NIST 800-171 Consultant Alternatives
Published:
Dec. 20th, 2018
In the wake of the effectiveness of NIST 800-171 and its incorporation into the DFARS, you may be wondering how your business can best comply with the new requirements. Whatever compliance method you choose, the stakes are very high for your business, as failure to comply with these requirements can have dire consequences, such as the loss of contracts with the Department of Defense. Still, you do not want a solution that will cost too much and render your business unprofitable. The process that goes into choosing a compliance solution can be difficult. For some, it may make sense to hire a consultant but for many, this is too pricey of an option.
There are generally 3 routes contractors choose from. Hiring a consultant, doing it themselves, or using compliance software.
Hiring a Nist 800-171 Consultant
While a consultant may have some helpful benefits for your business, they are not always the best. Essentially, you will have to weigh the benefits that a NIST 800-171 consultant can provide versus the costs that are involved in hiring that consultant. These consultants can be pricey and the costs do add up quickly. Many of the businesses that are figuring out how best to comply with the new requirements are small businesses and may not be in the best position to pay the consultant’s hourly rate. In the end, costs can be in the tens of thousands.
Do-it-Yourself DFARS Compliance
At the other end of the spectrum, you can try to do it on your own and avoid as many costs as possible. While employing a do-it-yourself solution is always going to be the cheapest option, it may not always be the most cost-effective. These new requirements are very involved and require multiple precautions to be built into your information systems. This, of course, will require the investment of your time, and as you know, time is money. Given the importance of this area, this is not a place where you can afford to fail. There are many risks that go along with attempting to do this on your own. Not to mention, it can be easy to make mistakes and have the process take even longer.
DFARS Compliance Management Software
The middle road to choosing between do-it-yourself and hiring a consultant is using a guided process. This was why we created ComplyUp, a Compliance Management Platform to guide you through the process of getting compliant. When you use our system, you get the benefits of a consultant with the cost savings of doing it yourself. We ensure you are not left to your own devices in regards to DFARS compliance and pay a fraction of the cost in hiring a NIST 800-171 consultant. Our software is programmed with the knowledge that will walk you through the compliance process step-by-step. When you use the software to achieve compliance with NIST 800-171, you save both time and money. In other words, you get the best of both worlds.
Our solution can help take the worry out of what is a very stressful area for many contractors. Because the product is a software platform, you are never left alone in securing the CUI that may be on your servers. Our system will be able to help you assess the environment, figure out the steps to take, and document the results in a System Security Plan. This is everything that a consultant would do for you but at a fraction of the cost. At the same time, you will also not be spending valuable time trying to figure out everything on your own.
