Getting the balance of people and technology right is key to meeting all stakeholder’s expectations. Too many people or too much time involved, and it will cost too much or have opportunity costs of those resources not delivering value elsewhere. Not enough people and the ISMS will fail to deliver on its promises, leaving the organisation exposed to the threats, and miss the opportunities identified earlier.
Capacity, Capability and Confidence are the 3 C’s we talk about with customers to ensure that their resources are able to Information security achieve the goals. Typical skills and experiences required for ISMS success include those shown below, where the time required is dependent on the Information security starting point, ISMS goals and the technology solution adopted alongside the people.
As would be expected there is a higher initial investment in the implementation before settling into a pattern of behaviour over time.
Outsourcing some of that work to specialist consultants can make sense and there is a growing market for ‘virtual’ and ‘on demand’ expert support (CISO, DPO etc), usually enabled by good technology as part of the solution too. Internal leadership should still be involved, and the business must have strong representation in its area of scope to reinforce the culture, values and desired ways of working.
If those people involved in the ISMS are ill equipped or lacking Capacity, Capability or Confidence they can be supported with sustainable and affordable technology, not just more people. Technology solutions such as ISMS.online also offer virtual learning, and pre-configured documentation that is easy to Adopt, Adapt and Add to as it complements the technology platform features, helping drive down total cost and speed time to ISMS success.
An ISMS delivers a positive return on investment. The goal of our whitepaper is to show you why, what, and how you can get RoI from an ISMS that fits the business needs.