effect you will see every month on your Income Statement.

If you can’t answer all the above questions, contact us.  We have decades’ experience applying OI to large scale installations to achieve business results.  We are light on theory and heavy on results.  We know that better – and provable – security can cost less than what most companies are spending today.  And we know how to get you there.

(C) ExecutiveCSO 2008.  All rights reserved.