75% cost savings on training for SOC team at Fortune 100 retail company.
The Director of the Security Operations Center (SOC) at a multinational, Fortune 100 retail company was looking to invest in training for his entire team of 50 individuals.
Motivations behind the training initiative were straightforward:
- Identify knowledge and skills gaps of all SOC personnel
- Fill the identified gaps and increase team performance with configured training
- Build a company culture of repeated, long-term investment in its employees
The organization had previously purchased cybersecurity boot camp training for a limited number of team members as a top performer benefit, but determined that pursuing boot camp training for all 50 SOC practitioners was implausible due to high costs and lost productivity while individuals attended class offsite or away from work stations. The Director indicated that the previous investment per employee for the boot camp training was approximately $8,000 after factoring in both direct (course fees) and indirect (travel, hotel, lost productivity, etc.) expenses.
The Director worked with the N2K team to create configured training closely following Security+ exam objectives so that all members of his team could pursue the certification.
As an initial evaluation of the new training engagement, the Director determined that he would commit just under half (24) of his team members to an initial diagnostic assessment. The diagnostic assessment is a standard tool for every N2K training program, used as a means to assess participants’ current strengths and shortcomings within various topics as it relates to their role.
For the Director, the results of the diagnostic assessment achieved three goals:
- Benchmark data clearly presented team member performance across diverse domains to understand what training was required for each person
- In aggregate, the Director was able to review the data for his team’s overall strengths and weaknesses in key cybersecurity domains for the first time
- Finally, the results of the data confirmed the credibility of N2K's assessments and cemented the potential value of pursuing comprehensive training
Based on the diagnostic results, the Director decided to move forward with comprehensive training for the 24 diagnostic participants. The training was delivered 100% online, with a blended live online and on-demand delivery.
Of the original cohort, 22 of 24 employees passed the Security+ exam on the first attempt (92%).
The initial 24 participants completed the course over an eight-week period (one weekly live online lecture complemented by additional lesson videos, practice exams, and practical labs). N2K provided bi-weekly reports to give the Director continual intelligence into employees’ course participation and performance, building competitiveness and motivation while providing details to track improvement.
The Director enrolled his remaining 26 employees and relayed his team's success to other cybersecurity team leaders, leading to additional training engagements for roles related to security analysis, security engineering, risk management, auditing, and compliance. The total investment for the client resulted in an approximately 75% cost reduction as compared to their previous boot camp training provider.
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