For most organizations, security expenditures are typically considered resources that could be used elsewhere in the organization to enhance profitability or for direct use in furthering the organization’s mission. The organization’s senior management needs valid metrics that provide evidence that security implementation positively impacts the organization’s profit and/or mission success. Because a security program has to make business sense, the organization’s leaders need practical assessments of the return on security investments possible in order to create an effective security program. When determining the impact of the security program on profits and mission success, the organization’s senior management will want some critical questions answered during the process of analyzing return on security investment and whether the security investments are justified in any way. These questions may include: 1. What is the financial impact to the organization of inadequate security? 2. On average, what is the cost of financial losses without adequate security? 3. What is the worst case scenario of financial loss without adequate security? 4. How does the organization protect its assets? 5. How much security is appropriate? 6. What security measures are most cost-effective? 7. What types of security measures are needed? 8. What impact will security have on the productivity of the organization’s employees? While it is difficult task to quantify savings generated by security measures, especially the intangible costs, there are some proven methods for justifying the deployment of security and there are security components which lend themselves to return on investment studies. As the single biggest cost in a security program, probably the largest return on investment is achievable through metric based deployment of security personnel. With physical security measures close behind security personnel in terms of cost, risk assessments can help security decision makers deploy the proper security package for their facilities. Regardless of the type of security measure or security package under consideration, the most basic formula for calculating return on security investment is: ROI = Cost of Security Measures - Savings Anticipated For more information, please contact us |