Price versus Value; Why it is Important in Information Security

Running my own business now means I have to work out how much I am going to charge for my services, and if the market (or client) is going to be willing to pay me that price. It makes for an interesting internal dialogue, especially as I have always been told to not sell myself short or underestimate the skills I have and the value they bring to a client.

I recently lost out on some work because the client decided to go with somebody established rather than a new company like me. To be fair to them they had paid me well for five days consultancy to help them work out what they wanted, and they were very pleased with what was delivered so I honestly thought they would choose me. Hubris at its best I suppose.

I suspect that by going with a larger, established company they may well be paying less than I quoted for (it was assistance with ISO27001 certification by the way). The established company would have a larger range of resources, some certainly more junior than me and the people I was going to subcontract with, a tried and tested approach they have used hundreds of times before, and larger resources to back them up throughout the process. The client will certainly become compliant and obtain the certification.

Now, I am not going to denigrate the work this competition do, but I imagine they would be very task oriented, focussed on getting the certification for their client, and ensuring they come back year after year for more support. Then they will be onto the next job and doing the same thing again in short order. I have been a part of this process myself in my old consulting days.

So what value would someone like me bring then, especially if the end goal is the same, i.e. certification? Put simply, I strongly believe in the differing cultures of one company to the next, and the fact that what is left at the end of the certification needs to be reflective of that culture and able to be adopted for the long term. That means policies, procedures, communications and the overarching ethos of the programme must be in harmony with the clients vision and goals. That is very hard to do with a boilerplate approach. I guess it comes down to “the personal touch” as well as a somewhat selfless approach in ensuring the client is educated in the process enough along the way that they could actually go through the process again with significantly less of your support.

Is it the most immediately profitable approach? Of course not, but it is how you build “sticky” relationships with potential clients by ensuring they see you are there for their benefit and not yours. With a bit of luck this will mean more opportunities with them in the future or recommendations to other potential clients.

There are certainly no hard feelings between me and the client I mentioned at the beginning, they are lovely, honest and transparent people who I enjoyed working with and who paid me a fair price for my time in the analysis phase, and I really do wish them the best of luck in their certification with their new vendor.

I just hope they call me when they realise what they could have had. <Disengage hubris mode>