How an engagement runs
An engagement has three phases, and each has a timetable and a price agreed before it starts. The assessment is a fixed fee whatever you decide afterward. Later phases are priced from what the assessment finds.
Assess: establish where you stand
We begin with a short, structured questionnaire about your firm, which takes your team a few hours. From there we determine which federal, state and contractual requirements apply, and where current practice falls short. Each finding names its source.
At the end of the second week, a principal takes your leadership through the results in plain terms: where the firm is exposed and what to address first. When a deadline is close, we can shorten the timetable.
Remediate: close the gaps that matter, in order
By this stage the work is defined, so nothing is priced on assumptions. We write the policies examiners read first and build them around how your firm operates. We work with your IT provider to put the right protections in place, and we bring your vendors under oversight.
Each fix is documented when it is made. By the end of this phase you hold a file you can give to an examiner, an auditor or a client who asks to see the work.
Operate: keep the program current
A program that is sound in March can produce findings by November if no one maintains it. In this phase we act as your security and compliance function. Certifications, reviews and renewals sit on a dated calendar. We follow the rules that affect you and adjust the program as they change. Management receives a monthly report, and directors receive reporting suitable for a board meeting.
When a questionnaire or an examination letter arrives, the file is already current.
How each phase is priced
We do not quote a program before we understand it, but the basis of each price is set out below.
Assess: fixed fee
Quoted before work begins and delivered in two weeks. The deliverables are yours whatever you decide next.
Remediate: priced from findings
Priced from your gap list, which is why it cannot be quoted until that list exists. The most important items come first.
Operate: monthly retainer
Set by the size of your firm, at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire, and cancellable on notice.
In two weeks, you could know exactly where you stand
The assessment has a fixed fee and a fixed timetable, and the results are yours to keep.