by Brianna Crandall — July 9, 2014—A major metrics research report and security metrics tool was released this month by the ASIS Foundation, a nonprofit organization related to global security organization ASIS International, which is intended to fill a crucial gap in the profession and to provide security and facilities practitioners with powerful resources to measure and demonstrate the value of the security function.
Security Performance Metrics: Persuading Senior Management with Effective, Evaluated Security Metrics is the culmination of a multi-year research project funded by the ASIS Foundation following work done by the ASIS Defense and Intelligence Council. The main purpose of the project was to develop a tool that will help security professionals evaluate and improve their metrics and use them to demonstrate return on investment as well as alignment with organizational goals.
According to the Executive Summary of the report, without compelling metrics, security professionals and their budgets are left to the intuition of company executives. “With metrics, the security function grounds itself on measurable results that correlate with investment, and the security professional can speak to leadership in a familiar business language,” the report notes.
“This is ground-breaking research for the security profession,” said Dr. Linda Florence, PhD, CPP, president of the ASIS Foundation Board of Trustees. “Finally, we have scientifically based information and a validation method that are applicable to the entire field and make a significant addition to the security body of knowledge,” she added.
The ASIS Foundation awarded a grant in spring 2013 to Global Skills X-change (GSX), which partnered with Ohlhausen Research to carry out the project. The research project produced a database of selected security metrics and guidelines for effective use of security metrics to inform and persuade senior management.
“This report outlines the limitations of previous attempts to guide the collation and use of metrics and presents a methodology for their integration into security practice today,” said Professor Martin Gill, Director of Perpetuity Research & Consultancy International and a member of the ASIS Foundation Research Council. “Those needing to find ways of showing how security can and does add value will find much to learn from this important study.”
The research project and the new metrics tool will be reviewed at an education session, “Security Metrics: Leveraging Performance Measures to Gain Efficiencies and Demonstrate Return on Investment,” on September 30 as part of the ASIS International 60th Annual Seminar and Exhibits (ASIS 2014) in Atlanta, Georgia.
The full Security Performance Metrics: Persuading Senior Management with Effective, Evaluated Security Metrics report is available now for free download from the ASIS Web site. Printed copies may be purchased online through the ASIS Store, and a Kindle version will be available in the near future.
